French and German Plans for the Battle of France 1940

World War II: Blitzkrieg taking Western Europe

French and German Plans for the Battle of France 1940

•______

•A line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along her borders with Germany and Italy

•The fortifications did not extend through the ______which was considered “______”

Surprise in the Ardennes

•On ______Germany attacked through the weakly held Ardennes region

•Penetrated Allied defenses and then began to envelop them

•Guderian Breaks Through at Sedan Battle of France: ______

•Hoth Breaks Through at DinantBattle of France: ______

Penetration

•With Hoth’s and Guderian’s successes, the Germans had a ______breakthrough from ______

•Pushed through ______toward the ______

•The Panzers Race To The Channel Battle of France: ______

Dunkirk

•Moving in for the Kill

•German forces pressed the ______, from south and east, into the English Channel.

•Meanwhile, German ______reinforced the southern flank of the German penetration.

Halt Order

•Hitler halted the German armor

•German armor had ______and would be needed to conquer the rest of ______

•______called upon to finish the job

•Luftwaffe unable to destroy the British and French

•Bases in western Germany were further away from Dunkirk than British planes were from their bases on the British Isles

•340,000 Allied troops were evacuated

The Weygand Line Collapses Battle of France: ______

Italy Joins the Axis

•On ______, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France and four months later invaded Greece

•Mussolini will end up being a ______for Hitler

French Surrender and Vichy France

•On ______, the French asked for an armistice

•In July, France was divided into ______

•One was ruled directly by the Germans

•The other was led by the ______that collaborated with German plans including the ______and the forceful deportations of tens of thousands of French Jews to ______across Europe

Auftragstaktik

•German interwar doctrine emphasized:

•______, mission-oriented orders (Auftragstaktik)

•speed and ______weaknesses maximized by troop commanders taking the initiative (understand commander’s intent)

•close integration and cooperation between combat branches (mobile warfare required armor, infantry, and artillery)

•______

Battle of Britain

•The Germans developed two plans to take Britain

•______, an amphibious landing on the British coast

•A great air offensive to gain ______and destroy the British industrial base

•“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” (Winston Churchill)

The Eastern Front

•Hitler had strategic and ideological reasons for invading Russia

•Strategically he knew that the Soviet Union and the US were critical to Britain’s willingness to keep fighting

•He also felt he needed the ______resources of Eastern Russia

•Ideologically he viewed the Soviet Union as an amalgamation of his greatest enemies, the ______