The Second World War and the Holocaust

How Germany conquered Europe between 1939 and 1942?

Quick answer

Germany conquered Europe by relying on a combined-arms mobile warfare doctrine that coordinated Panzer divisions, motorized infantry, and Luftwaffe air strikes to encircle opposing forces rapidly. Between September 1939 and 1942, Germany invaded Poland, overran France and the Low Countries in May 1940, and invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, imposing brutal economic extraction in the west and ideological annihilation in the east.

The topic explained

Mobile warfare and the collapse of Allied defenses

German military operations relied on rapid combined-arms warfare, popularly called Blitzkrieg. Rather than fighting across broad trenches as in the First World War, the German army concentrated armored Panzer divisions, motorized infantry, and close air support from Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers to smash narrow gaps in defensive lines. Radios installed in every German tank let officers coordinate movement on the fly and bypass strongpoints.

Opposing armies in 1939 and 1940 remained tied to static First World War doctrines. The French military invested heavily in the concrete Maginot Line along the German border but left the dense Ardennes forest lightly guarded, assuming heavy vehicles could not pass. In May 1940, German forces drove seven armored divisions through the Ardennes, crossed the Meuse River at Sedan, and raced roughly 350 kilometers to the English Channel in 11 days, advancing nearly 32 kilometers per day. This maneuver severed Allied communications and trapped French and British armies in the north, forcing France to sign an armistice on June 22, 1940, just six weeks after the campaign began.

The stages of conquest across the continent

German expansion moved across distinct geographic phases to secure raw materials and eliminate surrounding threats. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, followed by the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland sixteen days later under the secret terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Poland fell within five weeks.

In April 1940, German troops invaded Denmark and Norway to secure Swedish iron ore shipped through the port of Narvik. On May 10, 1940, Germany struck the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, securing Western Europe within 46 days. In April 1941, German forces invaded Yugoslavia and Greece to protect their southern flank. By June 1941, Germany dominated Europe from the Atlantic coast of France to the Soviet border.

Occupation in the West versus annihilation in the East

In Western Europe, Nazi governance focused on economic extraction. France was forced to pay up to 400 million francs per day to fund German occupation costs, totaling 72 billion francs in the first 180 days alone. By 1944, over seven million foreign civilians and prisoners of war were conscripted into forced labor inside the Reich.

In contrast, the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, known as Operation Barbarossa, was launched as an ideological war of annihilation. Nazi directives, such as the Commissar Order of June 6, 1941, mandated summary executions of Soviet political commissars without trial, suspending regular laws of war. Through policies like the Hunger Plan and Generalplan Ost, German planners deliberately starved Soviet cities and neglected prisoners of war. Out of 5.7 million Soviet soldiers captured, roughly 3.3 million died in German captivity, a mortality rate of about 58 percent, compared to under 4 percent for British and American prisoners.

Free printable worksheet

German Conquest and Occupation in Europe (1939-1942)

This worksheet is for 10th-grade history students. Read the background notes and sources, then answer each question using specific dates, terms, and evidence.

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German Conquest and Occupation in Europe (1939-1942)Name:

Identify the military doctrine that combined tanks, motorized infantry, radios, and close air support to break enemy lines rapidly between 1939 and 1941.
Name the two Scandinavian countries invaded by Germany in April 1940 and state the primary resource Germany sought to safeguard.
Explain why French defensive planning failed in May 1940 despite heavy fortifications along the Franco-German border.
Calculate the average daily rate of advance for German armored spearheads that covered 350 kilometers from the Ardennes to the English Channel in 11 days.
Contrast the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war with British and American prisoners of war held by Germany between 1941 and 1945.
Read the following summary of the Commissar Order (June 6, 1941): 'Political commissars in the Red Army are not recognized as soldiers; they are to be shot immediately upon capture without trial.' Explain how this order proved the invasion of the Soviet Union was an ideological war rather than a conventional conflict over territory.

Common questions

What does the term Blitzkrieg mean and did the German military invent the word?

Blitzkrieg means lightning war in German. It describes fast-moving combined-arms warfare using tanks, aircraft, and motorized infantry. The German military high command rarely used the word officially; it was popularized by foreign journalists in 1939 to describe the rapid collapse of Polish defenses.

How did Nazi occupation differ between Western Europe and Eastern Europe?

In Western Europe, Germany left local administrations partly intact to extract taxes, food, and manufactured products for the war effort. In Eastern Europe, Germany dismantled states entirely, viewed populations through racial ideology as sub-humans, carried out mass murder, and enacted systematic starvation plans.

What was the purpose of the Hunger Plan in 1941?

Devised by Herbert Backe, the Hunger Plan was a deliberate policy to seize grain and livestock from Ukraine and southern Russia to feed the German military and civilian population, anticipating that 20 to 30 million Soviet urban residents would starve as a result.

Why did Britain continue fighting alone after the fall of France in June 1940?

Protected by the English Channel and the Royal Navy, Britain rejected German armistice overtures under Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Royal Air Force defeated the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain in summer 1940, forcing Germany to postpone invasion plans.

How does this lesson connect to the study of the Holocaust?

The conquest of Poland and the invasion of the Soviet Union brought millions of European Jews under Nazi control. In June 1941, special SS units called Einsatzgruppen followed military spearheads into Soviet territory, beginning systematic mass shootings that marked the start of the Holocaust.

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