Introduction to Outbreak of World War II
War Begins. In the early hours of Friday, September 1, 1939, the German armies stormed across the Polish frontierwithout a declaration of war. The Free City of Danzig (the presentday city of Gdansk, Poland, which was then an independent territory) was proclaimed a German city by Nazi agitators in the city. Two days later Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.Important dates in Europe and northern Africa: 1939-1942
Opposing Forces
To some, Poland might have seemed capable of defending itself against German aggression. The Treaty of Versailles had made Poland and Germany nearly equal in area, and although Germany had recently annexed territory, it had not yet been fully integrated and thus could not yet help Germany's war effort. Germany, however, had 1,700,000 men under arms when the war started while Poland was able to mobilize only about one quarter of its 2,000,000-man army. These troops were not as well trained as the Germans, and had inferior equipment. As for Poland's allies, France was slow to mobilize its large army and air force, and Britain, although much better prepared for war than in 1914, had only a small army.
Germany's enforced disarmament during the 1920's proved to be an advantage, for in rebuilding its forces Germany had adopted the most modern equipment. Much of the equipment used by Germany's opponents, on the other hand, dated back to World War I. Germany also had an efficient, welltrained air force equipped with modern planes. Although the Allied nations had developed advanced aircraft between the wars, the Germans' combat experience in the Spanish Civil War initially gave them an edge.
As important to its success as new weapons was Germany's development of blitzkrieg, or "lightning war." Blitzkrieg depended on the coordinated use of tactical air power, armored forces, and motorized infantry to swiftly invade the enemy's territory, surprising and overwhelming its forces. Air strikes would destroy communications facilities, air bases, and key transportation centers, throwing the enemy into confusion. Then, armored and motorized troops would strike, using formations of tanks to make deep penetrations into enemy territory without slowing to fully secure the ground won. The attackers would then link up, encircling and capturing enemy troops and territory. Additional troops would follow, destroy any remaining resistance, and occupy the newly conquered territory.
Plan of Campaign
Historically, German policy had been to avoid a war on two fronts. Hitler himself blamed the two-front war in large part for Germany's defeat in World War I. Now, however, he was sure a blitzkrieg would wipe out Poland before France and Britain were sufficiently mobilized to take the offensive. To delay any Allied offensive, Hitler had built the Westwall (or Siegfried Line), along the French border.
The Allies seemed convinced that the trench warfare of World War I would be repeated. France relied on its Maginot Line, a line of strong fortifications along the frontier with Germany, to stop any invasion. Poland planned to fight a delaying action at the frontier to cover its mobilization, and then fall back to a defensive position covering Warsaw. Poland hoped to hold this position until the western Allies could relieve the pressure by launching an offensive from France.
The Campaign In Poland, 1939
As soon as the invasion began, the German air force began attacking the Polish air force and its bases, bombing and strafing roads and railways, and bombing Poland's factories. Within four days Poland's air force was destroyed.
German tanks and airplanes led their blitzkrieg attacks.Under general command of Colonel General H. A. H. Walther von Brauchitsch, two armies advanced into Poland. The one in the north was commanded by Colonel General Fedor von Bock; the one in the south, by Colonel General Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt. Preceding the main armies were six panzer, or armored, divisions that broke up Polish communications, hindering mobilization, and attacked and scattered Polish formations.
The decisive stroke came when Rundstedt sent General Walther von Reichenau's 10th Army, containing the bulk of the mechanized forces, northward to trap the Polish armies that were falling back on the Vistula. The war was only a week old when the German armies advancing from north and south joined. A Polish counterattack ordered by Marshal Edward Smigly-Rydz failed and the Polish army was eliminated as a unified fighting force.
On September 17 Soviet forces invaded Poland from the east and the following day met the Germans at Brest-Litovsk. Warsaw withstood siege until September 27. Lublin, the last Polish stronghold, fell on October 5. Poland was partitioned formally by a Soviet-German treaty signed on September 29, with Germany receiving somewhat more territory than the Soviet Union.
The first demonstration of blitzkrieg was a complete success. It was decisive within a week, and eliminated a strong army in 36 days.
The "Phony War" Phase, 1939-40
The Maginot Line was a series of underground forts and concrete and steel casements and pillboxes extending from Switzerland to Luxembourg. In places it was 25 miles (40 km) wide. Andr Maginot, the French war minister for whom it was named, intended it to be used as a base for offensive action, and for a few weeks it was so used. As early as September 5 French troops began moving toward the German lines.
Late in the month the French attacked Saarbrcken. By this time, however, Poland had been defeated, and the French saw no point in continued attacks against the Siegfried Line. They withdrew almost entirely within the Maginot Line, convinced that it was impregnable and that France was secure.
There followed a period of almost complete idleness that American correspondents called the "phony war" and "sitzkrieg" (sitting war). The opposing air forces were idle, except for raids into Germany by Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF)to drop propaganda leaflets. No effort was made to disrupt Germany's mobilization or hinder its occupation of Poland.
At times the idleness seemed almost a truce. One American correspondent actually rode from the French lines into the German lines by taxicab. The "phony war" lasted throughout the winter and early spring.
The War At Sea, 1939
German Submarine WarfareGermany had originally planned to restrict submarine attacks to warships and ships carrying war matriel in order to avoid provoking neutrals, as had happened during World War I. On the first day of the war, however, the U-30, acting contrary to orders, sank the British liner Athenia. Restrictions on submarine attacks were thereafter gradually reduced, until all enemy ships became potential targets.
On September 18, a German submarine sank the British carrier Courageous off the Scottish coast. The most spectacular victory for German U-boats came on October 14, when the U-47 penetrated the heavily guarded anchorage at Scapa Flow and sank the British battleship Royal Oak. The British had considered Scapa Flow's defenses to be impenetrable, and the U-47's feat caused them to abandon this base temporarily.
Magnetic MinesThe Germans attempted to choke off British shipping by sowing magnetic mines, newly developed weapons that were triggered by the magnetic field of a ship's hull, across the entrances to British ports. To protect their ships from these mines, the British developed the degaussing belt, a cable through which a low-voltage current was passed. The cable was attached to the hull of a ship, neutralizing the ship's magnetic field, thus greatly reducing the danger from magnetic mines.
German RaidersIn order to skirt the disarmament provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and other international agreements, the Germans had built an intermediate class of ship that had the firepower of a battleship but the displacement and speed of a cruiser. These so-called pocket battleships inflicted serious damage on merchant shipping. In October, the German pocket battleship Deutschland destroyed several merchant ships and also seized the American freighter City of Flint, which was later released.
The pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee conducted a particularly destructive raid in the southern Atlantic ocean, destroying nine merchant ships in the fall of 1939. The British cruisers Exeter and Ajax and the New Zealand cruiser Achilles damaged the Spee in a battle off the coast of Uruguay on December 13. The German ship took refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay, where, the Uruguayans insisted, it could remain for only 72 hours. Faced with certain destruction by the Allied ships waiting in international waters just outside the harbor, the captain of the Spee ordered it scuttled in the harbor on December 17.
Russo-Finnish War, 1939-40
Russian DemandsDespite the nonaggression part with Hitler, Stalin remained wary of Germany's military power and sought to secure the Baltic flank of the Soviet Union. In September and October, 1939, the tiny countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were pressured by the Soviet Union into signing treaties that allowed Soviet troops to be stationed in their territories. (The Soviet Union annexed those nations in 1940.) On October 7, 1939, the Soviets demanded that Finland give up land near Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on the Karelian Isthmus, surrender islands in the Gulf of Finland, and grant the Soviets use of the Hang (or Hanko) naval base, in exchange for Soviet territory on Finland's eastern border. Finland agreed to all the demands except the use of the naval base, and negotiations ended on November 30 when the Soviet Union invaded Finland.
The FightingIn the south, Finland was protected by the Mannerheim Line, a series of fortifications named for Field Marshal Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, the Finnish commander, and by swampy, lake-filled terrain. The Soviets attempted to flank the southern defenses by attacks along Finland's eastern frontier. Although outnumbered and poorly equipped, the Finns were well trained in winter fighting, and, aided by an unusually severe winter, they repulsed the Soviet attacks. North of the Arctic Circle, the Soviets took Petsamo but were unable to advance further. In the center they were badly beaten at Salla. Two Soviet divisions were destroyed at Suomussalmi and columns moving around Lake Ladoga were thrown back.
The Soviets reorganized in January, 1940, under the leadership of General Gregori M. Stern. Efforts to attack Finland's eastern border were scaled back in order to concentrate on the Mannerheim Line. After massive artillery barrages, the Soviets were able to penetrate the Mannerheim Line at Summa. Koivisto fell on February 26 and Viipuri (now Vyborg) was isolated on March 11. On March 12 Finland signed a peace treaty and surrendered somewhat more territory than the Soviets had originally demanded.
The Norway Campaign, April-June, 1940
Causes of the German AttackThe Germans wanted to control Norway and Denmark in order to prevent the Allies from interfering with iron-ore shipments from neutral Sweden across the Baltic Sea. Control of these two countries would also give Germany additional air bases from which to attack the British Isles, and would provide a protected route to the Atlantic for submarines and surface raiders. The immediate cause of the attack on Norway, however, was apparently Hitler's irritation over the Altmark incident of February 16, 1940. Three hundred British prisoners aboard this German ship were rescued by a British destroyer that attacked the Altmark in neutral Norwegian waters.
QuislingIn attacking Norway, Hitler made extensive use of local Nazi sympathizers called fifth columnists. (This term had come into use during the Spanish Civil War when General Emilio Mola, leading four columns of troops against Madrid, said that his sympathizers within the city amounted to a "fifth column" that would aid his troops.) The fifth column in Norway was led by Vidkun Quisling, an army officer and former defense minister whose name became synonymous with traitor. After the Germans occupied Norway, Quisling was rewarded for his treason by being made the puppet head of state.
The AttackThe attack began on April 9. German troops were concealed in the holds of ships that sailed into Norwegian ports. Airplanes were used to land troops at all airports, and the German navy struck with full force. The Germans quickly seized Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. Three German cruisers were sunk in this action.
On the same day, April 9, Denmark was overwhelmed by strong German forces and surrendered without resisting.
Norwegian ResistanceThe Norwegian government fled to Hamar and later to Elverum. British landings were made at Namsos on April 14, and at Andalsnes on April 17 in an attempt to flank and recapture Trondheim. The Germans' rapid advance up the Osterdal and Gudbrandsdal valleys and heavy German air attacks forced the expedition to be withdrawn on May 5.
Only at Narvik in the far North were the Allies successful. Five British destroyers entered that port in a snowstorm on April 10 and sank two German destroyers and damaged several other ships. Three days later, the battleship Warspite and nine destroyers sank the rest of the German naval forces at Narvik. British and French troops took Narvik on May 29, but by this time events in France made it inadvisable to continue the campaign. Norway was abandoned by the Allies on June 10. During the withdrawal, the British lost the aircraft carrier Glorious.
Results In Great BritainThe campaign caused loss of prestige for the British, who had been mining Norwegian waters when the attack opened and who had had troops ready when the Germans struck. At the start of the campaign, Chamberlain, confident of victory, boasted that Hitler had "missed the bus," but Allied efforts were described by David Lloyd George as "too little and too late." Chamberlain was given a vote of confidence on May 8 but, realizing that many of his own party had deserted him, resigned.
Chamberlain was succeeded by Winston Churchill, who became prime minister on May 10, 1940, the day that the Germans attacked France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In a speech before the House of Commons, Churchill said, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."