Luftwaffe bomber planes attacked London.
The invasion of Poland in 1939 was just the beginning of Hitler’s plans. Hitler wanted to create an empire called the Third Reich, in which Germany would rule the world for the next 1,000 years. He was determined to provide Lebensraum—living space—for the German people in Eastern Europe. Hitler’s blitzkreig, his “lightning war,” set the plan in motion. By spring he had added Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France to his conquests.
Alarmed, Britain began making plans for war. Britain, France, and the other countries opposing Germany would become known as the Allies.
ATTACKING BRITAIN
The rapid advance of the German army took Britain by surprise. The Germans were able to trap the British army at Dunkirk on the French coast. But almost 340,000 British and other Allied soldiers managed to escape.
Hitler then began making plans for Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain. The Germans needed to gain control of the English Channel between France and Britain and the skies above. Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe, had about 2,500 working airplanes, compared to the Royal Air Force’s 700. Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering was confident, saying that the Luftwaffe was invincible.
The Battle of Britain between the Luftwaffe and the RAF raged through the summer of 1940. By September the Germans had failed to secure the control of the air needed to support a naval attack on Britain. Hitler called off his invasion plans, although the bombing campaign against London and other cities continued until spring 1941. Elsewhere, Italy attacked the British in Egypt in an attempt to capture the Suez Canal. Hitler sent a German army called the Afrika Korps to help out, as Axis forces attempted to conquer the oil fields of the Middle East.
A NEW ORDER IN ASIA
The war in China continued as Japan worked on building what it called the New Order in East Asia. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was supposed to be a group of nations led by Japan, sharing peace and prosperity. But it was really a way for Japan to control all of the area’s resources for its own benefit. With war raging in Europe, Britain, France, and the Netherlands were unable to fight off Japan’s actions against their Asian colonies.
At first some people in Asia welcomed the Japanese troops as liberators from colonial rule. But their attitude soon changed. The Japanese regarded other races as inferior and saw nothing wrong with using captured soldiers and civilians as slaves for the benefit of Japan.
Japan joined the Axis powers in 1940. Germany, Italy, and Japan were all strongly nationalist and believed themselves to be superior. All three wanted to create large empires and were opposed to Communism.