Festung Europa

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Europe at the end of 1940

By the summer of 1940 Hitler had entirely remade the map of Europe. The Nazi conquest of Europe was the fastest and most effective military campaign in history. In geopolitical terms, “The Allies” had ceased to exist as such. There was only one “Ally” left --- the United Kingdom.

The “Guns of August” fell silent in 1918 when Germany signed a cease-fire in this rail car in Compiegne, France

In 1940, Hitler ordered that the French surrender take place at the same railway car on the same spot in Compiegne. The humiliation of France was complete

Before he became a mass killer, Hitler was a nominally talented artist. Although he disliked “degenerate” art he ordered that beautiful Paris not be bombed or otherwise damaged during the Battle of France or the German occupation. Like everywhere else he went in Europe he found Fascist-thinking locals who served his purposes. Many French were thankful he had not bombed Paris, and did not actively resist the Nazi occupation. Combined with the rapidity of the French surrender this gave France a reputation as a nation of cowards. Perhaps this is why French collaborationists paid an especially heavy price after the war

After Hitler declared Denmark a “Protectorate” in 1940, King Christian X of Denmark (who remained on the throne) openly defied the Nazis by refusing to agree to impose the usual racial laws against his Jewish subjects. He did state that all Danes, regardless of faith, were equal before the law. He did not however (as legend has it) wear a yellow identification star in solidarity with Denmark’s Jews; nor did he order all Danes to do so. Since the racial laws were not in effect in Denmark not even the Jews wore the identifying yellow star. However, when the Germans organized an action to round up all of Denmark’s Jews and deport them to Auschwitz for extermination in August 1943, Christian interceded with Gustav V of Sweden to allow for the asylum of Denmark’s Jews, and loyal Danes ferried most of the Jewish population, some 8,000 persons, across the Skagerrak in one night. The 500 Jews who were captured were sent to the transit camp at Theresienstadt in Bohemia & Moravia. The Danish government authorized a Red Cross agent to supervise their well-being. Only 51 Jews died at the camp, almost all of age-related causes. Denmark’s Jewish community survived the Holocaust intact for all intents and purposes. Later in 1943, Germany imposed harsh restrictions on the Danes, leading to the emergence of one of the most effective Resistance movements in Europe. Christian (1870 – 1947) was not only the King of Denmark, but briefly the (only) King of Iceland (1918 – 1944)

The Kings Haakon VII, Christian X, and Gustav V, of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden respectively, in 1914

Marshal Henri Petain (1856 – 1951)  was the autocrat of the pro-Nazi rump state of Vichy between 1940 and 1945. After the war he spent most of the rest of his life in prison, his sentence of death for treason having been commuted by French President Charles DeGaulle

The fall of France had effectively turned Germany into a world power. On July 10, 1940, the French Third Republic had dissolved itself, its deputies choosing to vest all power in Marshal Henri Petain. Petain had been a hero of World War I and a respected political figure during the interwar years. However, by 1940 he was old (85), fearful of Hitler, naturally authoritarian, and convinced that the only way to save France from utter devastation was to cooperate with German demands. So he ceded all of northern France (including Paris) and the Atlantic coastline to Germany, imposed German racial laws against the Jews, muzzled the free press, arrested dissenters, suspended habeas corpus and due process, and did anything else he could to maintain some type of nominal French independence. In return, Germany allowed his government to maintain control of the worldwide French colonial empire (centered largely in northwestern and central Africa), though they had use of its military bases and natural resources. The French military was effectively dissolved. 

When constructed in 1926, the Surcouf was the largest submarine in the world. After the fall of France the British Navy blockaded all French naval bases, demanding that France turn its navy over to Britain rather than to Nazi Germany. Many ships joined the Admiralty (and later the Free French) but many more chose to scuttle themselves instead. The Surcouf, along with several surface vessels in support, actually attacked the British. It is a little-remembered battle, but it was a bloody one. The Surcouf and its brethren were seized by force and later went over to the Free French  

In western Europe Germany not only effectively controlled all of France and its colonies, but it had incorporated The Netherlands and Luxemburg into the Reich and turned Belgium and Denmark and Norway into Protectorates.

In eastern Europe, it incorporated Bohemia and Moravia (two former Czech provinces) into the Reich, given Slovakia (a third Czech province) its nominal independence, incorporated western Poland into the Reich (as the Wartheland), occupied eastern Poland as the General-Gouvernment, and allied itself with Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Finland.

This left only Yugoslavia and Greece independent and isolated* in southeastern Europe, and Mussolini had designs on both. In late 1940, the Italian dictator invaded Greece, only to be thrown back. Hitler decided to divert troops away from other tasks to come to Mussolini’s aid, and this decision was to have far-ranging consequences.   

King Peter II Karadordevic of Yugoslavia (1923 – 1970) was the last monarch of the Kingdom of the Southern Slavs. He was educated in Great Britain as the godson of King George VI of Great Britain and was imbued with democratic ideals. He became king at age 11 after the assassination of his father in 1934 and spent most of his reign heading the Yugoslav Government-in-Exile in London. After the war Yugoslavia became a Communist state under Marshal Tito (Josip Broz) and Peter II spent the rest of his life in the United States. Unfortunately, he never really found a focus for his considerable energies, and died young at only age 47, of liver failure brought on by drink. Peter II is the only crowned head of Europe interred in the United States

*In 1940, Greece was allied with Great Britain by treaty, and the Italian invasion (and subsequent German invasion) involved British ground troops in combat. Germany and the U.S.S.R. were still bound by their Non-Aggression Pact. Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, the Irish Free State, and Portugal were all neutral nations, though Spain was pro-Axis in policy and Ireland was pro-Ally by comportment