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German Campaign in Poland. The German Campaign in Western Europe. German Counterattack at Anzio, Italy. German Counteroffensive into Southwest Russia. German Expansion. German Invasion of Crete.
The German Invasion of Poland. German-Italian Counterattack on Sicily. At this point, a defense of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible and the Polish government ordered the evacuation of all remaining troops to neutral Romania. In the early morning of April 9, German troops invaded Denmark. Within hours, they had arrived in Copenhagen. Denmark gave the Germans a springboard for the invasion of Norway, which was their real target. Norway could serve as a base for naval units, especially U-boats, to harass Allied shipping in the North Atlantic, and its occupation would secure shipments of iron ore from Sweden through the port of Narvik.
The Norwegians resisted. The geography of the country, and their familiarity with the terrain, allowed the Norwegians to hold out for two months before they were forced to surrender. There was fear Germany might attack Sweden next, but there was no need. Surrounded by the Axis on all sides Finland, having been invaded by the Soviet Union, was on the German side , the Swedes were in no position to join the Allies.
Dutch — unlike Belgian — neutrality was respected in World War I. Dutch defense planning was rooted in the centuries-old method of flooding low-lying parts of the country to slow an invading force, but by the Germans could simply drop paratroopers behind Dutch lines. Airpower had defeated the Dutch Water Line. French troops in this area were outnumbered and second-rate. France had sent its best troops across the Belgian plain to establish a defensive perimeter east of Brussels under the assumption that the Germans would take the same invasion route as they had in Indeed, some German troops did, but the bulk of the invading force was making its way through the forest.
It took the Allies four days to recognize their mistake, by which time it was too late. German armored columns had reached the English Channel, cutting off the British and French at Dunkirk. What looks like a masterstroke in hindsight was closer to an accident of history.
But those plans fell into enemy hands when Mayor Helmuth Reinberger of the Luftwaffe was captured with the Case Yellow plans in Mechelen on January Mechanical problems had forced his plane to land and the pilot mistook the Meuse River for the Rhine, stranding them both in Belgium. Germany was subsequently forced to alter its plan of attack. French prime minister Paul Reynaud realized the battle was lost when the Germans broke through at Sedan on May The fall of France was imminent.
They best French forces could hope to accomplish now was to fight on for several more days to give the British Expeditionary Force BEF a chance to escape. Weygand managed to mount some counterattacks, but, again, the main benefit was to slow the German advance to the coast and give the British time to get out.
Nevertheless, the French put up a strong resistance. At least their supply lines were shorter and German blitzkrieg tactics were no longer a surprise. The Germans, by contrast, were overstretched and increasingly relied on superior numbers and airpower, rather than superior tactics, to break through the French defenses. The French government declared Paris an open city on June When German troops marched in four days later, they respected the declaration and the city was taken without violence.
It was only at this point that the Germans attacked the formidable Maginot Line, which was now seriously undermanned. Some fortresses held out until the very end, but the war was clearly lost. Reynaud resigned on June Weygand initially collaborated with the Germans as well until the Vichy government allowed the Axis use of military bases in the French colonies.
It was a disaster. Mussolini already held Albania, which meant the Greeks knew where the attack would come from. They had prepared well. Greeks defenders stopped the Italians right at the border and were even able to advance a few kilometers into Albania in January The Italians tried a second time in March, but this Spring Offensive ended no better for them than their first attempt.
The fight had also worn out the Greeks, who appealed to the British for help. Britain sent weapons, ammunition and military gear, which to Hitler raised the specter of a British threat from the south. He decided to help the Italians.
The following month, German troops invaded from the north. The Greeks were now forced to defend a front straddling their entire border, but they resisted British suggestions for a tactical withdrawal. Axis forces were able to break through and reach Athens on April 27 and the southern coast on April The conquest of Greece was completed with the capture of Crete a month later. Hitler would later blame Mussolini for diverting German troops from the planned invasion of the Soviet Union, causing them to just fall short of seizing Moscow before the winter of Hitler immediately ordered an invasion, which began on April 6.
Following a devastating bombardment of Belgrade, which made it difficult for the Yugoslavs to coordinate their defenses, Axis forces attacked from Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The campaign against the Low Countries and France lasted less than six weeks. Germany attacked in the west on May 10, Initially, British and French commanders had believed that German forces would attack through central Belgium as they had in World War I, and rushed forces to the Franco-Belgian border to meet the German attack.
The main German attack however, went through the Ardennes Forest in southeastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. German tanks and infantry quickly broke through the French defensive lines and advanced to the coast. Paris, the French capital, fell to the Germans on June 14, As part of the armistice agreement France signed with Germany on June 22, Germany occupied northern France and all of France's Atlantic coastline down to the border with Spain.
A new French government was established in the town of Vichy, which was in the unoccupied southern part of France. The Vichy government, under Marshall Henri Petain, declared neutrality in the war between Germany and Great Britain, but was committed by the armistice provisions to cooperation with Germany.
When the German air force failed to win air superiority over southeastern England in , Hitler postponed the invasion until the spring of
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