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==== Prelude to War ====
Hitler came to power in January 1933. Two months hence, on March 23, the Enabling Act was passed through the Reichstag. This legislation essentially voided the Weimar Constitution and created a legal dictatorship, under which Hitler no longer needed approval from the Reichstag to enact any new laws. Further, on July 14, he declared that the National Socialist Party was the only legitimately recognized party in the nation. Through a tremendous propaganda campaign, he appeared as Germany’s Messiah and established a massive following. As his popularity grew, he deemed the time appropriate for Germany to annex European lands that housed ethnically German people.<ref>Stephen Toth, “Total War and Crisis” (lecture, Arizona State University, Glendale, October 20, 2011).</ref>
[[File:anschluss 1938.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|German troops marching into Austria after annexation, 1938.]]
He first targeted Austria. Through a series of threats on Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schluschnigg and terrorist activities by the SA, the Anschluss was completed on March 12, 1938 and Austria was officially annexed by Germany. Next on Hitler’s agenda was the Sudetenland along the Czechoslovakian border. Germany’s land grabs did not go unnoticed by formidable European powers. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain organized a conference in Munich that included representatives from France, Germany, and Italy. Employing a policy of appeasement, Chamberlain agreed not to interfere with Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland if in turn, Hitler guaranteed that there would be no war. The Munich Pact was signed on September 29, 1938, after which time Chamberlain returned to England with the announcement, “There will be peace in our time.” With that piece of business complete, Hitler then turned his aims toward Poland.<ref>Toth, October 25, 2011.</ref>
==== Hitler Turns West ====
[[File:dunkirkmap.gif|thumbnail|250px|left|Positions at Dunkirk.]]
After the invasion of Poland, both Britain and France declared war on Germany. The French military had constructed a defensive barrier during the interwar years known as the Maginot Line; so named after the French Minister of War, Andre Maginot. This line consisted of steel and concrete forts that housed large guns, casements and pill boxes for smaller guns, and an underground network of tunnels and facilities. [[Why was France defeated in 1940?|The line, however, was greatly flawed]]. Although the southern end terminated at the Swiss border, the line continued north only to the point where France, Luxembourg, and Belgium converged. Enemy penetration of the line was possible through the gap to the north.
On May 10, 1940 the German invasion of France began. After penetrating Belgium, the German Army forged its way through the Ardennes. The Allies became trapped between the German tanks of Heinz Guderian and infantry troops of Fedor von Bock. On May 23, as they retreated into western Belgium and became encircled, British commander General Lord Gort ordered his troops to fall back toward the English Channel and began rescue operations from the beaches of Dunkirk. Meanwhile, Guderian’s armor had reached the coast and turned north toward Dunkirk. On May 24, with the full support of Adolph Hitler, General Gerard von Rundstedt ordered Guderian to halt his forces just fifteen miles away from Dunkirk. Compounding this tactically atrocious decision, Hitler and von Rundstedt ordered Bock’s infantry, rather than the tanks of Guderian, to capture the troops on the beaches.<ref>Lyons, 80. For an in depth study of the importance of Dunkirk, see Norman Gelb, ''Dunkirk: The Complete Story of the First Step in the Defeat of Hitler'' (New York: Morrow, 1989).</ref>
By opting for this slower -moving tactic, the Allies were afforded the precious gift of time and were able to begin evacuation maneuvers. With the aid of ordinary British citizens from all walks of life and in all types of water crafts, between May 27 and June 4, 1940, 338,000 Allied soldiers managed to escape Dunkirk, 224,000 of which were British.<ref>Lyons, 81.</ref>This was a tremendous morale boost for Allied soldiers and citizens alike. Additionally, the men who escaped were reincorporated into the British fighting forces. If Hitler had pursued his attack and decimated the troops at Dunkirk, he may have been able to force Churchill into peace negotiations in the early summer of 1940 while the Non-Aggression Pact was still in effect; at the same time that Paris fell to Germany, and before the U.S. entered the war. He instead fought an air war (The Battle of Britain) over England from July through October 1940 and the following year turned his attentions toward the east.
==== Operation Barbarossa ====
