World War II started in 1939 on the 1st of September, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland without declaration of war. There is an overlap with several other conflicts happening in the same era, e.g. the Finno-Soviet Winter War (1939/40) and the Second Sino-Japanese War (since 1937). At the moment (June 1940), there's no end of it in sight.
See also:
First successes of the Wehrmacht[]
Thanks to the Blitzkrieg strategy, their new Stuka Bombers, help from Slovakia, and a muddled defense plan of the Polish Army leadership, the Wehrmacht quickly advanced deep into Poland. After Stalin's Soviet Union attacked Poland's back, the valiantly fighting Poles had no more chance, and the country was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. Only the "General Government" under control of Hans Frank remained of it.
At the Western front of Germany, initially there was almost no fighting, which puzzled many people, although the British Empire and France had declared war on 3rd of September already. Despite the fact that about 110 Allied Divisions stood against 23 German ones. This situation was called "Sitzkrieg" or "phoney war" (drôle de guerre).
On the 9th of April 1940, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway started, disguised as "Operation Weserübung". Only in the North near Narvik, there was more of Allied resistance, thanks to having landed British troops. Because of his failure in Norway, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had to step back on May 10th and was exchanged for Winston Churchill.
On the 10th of May, the Wehrmacht then invaded the neutral states of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. They had barely a chance against the much more numerous Wehrmacht: Luxembourg immediately capitulated, the Netherlands after four days.
At the same time, the execution of the "Scythe Plan" by Erich von Manstein surprised the Western Allies completely - they had expected that the Ardennes were impassible terrain for panzers. As a result of this, about 400,000 Allied soldiers around Dunkirk were cut off from the rest of France.
First new Six[]
During the Night from 24th to 25th of May, on Wattenberg Heights near Wormhoudt an initially insignificant firefight started, which however had the result of diverse German Troops crossing the Aa canal - despite this being against their halting orders - and occupying Dunkirk during the same day, before the Allied Troops were able to do the same. As a consequence, the cut-off Allied troops had lost their last chance to escape via the sea, and had to fight a last stand, so the Battle of Dunkirk happened. The big battle of encirclement turned out to be an overwhelming victory for the Germans: Several hundred thousand Allied soldiers and many competent commanders became prisoners, only a few thousand had been able to save themselves. Belgium already capitulated on May 27th, the BEF on June 2nd. On the same day, "Case Red" started, the offensive against weakened France. On June 9th, the Wehrmacht had reached the Seine. In the rushed Operation Cycle, about 10,000 Allied soldiers could be evacuated from Le Havre. Meanwhile, the Allies also had retreated from Narvik, and the last Norwegians capitulated. These successes encouraged Benito Mussolini to declare war on France and Britain on June 8th too. While his army wasn't very successful, the advancing Wehrmacht forced France to make an armistice on June 19th, and also occupied the Channel Islands on June 30th. Charles de Gaulle proclaimed Free France in London on June 14th.
Meanwhile, Stalin had the Red Army occupy the Baltic States during 10th to 12th June, and Romanian Bessarabia on June 22nd.
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