WWII IN EUROPE:  I Poland and Blitzkrieg Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, thus beginning World War II.  For the first three years of the war, Germany seemed triumphant on every front.  Dividing Poland with Stalin, Hitler reduced the Polish nation to ashes within weeks.  Hitler unleashed his “Lightning War” against Poland—a massive coordinated assault of armored (Panzer) divisions, motorized infantry units, high-level bombers and dive bombers (Stukas) in a devastating, seemingly unstoppable attack. "Sitzkrieg" While Hitler unleashed his murderous assault in Poland, along the Western front, the troops experienced a different kind of war:  the “Sitzkrieg,” or “Phony War.”  “Safe” behind their fortified lines—the Germans behind the Siegfried Line, and the French behind the Maginot Line—troops endured drill and fingernail inspections, entertaining themselves as best they could.  German and British musicians regularly serenaded their counterparts with band music.  "Finland" While Hitler invaded Poland from the west, Stalin invaded from the east.  The two dictators divided Poland between them.  Then, in November 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland.  Stalin expected a quick victory, but, unprepared for winter warfare, the Red Army foundered.  Not until March 1940 did Stalin finally conquer Finland.  400,000 Finns fled from eastern territories conquered by the Soviets. Attack in the West On April 10, 1940, Hitler invaded the neutral countries of Denmark and Norway.  On May 10, Hitler’s tanks rolled into the neutral countries of Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.  Overwhelmed by the suddenness of the German attack, the Dutch defense plans failed. On May 16, the Germans crossed into France.  By May 20, German forces had wiped out the whole Allied plan for waging war in the West, split the opposing armies, and menaced half the Allied forces with annihilation.  1 million Allied troops were cut off by the Panzer rush to the sea.  On May 28, the Battle of the Low Countries was over. Dunkirk On May 24, Hitler ordered German panzers to halt 12 miles from Dunkirk.  Historians have puzzled over why he did this, but the most likely reason was that Hitler wanted to save his panzers for the main target, Paris.  If that meant allowing a few British troops to escape, then that was a small price to pay—and Göring’s Luftwaffe could minimize the number of soldiers allowed to escape. With Allied troops surrounded at Dunkirk, Britain faced a nightmare evacuation.  The Navy had few vessels available for the task, but the British mustered every boat they could find—fireboats, ancient paddle-wheelers, Thames barges, and yachts—to ferry the troops home. On May 26, this motley armada set sail across heavily mined Channel waters for Dunkirk.  Braving gunfire from German guns at Calais, Stuka dive bombers, treacherous tides, and the hulks of sunken vessels, the British managed to evacuate 338,226 Allied troops over a 10 day period. France Surrenders The French now faced a brutal choice:  surrender, or salvage what was left of their army and ship it to North Africa and continue to fight from the there.  Meanwhile, in order to save Paris from bombing, the French decided not to defend the city.  On June 14, Nazi troops marched down the Champs Elysées, and on June 21, the French surrendered. Hitler forced the French to surrender in the same railroad car where Germany’s generals surrendered in the First World War.  Afterwards, Hitler took a whirlwind tour of Paris, visiting Napoleon’s tomb and other sites.  Then the conqueror left.  He had avenged the German humiliation at Versailles.  Now he could turn his full power against Great Britain.