Churchill, Italy Enters Axis, Battle of Britain

                  After Denmark and Norway surrendered to Germany, a series events happened that led to Germany becoming more powerful and greater force against every other country associated in the war at that time period. The first of those that had great meaning, was Winston Churchill becoming the leader of the British government. This was put into place because of the events of Germany taking over Denmark and Norway, Holland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Through all of this former Prime Minister Chamberlain lost the support of many members of the conservative party because of his confidence of being able to beat the Nazis, and putting their soldiers in danger to just get defeated and eventually overtaken. Churchill was known around for his military leadership ability, so at that time by the vote and support of many Britons was put in to be the leader of the British government. In his first speech to his people, he told everyone that the British people would “never surrender.” He stuck to his word, and they from that point on did.

                  About 10 days after Churchill was put in as leader, Italy decided to enter the war as a member of the Axis powers. The Axis mainly included three principal partners that are as follows: Germany, Japan, and now Italy.  

                  After this joining of these countries to form a bigger and fiercer power against the other countries associated in the war, came another historical moment in this time period. This was known to be the “Battle of Britain.” This battle was a tribulation between the German Luftwaffe, in the direction of Hermaan Goring and the British Royal air force led by Sir Hugh Dowding’s Fighter Command. It lasted over a solid time period of July and October of 1940.

                  This war was known to be very historic in the fact that it was the first major military combat to be fought entirely in the air. The Germans plan and purpose when going into this was to win over the air superiority over Southern Britain and English Channel by destroying the British aircraft/ air force industry.                  

                   This war hit its peak or climax on September 15 when the Luftwaffe lost 56 planes and the RAF 28. During the time period of twelve weeks, 1,733 German aircraft carriers were destroyed. On the other standpoint of this, the British only had lost about 915 fighters. Once it had gotten to September 17^th Hitler had recognized that they were of no math, and that the fatalities were starting to quickly add up. Because of this, he decided to postpone this battle in Britain. This then lead to change in German tactics and a new mindset from here on in the war.

Germany invades Norway and Denmark

                  The next major event to play into the happenings of World War ll were very daring from a military standpoint. A decision by Adolf Hitler was made to invade the countries of both Denmark and Norway.  There was a great amount of thought that came into the decision of taking over these countries. They knew that this would not necessarily have a significant effect on the actual outcome of the war, but they figured it would make a good standpoint and demonstration of the modernization this war had to offer. This decision struck the United States as well as Great Britain with a “strategic threat”. Theoretically, it brought Germany into a position where they could unexpectedly strike outward on from the main lands of Europe toward countries such as: Greenland, Iceland, and possibly North America.

                  As to the actual warfare of this invasion, German forces were very smart about things and planned it out quite strategically. Because of the local garrisons orders from Norway’s pro-fascist former foreign minister Vidkun Quisling, to allow the Germans the land unopposed, the Germans took full advantage of this when deciding how to enter the territory. They decided to slipped through the mines that Britain had laid around the Norwegian ports.

                  Hours after the invasion, the German minister had demanded that they do surrender. With the Norwegian government refusing, the Germans chose to respond with a parachute invasion and the establishment of a puppet regime which was led by Quisling, the foreign minister of Norway. After this act, his name soon became the synonym of “traitor.” With this, the Norwegian forces declined and refused to accept the German rule in the hands of the Quisling government and decided to keep fighting alongside the British troops. However, with an accelerating amount of German offense in France including a large amount of troops, and fatalities of many citizens led to Britain transferring thousands of soldiers from Norway to France, resulting in the actual conquering of Norway for the German armed forces. Ultimately- they had just received another victory.

                  King Christian X, the leader of the army in Denmark knew that they were no match for the German army from the very beginning. While they tried to defend them, they soon found out there was no way they could fight or beat off a German invasion. This led to the country of Denmark surrendering, and letting Germany take over. At this point and time, Hitler was feeling very successful and added a second and third conquered nation to his fair game.

Britain and France Declare War

                  September 1, 1939 was a huge turning point for many countries, and many were re-evaluating their ties and bonds with their neighboring and allied countries. German troops swarmed across the Polish border, and and performed a giant attack against the country. Hitler had been planning this attack since March ever since his troops took occupancy of the rest of Czechoslovakia. The Poles suspected an attack so they tried to prepare their defense as much as possible, which as learned before- wasn’t enough. Their horses and defense based on World War l was no match to the tanks that were going to be overly used in World War ll, leading to the Nazi Germany taking over all of the Poland territory.

                  Because of the attacks on the Polish, Britain and France who are both allies of Poland declare war on Germany. The first casualty of this declaration was not on the Germans but the British. Their ocean liner called, “Athenia” was sunken by a German U-30 submarine that had assumed that it was armed and of danger to them. There were more than 1,1000 passengers on board of this ship- 112 people lost their lives. Twenty-eight of the people were claimed to be American citizens. However, this act did not even faze President Roosevelt as he declared that no one was to “thoughtlessly or falsely talk of America sending its armies to European fields.” At this point of the war, America would stand neutral and not associate themselves with the conflict at all.   

                  Britain showed no fear and took a clear standpoint against the situation. They decided to drop 13 tons of anti-Nazi propaganda leaflets all over Germany. Soon after this they began bombing all sorts of German ships on September 4, which caused in many deaths of the Germans. While they were working under strict orders to not harm any German civilian, German military had no limits in that aspect.

                  At this point France decided to take charge and come in offensively on German’s western border. While they thought this would be a strong approach, they were proven wrong by a narrow 90-mile window that lead to the German front. This was surrounded by the borders of Luxemborg and Belgium, who had the time were both neutral countries and they didn’t want to disturb. The Germans mined or blocked this passage, which put a great stall on the efforts of the French. While there was not a great amount of countries involved at this point, it would shortly escalate and leave the whole World desperate and fighting for freedom and peace.