The Early War

Germany was easily able to overrun the Polish. This gave them a chance to test their Blitzkrieg tactic where they would bomb an area then send in their tanks the Panzers to punch through any defenses and then send in their infantry to defeat any remaining resistance. France and Britain weren’t ready for a war so they were powerless to help. No proper military action took place for the rest of 1939 and the beginning of 1940 except a few naval battles between the British and Germans. Both sides began to look at the possibility of invading Scandinavia. Britain and France wanted to cut off the Germans from much need ore shipment from Sweden while Germany wanted to defend these shipments and to use Norway as a base for submarine attacks. The Germans struck first on the 2nd of April when they invaded Denmark and Norway. They easily over ran Denmark but the British sent an expeditionary force to Norway. The British and German naval forces clashed and although Germany was able to land the troops needed to defeat the Norwegians and British their fleet suffered such significant loses they couldn't launch another large naval operation for the rest of the war. 

In the east Stalin had launched his own war in an effort to take over Finland. The winter war was fought through the winter of 1939 and saw the Soviet forces humiliated by an enemy they drastically outnumbered. Lots of people across Europe volunteered to join the Finish army. Although they eventually were in a position to demand some territory they were lost so many men in doing so and their army’s reputation sank even further.

Norwegian Volunteer's in the Finish army.

Road to War

After World War I America followed a policy of isolation, this left France and Britain to be the peace keepers. At the start they got on well with Italy and jointly opposed Hitler's attempts to unite Germany and Austria into the one state. However Italy's plans of expansion contrasted with their ideas of keeping the status quo and Britain and France openly denounced after Italy's invasion of Abyssinia causing Italy to align themselves with Germany. This was the start and with the support of Italy, Germany was able to achieve its goal of Anschluss with Austria. Hitler next began asking for the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Although Britain and France tried to stop him at first the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain followed a policy of appeasement towards Hitler, France was to afraid to fight Germany on their own so they agreed that Hitler could have the Sudetenland if he promised not to take any more land. Hitler quickly broke this agreement and in March 1939 he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia creating a puppet government in Slovakia and encouraging the Polish and Hungarians to take the land which they had historic ties to. Czechoslovakia quickly fell as all of their defenses had been in the Sudetland which they had been forced to give to Germany.

It became clear to Britain and France that Germany would keep trying to take more land so they began rearming. The USSR who had also tried to save Czechoslovakia was disgusted by Britain's and France's policy of appeasement. They became afraid that Britain and France would sell them out in the same way so they started pursuing better relations with Germany. Hitler agreed to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with them, which was a non aggression pact they secretly divided eastern Europe between them, on the 23rd of August 1939. In April 1939 Italy invaded the kingdom of Albania eager to gain a foothold in the Balkans. The Germans and Italians signed the pact of steel on the 22nd of May 1939 firmly entrenching their cooperation.

After the allies failed to act when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, Hitler became convinced that they were to cowardly to fight a war so when he invaded Poland on the 1st of September 1939 he was surprised that France and Britain honored their guarantee. Italy choose not to join the war as they were not ready even though the Pact of Steel stated they were supposed to help Germany in times of war. The USSR invaded eastern Poland claiming they were protecting it from Germany. The 2nd World War had begun.

The Rise of Imperial Japan

 Since Japan had become an imperial power in the nineteenth century beginning their conquest of mainland Asia in 1910 when they invaded Korea off the Chinese in the First Sino-Japanese war. This defeat led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty in China and soon China became engulfed in civil war as war lords competed for power and different ideologies fought for control. Japan began taking more land from the various war lords in the north creating the Manchuria puppet state. On the 7th of July 1937 Japan launched a full scale invasion of China after a small incident at the Marco Polo Bridge quickly escalated. Japan was able to take the major cities and the war soon descended into a guerilla war. Mao Zedong led a force of Communist guerillas against the Japanese but they found it difficult to cooperate with the Nationalist Chinese.

The rest of the world was disgusted by the idea of Japanese expansion. America embargoed them depriving the Japanese army of much needed oil supplies. It became clear to the Japanese that they would have to expand in order to survive. After the USSR beat them in two short wars in 1938 and 1939 over some border disputes, Japan looked south to the resource rich British and Dutch colonies in the area. They also signed a non aggression pact with the USSR who were afraid of a German attack. Japan aspired to own all of Asia and completely expel all European influence.