Second World War begins

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

At dawn September 1st 1939 Germany invaded Poland with 34 infantry divisions and 6 panzer divisions, preceded by waves of Stuka divebombers, giving the world a terrifying example of the .Blitzkrieg. [Lighting War] tactics which were to replace the static trenchwar methods used twenty years earlier. Warsaw, 140 miles from the frontier, was reached in a week, and on September 17th the government went into exile whilst the heroic Warsaw garrison fought on for another ten days. Since the British and French governments had warned Germany on 31st March 1939 that they would defend Poland, on September 3rd they declared war on Germany. The Second World War had begun.

104 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Second World War begins". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=996, accessed 19 April 2024.]

996 Second World War begins 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.