World War II Begins
Don’t forget that while all of the things that we discussed in our previous class were happening, that there was still a Civil War in China and another in Spain. Also, Italy and Japan were both seeking to expand their borders by invading Ethiopia and Manchuria respectively.
The Japanese were also taking advantage of the instability in China and had begun the 2nd Sino-Japanese war. This war will run throughout the same period as World War II ending just a few weeks after. This was already a world at war, so it makes it difficult to say that Hitler’s invasion of Poland is what sparked World War II, but at least it was the event that blew the war wide open.
Churchill Opposes Chamberlain
Last time, we talked about how Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain took a position of Appeasement in his dealings with Hitler. This was not the view of everyone in Britain. In fact, one very outspoken opponent was none other than Winston Churchill who would take the Prime Minister position once Chamberlain left. On October 5th, 1938, just two days after Chamberlain claimed before the House of Commons that the “great and imminent menace” of war had been removed, he denounced appeasement and predicted Hitler’s control of Eastern Europe saying:
We have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat… And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.
When Hitler began to demand the return of Danzig (It had been made a free city by the Treaty of Versailles to serve as a seaport for Poland), Britain saw the threat and offered to protect Poland in the event of war. France and Britain both realized that they would need Russia’s help if they were to contain Hitler in Germany, but with Russia’s shift to Communism since WWI, an agreement with Stalin was unlikely.
Meanwhile, Hitler didn’t believe that Britain and France would go to war with him over Poland if Russia was on his side, so he met with Stalin and to the shock of the world, on August 23, 1939, the Germans and the Russians agreed to a mutual non-aggression agreement, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. This was shocking because of their polar opposite world views. These two nations that had been sworn enemies now seemed to be on friendly terms. As Shakespeare once said, “‘Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.”
Invasion of Poland
With this new pact in place, Hitler was emboldened thinking that he could press his luck once again. After all, the British and French had given in to his demands in the past. So, just a week after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, on September 1st, 1939, Hitler unleashed 1.7 million German troops into Poland. Britain and France stood their ground and insisted that Germany cease all hostilities. When they received no response from the German government, they declared war on September 3rd.
The lightning-fast attacks of the German motorized army are commonly called blitzkrieg which means “lightning war.” They made extremely effective use of divisions of Panzer armored tanks along with trucks filled with infantry and supplies. In addition to the forces on the ground, the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) was busy bombing the forces in front of the German attack destroying railroads and other methods for getting supplies and reinforcements.
The Russians joined the battle over Poland on September 17th, attacking from the East and this combined attack led the Polish government to surrender less than 4 weeks after the initial invasion. On September 28, 1939, Germany and Russia divided Poland according to the secret plan that they had made within the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
At this point, the war fell silent until March 1940 as both sides prepared for a war that they weren’t fully expecting. These 7 months are sometimes known as the sitzkrieg or the Phoney War.
One notable event occurred during this period. Russia invaded Finland beginning the Winter War. They were concerned that Leningrad was too close to the Finnish border who was allied with Norway, the British, and French so they sought to gain a larger buffer in the Karelian region of Finland.
The Finnish army were the inventors of the Molotov Cocktail which they would use to attack Russian tanks. It was named after Russia’s foreign minister.
This should have been a quick battle based on the numbers, but it dragged on for months as the Finns had better camouflage and better knowledge of the terrain. Russia eventually succeeded and Finland signed over 11% of the country to the Russians.
You can be sure that this battle was watched closely by Adolf Hitler who took note of the Russian’s weaknesses. He was already planning to turn against his new allies as soon as the time was right.
Please review Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat from September 3, 1939 (In the video above or you can read the full text here) I’d like you to leave a comment on his message. Do you think that America did too little early on? Should we have stepped in to stop Hitler before he got out of control? Was Roosevelt wise to avoid a war a half a world away? Imagine if this was going on right now. What news headlines would you read from the left and the right? Put your thoughts in the comments below.
I honestly feel bad about Poland at this time. Just being attacked by Germany and having there railroads and stuff destroyed in matters of months. Then within 2 months they had to surrender
At least they held out for a couple of months. Tomorrow you’ll see the Denmark and some of the Low countries not last even a week.
I think Roosevelt didn’t act early on because he was worried about the consequences of being involved in the war. I think he was right in being cautious, but if he knew of the conflict and consequences down the road for not dealing with Hitler he might have acted sooner.
That is the tricky part. You never know when your average totalitarian dictator is going to flip the switch and go full Hitler.
I think that FDR had the right idea to try and avoid war, but that gave more time for Hitler to grow. That would probably be the debate: Do we stop him now even though that could send America into turmoil, or do we try and avoid war but let Hitler get his way? Well, based upon what happened in Poland and in the appeasement from last class (I think), this is not always wise. Perhaps there should have been more action.
Appeasement was a definite failure. It was just giving Hitler the freedom to do more of the destructive things that he wanted to do. But sanctions or threat of military action might have done something. Perhaps slow him down to allow the allies to get a better defense.
Did America do too little early on? Yes but no, there were lots of pros and cons to reacting to Hitler and fighting back. Hitler did have a very powerful military and fighting them would cost a lot of money and soldiers. I think Roosevelt was very wise because he knew what the war might do to America and didn’t want to put his people at risk but either way, he is putting himself at risk in one way or another.
Do you think Roosevelt knew just how twisted Hitler was? It makes me wonder how much he knew, and how much we know today of someone like Kim Jong Un.
So many things happens to Poland when they didn’t really do anything to deserve it. I wonder if they wanted to he brought into the war? Also if Roosevelt would have done something about Hitler earlier than he did, some of the war wouldn’t have been so destructive. But he seemed too scared.
Austria probably wanted it, but Poland was fearful of the coming attack and appealed to the League of Nations, but by the time they were ready to act, it was too late.
If Germany and Russia split Poland, does that mean there were Russian forces stationed in Poland?
Yep. Poland was invaded by Russia just 10 days after Germany began their invasion. Eastern Poland was under Russian control. Some of that changed hands when Germany attacked Russia less than two years later, but Russians do not look completely like heroes in the eyes of Poland.
It makes it sound like Hitler was some sort of modern Julius Caesar. He had incredible war tactics and considered himself a god.
dude Poland just gets absolutely hammered it must have been tough
Considering we weren’t allied with any of the countries involved and it posed little threat to us directly, it made sense to avoid the war in the beginning. Nobody knew how out of hand it would get. Morally, though, we were obliged to help struggling countries like Poland because we had the resources.
I wonder why France and Britain didn’t rush to Poland’s defences rather than waiting until Germany had complete control over Poland?
Why did Finland only sign over 11% like if Russia had already succeeded Finland why didn’t Russia take more?
Finland fought back very hard against the Russians. They didn’t give up much territory in the fighting but they gave up and sought a peace agreement to keep from losing more if they continued fighting.
I’m sorry this is just now showing up, I tried to post it on the 31st but I guess it never went thru. The Winter war should’ve been a quick win for the Russians, yet the Finns were able to fight them off for awhile. Even though they didn’t win, their grit and grind was admirable.