Throughout the late 1930's, Adolf Hitler continued his conquest of Europe, following up victorious invasions of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland with assaults to the West. In 1940, Hitler occupied Denmark on the way to Norway, followed by marches across Holland and Belgium. His air attacks on Rotterdam alone killed thirty thousand people. It was during this time that Hitler's military cunning hit a new low, using refugees as instruments of war. Bombing small towns in the Belgian countryside, citizens attempting to escape the advancing Nazis clogged the only access roads for advancing opposition forces.
France, in an attempt to secure it's border with Germany, built the Maginot Line, a series of fortifications and bunkers, but the will of the French people was weak. The Germans used thirty five thousand armored vehicles to advance through the Ardennes Forest, considered almost impossible to traverse, to descend upon France. With the defeat of France, Hitler obtained an armistice with the country under Marshal Petaine, effectively enslaving the French to the Nazi war machine.
What I haven't mentioned yet in my reviews of the prior two installments of the series, is the effective use of charts and maps detailing plans of the German offense. As crude as one might expect from nearly seventy years ago, the graphics are still capably done given the technology of the era. A common tactic deployed by Hitler's military consisted in a recurring use of the 'pincer' attack, performed by encircling an enemy target and closing in for the kill.
With the fall of continental Europe, Hitler was now ready to go after the next big prize - Great Britain. That is the subject of Chapter Four of the "Why We Fight" Series.
France, in an attempt to secure it's border with Germany, built the Maginot Line, a series of fortifications and bunkers, but the will of the French people was weak. The Germans used thirty five thousand armored vehicles to advance through the Ardennes Forest, considered almost impossible to traverse, to descend upon France. With the defeat of France, Hitler obtained an armistice with the country under Marshal Petaine, effectively enslaving the French to the Nazi war machine.
What I haven't mentioned yet in my reviews of the prior two installments of the series, is the effective use of charts and maps detailing plans of the German offense. As crude as one might expect from nearly seventy years ago, the graphics are still capably done given the technology of the era. A common tactic deployed by Hitler's military consisted in a recurring use of the 'pincer' attack, performed by encircling an enemy target and closing in for the kill.
With the fall of continental Europe, Hitler was now ready to go after the next big prize - Great Britain. That is the subject of Chapter Four of the "Why We Fight" Series.