The Third Reich by David G. Williamson

Author:David G. Williamson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

9

Germany, Europe and the world, 1939–45

The subject of both this chapter and the subsequent chapter is the German occupation of Europe. The former looks at how continental Europe was occupied, organised, exploited and administered by Nazi Germany, while the latter deals with the consequences of Nazi racial policy which culminated in the Holocaust.

Anglo-French military passivity enabled Hitler to destroy Poland in six weeks. Invaded from three sides with an army twice their size, the Poles never really stood a chance. Their fate was finally sealed when, on 17 September, in accordance with the secret protocol accompanying the Nazi–Soviet Pact (see p. 98), Soviet troops occupied eastern Poland. Hitler had now either to attempt to come to terms with Britain and France or defeat them. Initially he kept both options open. On 6 October he proposed a negotiated peace on the basis of a new order in Poland, which would apparently involve the continued existence of a small Polish rump state as a German satellite. When Britain and France rejected these peace feelers, Hitler prepared for an attack in the west. This was scheduled to start on 12 November but, as a result of bad weather, had to be postponed until the spring.

Throughout the winter of 1939–40 Germany received considerable economic assistance from Soviet Russia. Russia’s supplies of vital raw materials, the use of its railway system to transport rubber from the Far East and the protection given to German merchantmen all helped neutralise the economic impact of the British blockade. In exchange for supplies of German naval equipment, Stalin also offered the Germans a naval base near Murmansk. When Russia attacked Finland, which resolutely refused to make concessions to Moscow, Hitler had, contrary to his most deeply held anti-Bolshevik beliefs, to exert considerable pressure on Mussolini to stop him supplying the Finns with aircraft. Hitler feared, however, that Britain, under cover of assisting the Finns, might occupy Norway and threaten German iron ore supplies. Even though Finland was forced to end hostilities with Soviet Russia in March, German forces nevertheless occupied Denmark and Norway in early April 1940.

On 10 May the German offensive opened in western Europe. Within six weeks Holland, Belgium and France were all overrun and British troops driven off the continent. The sheer scale of these victories at last persuaded Mussolini to take the plunge and declare war on Britain and France on 10 June. Ten days later the Reynaud government was replaced in France by a new administration under Marshal Pétain, which immediately asked for an armistice.

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