Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, move, nsTeam2RO, nsTeam2RW, nsTeam2_talkRO, nsTeam2_talkRW, protect, rollback, Administrators, template
292,436
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 6:
Line 6: + + + + + + +
no edit summary
[[Britain]] and [[France]] declared war on Germany two days after the invasion of Poland began. The Dominions of the British Commonwealth followed shortly afterwards. Polish resistance would soon begin and would continue throughout the entire war. Poland was divided between Germany and the USSR. Germany acquired the western regions, approximately 48.4% of the country.<ref name="rcin.org.p">[http://rcin.org.pl/Content/15652/WA51_13607_r2011-nr12_Monografie.pdf http://rcin.org.pl/Content/15652/WA51_13607_r2011-nr12_Monografie.pdf]</ref> The Soviet Union acquired the rest. About 270 sq. miles of land was given to Germany's puppet state [[Slovakia]].
[[Britain]] and [[France]] declared war on Germany two days after the invasion of Poland began. The Dominions of the British Commonwealth followed shortly afterwards. Polish resistance would soon begin and would continue throughout the entire war. Poland was divided between Germany and the USSR. Germany acquired the western regions, approximately 48.4% of the country.<ref name="rcin.org.p">[http://rcin.org.pl/Content/15652/WA51_13607_r2011-nr12_Monografie.pdf http://rcin.org.pl/Content/15652/WA51_13607_r2011-nr12_Monografie.pdf]</ref> The Soviet Union acquired the rest. About 270 sq. miles of land was given to Germany's puppet state [[Slovakia]].
==Battle of Khalkhin Gol==
On the night of July 1, 1939 the Japanese stormed across the Khalkhin Gol and seized a strategic hill threatening the [[Soviet]] flank. In three days of heavy fighting, however, Soviet [[Gen. Georgi Zhukov]] eventually forced them back across the river in a counterattack with his tanks. He then occupied part of the east bank and began his great deception – what the [[Red Army]] termed ''maskirovka''. While Zhukov was secretly preparing a major offensive, his troops gave the impression of creating a static defensive line. Badly encoded messages were sent demanding more and more materials for bunkers, loudspeakers broadcast the noise of pile-drivers, pamphlets entitled ''What the Soviet Soldier Must Know in Defence'' were distributed in massive quantities so that some fell into enemy hands. Zhukov, meanwhile, was bringing in tank reinforcements under cover of darkness and concealing them.
At 05.45 hours on Sunday August 20 Zhukov launched his surprise attack, first with a three-hour artillery bombardment, then with tanks and aircraft, as well as infantry and cavalry. Zhukov was undismayed by his own losses.
Despite the Japanese determination never to surrender, the Kwantung Army’s antiquated tactics and armament produced a humiliating defeat. The battle of Khalkhin Gol thus represented a major influence on the subsequent Japanese decision to move against the colonies of [[France]], the [[Netherlands]] and [[Britain]] in south-east Asia, and even take on the [[United States]] Navy in the Pacific rather than attack the Soviet forces in the Far East. The consequent refusal by [[Tokyo]] to attack the Soviet Union in the winter of 1941 would thus play a critical role in the [[geopolitical]] turning point of the war, both in the Far East and in Hitler’s ill-fated decision to invade the Soviet Union.<ref>Antony Beevor, ''The Second World War''.</ref>
==Operation Himmler and the Gleiwitz incident==
==Operation Himmler and the Gleiwitz incident==