History of germany

Hitler's triumphs: 1939-1941

The rapidblitzkrieg against Poland is only the first of Hitler's extraordinary military successes during the opening eighteen months of the war. From the start he launches a vigorous and deadly U-boat campaign against Allied shipping in the Atlantic, but on land he allows his enemies and neutral neighbours a deceptive period of calm, in what becomes known as the Phoney War.

This is rudely shattered by his sudden attack on neutral Denmark and Norway in April 1940. German troops come onshore from warships and rapidly overrun both countries. It is a foretaste of even more dramatic events in western Europe a month later. 

From May 10German panzer divisions smash their to the coast through neutral Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. At the same time other divisions push west through northern France. British and French armies are trapped in a pincer movement at the coast. They escape only by means of the dramatic rescue achieved atDunkirk.

Now the invasion force wheels south towards Paris. German troops enter the capital city on June 14. Two days later the French sue for peace. Hitler savours the moment of triumph, revenge for Germany's humiliation in 1918. He arrives in person to witness the signing of the armistice - and then goes sightseeing in Paris. 
Britain is the next object of his attention. While German forces are assembled below for an invasion, Messerchmidts battle in the sky with British Spitfires and Hurricanes for control of the Channel. This encounter (theBattle of Britain, lasting from June to September 1940) is the first in the war to go against Hitler. It is a defeat in the sense that he fails to prevail, and therefore has to cancel his invasion plans. But from September he merely diverts his might against Britain in a different context - in the nightly pounding of British cities, which becomes known as theBlitz.

At this same period Hitler's U-boats, refuelling now on France's Atlantic coast, are sinking an ever greater tonnage of Allied merchant shipping in the Atlantic. 

The first half of 1941 brings continuing success.Rommel, despatched by Hitler to take over the campaign in north Africa, pushes the British ever further back towards Egypt. At the same time a rapid German thrust south through theBalkansoverwhelms Yugoslavia and drives the British out of mainland Greece (in April 1941) and Crete (in May).

Less than two years after the world war was provoked by his invasion of Poland, Hitler can look around at a Europe dominated by Germany. The situation is, to say the least, satisfactory. But his sudden invasion in June 1941 of his ally, Russia, introduces an unpredictable element.