The Origins of the Second World War 1933-1941 by Henig Ruth;

Author:Henig, Ruth; [Ruth Henig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 199439
Publisher: Routledge

From European war to world war: Europe and the Far East, 1939-41

The German invasion of Poland in itself did not bring into being a major European or world war. Polish resistance was quickly crushed, and the country was rapidly defeated by a combination of German armies invading from the west and Soviet troops joining in from the east. After just five weeks, the fighting was over. But neither Britain nor France would accept a peace based on the German conquest of Poland, which they now realized would be followed by further military aggression.

For his part, Hitler had already told his senior commanders that he intended to turn west and to smash France as soon as possible, and then to bring England to its knees. On 18 October, he signed the plans under Operation Yellow, which set out an attack on France through Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Only bad winter weather held Hitler back until the spring, and then the real European onslaught began. In April 1940, German troops somewhat unexpectedly invaded Denmark and Norway, meeting with little resistance in Denmark. Fighting in Norway continued for two months, but meanwhile the anticipated German offensive in western Europe started on 10 May, and resulted in spectacular and rapid success. The Netherlands were invaded and defeated in less than a week, and Belgium held the Germans up only for a further three weeks. Six weeks later, France had been defeated, and the victorious German troops entered Paris on 14 June. The northern two-thirds of France were occupied, and the remaining one-third, its capital now at Vichy, signed an armistice with Germany, and with Italy, which had entered the war four days before the Germans reached Paris. Hitler had conquered a large part of mainland Europe, and his allies occupied much of the rest. Only Britain for the time being lay beyond his grasp.

While Hitler now hesitated about whether or not to launch an invasion of Britain, Germany's hold over continental Europe was consolidated both economically and politically. By the end of 1940, Greater Germany included Austria, the Sudetenland, much of Poland, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxembourg and two former provinces of Belgium, Eupen and Malmedy. German Governors General ruled in Bohemia and Moravia and in part of Poland, and Slovakia had become a protectorate under German control. Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and much of France were occupied by the German army. Germany dictated the terms of trade, specifying which countries should supply agricultural produce, raw materials or fuel in return for German industrial goods. Even unoccupied Sweden and Finland were drawn into Germany's economic system, because of their prized raw materials, in particular Swedish iron ore. Occupied countries were also expected to provide labour at cheap rates, or sometimes for no pay at all.

If the impact of German victory in west and central Europe in this first stage of the war was primarily economic and political, in the east, starting in Poland, it was aggressively racial. Most Poles in the German-occupied part were stripped of

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