The Sitzkrieg, The Winter War, and the War At Sea

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The Sitzkrieg, The Winter War, and the War At Sea
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The Sitzkrieg

• After fury of the blitzkrieg came the sitzkrieg
  on the Western Front
• Sit down war
• Also called the phony war
• Was a six month lull between the fall of Poland
  and the German attack on Norway and Denmark

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The Sitzkrieg

• British and French were behind the Maginot line
• Germans gathered behind the Siegfried Line
• Almost no combat
• Ended when Germany attacks Norway and Denmark in
  April, 1940

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Russia Invades Finland

• Russia was still very active during the phony
  war
• Force Estonia to give them bases on Estonian soil
• Latvia and Lithuania bullied into the same thing

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Russia Invades Finland

• Finland refused to give in to Russia
• Nov. 30, 1939- Soviet army struck at Finland
• Soldiers carried propaganda leaflets
• Expected to be welcomed as liberators
• Thought it would be quick and only had light
  clothing
• Not equipped or trained for harsh Finnish winter

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The Winter War
A Finnish soldier
Frozen Russian soldier
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Russia Invades Finland

• Finns fall back and draw the Germans into the
  forest and then they strike
• Would hit and hold the Russian front while other
  Finns moved to the Russian flank
• Cut off routes of retreat
• Separated Russian units from each other
• Russians fell by the thousands

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Russia Invades Finland

• World was amazed at Finnish resistance
• France and Britain begin to consider aiding
  Finland
• Stalin realizes Hitler is watching
• Is Russia weak enough for Germany to take?
• Russia must take action against the Finnish
  Mannerheim Line

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Russia Invades Finland

• Stalin brings all five of his forces together
• In two weeks, they break through the Mannerheim
  Line and after 42 days, Finland is lost
• Russia gets everything they demand
• Their second largest city
• Their biggest Artic Ocean port
• Karelian Isthmus

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The Struggle At Sea

• Never was a sitzkrieg at sea
• Began Sept. 3, 1939, 250 miles off the coast of
  Ireland
• Germans sink British passenger liner Athenia
• Was a violation of international agreement

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The Struggle At Sea

• By the end of September, British losses were
  staggering.
• Resorted to the convoy system
• Ships gather in groups and were escorted by
  destroyers who circled around the convoy, hunting
  for submarines
• Was offense and defensive system
• The freighters and tankers acted as bait

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The Struggle At Sea

• Churchill improved the convoy system by adding
  aircraft protection at either end of the voyage.

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The Struggle At Sea

• British ships began to blow up and sink as they
  entered or left port
• Germans were dropping a new type of mine, a
  magnetic mine, at harbor mouths
• Was drawn to a ships hull as the vessel passed
  over it

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The Struggle At Sea

• Late November, a German airplane was seen
  dropping a magnetic mine
• It was captured by two skillful and brave naval
  officers and brought to Portsmouth Naval Base to
  be analyzed
• They could then combat it by encircling British
  ships with an electric cable
• Called degaussing

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The Struggle At Sea

• Germany had three pocket battleships
• Deutschland and Graf Spee left Germany between
  Aug. 21 and Aug. 24 and were loose in the ocean
• By Dec. 13th the Graf Spee had sunk 3 British
  merchant ships in five days
• Was tracked down by 3 British cruisers, Achilles,
  Ajax, and Exeter

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The Struggle At Sea

• Battle enrages
• The Spee leaves under smoke cover and enters
  Montevideo, Uruguay with Ajax and Achilles
  outside
• Uruguay is neutral
• Captain Langsdorff telephones the German Admiral
  that escape is hopeless
• Spee leaves harbor with British ships waiting
  hungrily

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The Struggle At Sea

• Graf Spee is scuttled, sunk itself
• Fear if ship is captured secret equipment will
  fall into enemy hands
• Langsdorff was so brokenhearted by the loss of
  the ship that he wrapped himself in an old
  Imperial flag, an insult to Hitler, and shot
  himself.
• This ends the first phase of the Battle of the
  Atlantic

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The War At Sea