Leslie Sexton

Chapter 12

Pages 486-487

Questions #1, 7

1.

Concept / Identification / Significance
Lebensraum / - Lebensraum is defined as ‘living space’, meaning the acquisition of land and colonies for German settlement in Eastern Europe
- Hitler desired additional land in the east, believing that the health of a nation was dependent on the value of its national territory
- He was a German of Austrian birth, and had Pan-German dream of bringing all Germans ‘home to the Reich’
- Hitler said that “Germany’s problem could only be solved by means of force and this was never without attendant risk” / - Hitler called for German territorial expansion by seizing lands to the east
- He said Germany must cease its attempts at acquiring colonial possessions and look to the east instead
- Hitler hoped lebensraum would create an German autarky that would have the strength and self-sufficiency to fight Russia and France
- The desire for territorial expansion led to Hitler’s aggressions in eastern Europe and the Second World War
- This plan was carried out in Poland, where the country was quickly conquered, and Poland was turned into a worker state that supplied the Third Reich
Blitzkrieg / - Blitzkrieg (meaning “lighting war”) was a new kind of mechanized warfare
- It was a coordinated attack strategy that used armored tank divisions, supported by ground troops and air support
- Fighter-bombers like Stukas and Heinkel airplanes in the German Luftwaffe targeted civilians, using terror bombings to promote fear and defeatism among the general population, which would create chaos among the opposing side
- The success of Blitzkrieg was dependent on the advantage gained by catching the enemy off guard; many opponents of the Nazis were not prepared
- The enemy had to surrender quickly, or the element of surprise would be lost / - This form of warfare was initially used against Poland, where Poland’s small and obsolete air force was caught off guard
- Blitzkrieg marked the difference between the First and the Second World War; during the first, the defensive weapons technology was far more advanced than that of the offensive, and the result was a war of attrition and trench warfare, while during the Second World War, Germany was able to rapidly conquer large amounts of territory as a result of more modern offensive weaponry, such as the tank
- Blitzkrieg was largely successful for Germany early in the war, and most of Europe was conquered
- Poland, Denmark, Norway, and France would be defeated in this fashion
- It would take the Allied forces almost three years to cope with Blitzkrieg and to prepared to counter it
Munich Agreement / - The Munich Agreement was signed on September 20, 1938
- Hitler stated that he would risk war over the fate of Sudeten Germans, yet he said it was the “last major problem to be solved”
- Chamberlain believed an agreement on the Sudetenland would ensure peace, and convinced the Czech prime minister to give land to Hitler in return for compensation and an international guarantee of Czechoslovakia’s defense
- A week later, Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia sign over the territory by October 10, and agree to Polish and Hungarian demands for Czech territory
- At the Munich Conference, Chamberlain, French prime minister Eduoard Daladier, Mussolini and Hitler agreed to transfer the Sudetenland to Germany by October 10, and to deal with Polish and Hungarian claims at another date / - The Czech prime minister was excluded from the final conference, and could choose to sign the agreement or face war with Germany alone
- Chamberlain and Hitler declared that Britain and Germany would never “go to war with one another again”
- Chamberlain believed this agreement had swayed Hitler against going to war, and believed in meant peace in the future
- However, the prospect of peace did not last long, as Hitler terrorized the Jewish population in Germany on Kristallnatch (the night of broken glass), and claimed the rest of Czechoslovakia by announcing the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
- The Munich Agreement was the last time Hitler was appeased, since the British and the French would not negotiate over Poland
Operation Barbarossa / - Operation Barbarossa was the code name given to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union
- Barbarossa was meant to be total war, and the Nazis would exterminate “undesirables” such as communists and Jews
- Hitler intended to defeat the Soviet Union and exterminate large parts of the Soviet population
- However, he expected the defeat of the Soviet Union to take only six weeks, and did not consider the consequences if the Red Army was not immediately defeated
- The campaign was successful at first during the summer and fall, as the Germans captured Minsk, Smolensk, and Kiev as the ill-prepared Red Army retreated
- In August 1941, Hitler ordered the German army to move south and the drive towards Moscow would be halted
- As they moved south, the Germans destroyed five Soviet armies and fifty divisions, and by December 1941 had advanced beyond the Sea of Azov in the south, had surrounded Leningrad, and were reaching the western suburbs
- After Stalin ordered the transfer of Siberian divisions from Asia for a counterattack the Nazi advance was halted / - The invasion of the Soviet Union would fulfill Hitler’s vision of Lebensraum, strike at the communists, a hated rival of the Nazis, and deny Soviet support to the British
- It would also force the Soviet Union to deploy military strength in Europe, leaving the Japanese to further expand in the Pacific, ensuring the United States would be preoccupied, making them less likely to become involved in a European war
- Resistance forces played a prominent role, fighting for their survival rather than that of the state
- The first-strike success of Blitzkrieg was not achieved, since the Soviet Army retreated over the vast expanse of Russia, destroying anything of value as they pulled back
- Victory became less likely as the war continued, since Blitzkrieg relied on immediate defeat of the enemy
- Blitzkrieg was well-suited for the compact Western Europe, yet it became more difficult to supply the army and service the tanks as the German army moved further into Russia
- The campaign lasted much longer than Hitler had expected, and the Germans were not prepared for a winter campaign
- Operation Barbarossa is considered Hitler’s greatest mistake by many historians
- Battles in the cities of Leningrad and Stalingrad gave Hitler major setbacks in the war
- The Battle of Stalingrad ended in defeat for Germany, and turned the tide of the war
General Eisenhower / - Was appointed supreme Allied commander by Churchill and Roosevelt while planning a cross-Channel invasion of the German-occupied France
- Eisenhower directed British field marshal Bernard Montgomery to prepare invasion plans and act as commander of the invasion ground forces
- France would be invaded across the English Channel, and the invasion would be supported by naval bombardment and British and American aircrafts
- On June 6th, 1944, the Allies arrived on the beaches of Normandy, and by nightfall, the Allies had secured all beachheads and defeated a German counterattack / - The Normandy invasion opened a new front in the West, one that Stalin had demanded for over two years
- As the Allies advanced, Germany resisted, as Hitler would not allow his armies to retreat, and desperately launched counterattacks in hopes of turning back the Allied forces
- The Normandy landing was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany
- It ended Nazi control of the West, and as Soviet forces pushed the Germans back in the East, the Allies moved towards Germany, liberating France
- The invasion of Normandy was a major turning point in the war, and soon Germany’s defeat became imminent
Neville Chamberlain / - Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister during part of the inter-war period
- Was a strong supporter of appeasement
- Chamberlain wanted to avoid another war and secure peace in Europe
- Chamberlain believed allowing Germany to violate the Treaty of Versailles would calm Germany, and war would be avoided
- During the inter-war period, Hitler was allowed to rearm Germany, re-introduce conscription, occupy the Rhineland, and annex Austria and Czechoslovakia
- Chamberlain persuaded the Czech prime minister to concede territory to Germany, and agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland at the Munich Conference, believing appeasement would produce “peace in our time” / - At the time Chamberlain was praised for his efforts to secure peace, and said to be a leader of fortitude with diplomatic skill
- Less than a year after Munich, Chamberlain was criticized as naïve and short-sighted
- Appeasement merely postponed war with Germany rather than preventing it
- In retrospect, Chamberlain’s appeasement was a diplomatic failure