“Peaceful” Annexations - Third Reich - Britannica

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 armored 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.