“Peaceful” annexations

Hitler’s first objective was the annexation of Austria. After the unsuccessful putsch of 1934, Hitler for a time had to go carefully, but then closer cooperation with Mussolini, who had hitherto been the most determined opponent of an Anschluss, opened up new possibilities. On July 11, 1936, a so-called gentlemen’s agreement was concluded between Germany and Austria, which was used by the German government as a means of exercising pressure on Kurt von Schuschnigg’s government in Vienna. Hitler sought to preserve the facade of legality while applying political pressure under the threat, but without the overt use, of force. On February 12, 1938, Schuschnigg, the Austrian chancellor, was bullied into accepting far-reaching demands during an interview with Hitler at Berchtesgaden.

Schuschnigg’s subsequent decision to hold a plebiscite, however, forced Hitler to act quickly, and on March 12, 1938, German troops occupied Austria 24 hours before the plebiscite was due to be held. Once again the other powers failed to do more than utter solemn protests, and Hitler rapidly turned toward his second objective, the disruption of the Czechoslovak republic. The demands of the Sudeten German minority in Czechoslovakia for greater autonomy were skilfully used by Hitler to create a situation in which Czechoslovakia’s ally, France, and Great Britain brought heavy pressure to bear on the Prague government.

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This situation culminated in the Munich Agreement, Neville Chamberlain’s direct intervention to secure Czech acceptance of Hitler’s ultimatum for the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany (September 29–30, 1938). Hitler in fact aimed at far more than this and soon came to look upon the Munich settlement as a mistaken concession which had balked him of his entry into Prague. In March 1939 he used the smoldering quarrel between the Slovaks and the Czechs to create a further crisis that served as his pretext for the occupation of the whole of Bohemia and Moravia (March 15). Also, on March 22, he secured the return of Memel from Lithuania to the Reich.

Poland’s refusal

Shortly after the Munich settlement, Ribbentrop had opened yet another claim by suggesting that Poland should agree to the return of the free city of Danzig (Gdańsk) to the Reich and to the construction of a German extraterritorial road and railway across Polish Pomerania to link East Prussia with the rest of Germany (October 24, 1938). These demands were renewed in sharper terms after Prague. They met with an uncompromising refusal from the Polish government, and on March 31, 1939, the British government, which had abandoned its policy of appeasement after the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, announced its guarantee to Poland in the event of any act of aggression.

Hitler’s immediate retort was to denounce on April 28 the German-Polish Nonaggression Pact of 1934 and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935. In May the understanding with Mussolini was converted into the public “Pact of Steel,” but Hitler’s attention was directed above all to Moscow, where the British and French were negotiating with the Russians to build up a common front of resistance to German aggression. The difficulties encountered in these talks encouraged Hitler to make a secret counterproposal. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin agreed to a visit by Ribbentrop, and the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed in Moscow on the night of August 23–24. To the public pact of nonaggression was appended a secret treaty dividing the whole of eastern Europe into spheres of influence and partitioning Poland.

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Hitler was convinced that the signature of the Moscow pact would lead the British and French to withdraw their guarantees to Poland. When the British government replied with the signature of a pact of mutual assistance between Great Britain and Poland (August 25), Hitler attempted to avert British intervention through further negotiations. The British, however, refused to bring pressure to bear on the Poles, and on September 1 the German army invaded Poland. Two days later Great Britain and France, after delivering an ultimatum demanding the immediate withdrawal of the invading forces, declared war on Germany.

Early conquests and the expanding war

Hitler began World War II with the intention of waging a localized war against Poland and following this with the quick offer of a peace settlement. The campaign, however, lasted only 35 days, and the ease of his conquest tempted Hitler to take the initiative in extending the war to the west.

During the course of the winter of 1939–40, Adm. Erich Raeder, commander in chief of the navy, won Hitler over to the idea of occupying Norway and Denmark. This would be done partly to safeguard the vital iron ore supply route from northern Sweden through Narvik, Norway, partly to guarantee the inviolability of the Baltic, and partly to prevent the dispatch of British and French troops to the aid of Finland (then at war with the U.S.S.R.) through Norwegian ports. The operation was launched on April 9 and proved highly successful without disturbing the main concentration of German forces.

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The invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France was begun on May 10, 1940. The German armoured forces concentrated on breaking through the hilly and lightly defended Ardennes sector of the front. The success of this advance through Sedan to the Channel coast, which cut off the French and British troops fighting in Belgium, proved the key to victory. The Dutch and Belgian armies surrendered before the end of May, the British were driven into the sea at Dunkirk, and by the middle of June the French had requested an armistice.

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Hitler had no plans at all for the next stage of the war, but, when the British showed no disposition to consider a compromise peace, he ordered preparations to be made for the invasion of Britain. How far he seriously intended to embark on so difficult an undertaking has been questioned, but in any case the failure of the Luftwaffe to win air supremacy over the Channel and their defeat in the Battle of Britain meant that the essential preliminary conditions were lacking, and in October 1940 Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain, was postponed indefinitely.

Russian economic collaboration had been of great value to Germany in reducing the pressure of the British blockade, and in the first half of 1941 the Soviet government showed a marked disposition to avoid a breach with Germany. Hitler, however, had long envisaged German expansion eastward and now rapidly convinced himself that Germany was threatened by Russian ambitions. On December 18, 1940, he signed the directive for Operation Barbarossa to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign.

At this point, Hitler’s plans were complicated by the action of Mussolini (who had entered the war on June 10) in attacking Greece (October 28, 1940). The effect of this was to open up a Balkan front, of which the British might take advantage. The situation was made worse by the total failure of the invasion of Greece and by the rapid retreat of the Italians in North Africa before Sir Archibald Wavell’s advance (December 1940). Hitler was obliged to come to the aid of his Axis partner. He sent German reinforcements to North Africa (where Erwin Rommel succeeded in driving the British back in the spring of 1941) and prepared for a German invasion of Greece. Hungary and Romania were already German satellites and allowed German troops to move toward the Greek frontiers. In March 1941 the Germans proceeded to occupy key positions in Bulgaria, after a sharp diplomatic contest with the Russians, and also induced Yugoslavia to accede to the Tripartite Pact, but the Yugoslav government was overthrown by a palace revolution in the name of the young king Peter II. Thereupon Hitler ordered drastic measures to make an example of Yugoslavia. In April 1941 German forces invaded and occupied both Yugoslavia and Greece, the former operation being accompanied by air attacks on the defenseless city of Belgrade. In the last half of May, German parachute troops completed the conquest of the Balkans by the capture of Crete.