West European Studies

France and Britain declared war on Germany after Nazi troops had invaded Poland when it refused to shift its eastern borders. In 1940, army men from the Territorial Army were mobilized and sent over to France to aid in its defense. Royal blockades on Germany began to be imposed by the Royal Navy. These impositions had little effects since Germany was obtaining most of its vital supplies through land routes. The German navy started attacking British ships as well as navy forces (Titterton. and Brown, 2002).

After German had invaded and attacked most of the neighboring countries such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, it engaged itself in a most dangerous mission to destroy the Royal Air Force. The Nazi troops started bombing British cities and industries in order to demoralize the British people as well as destroy its industries. The bombings were however not successful.  When it became clear to the Germans that the royal forces were not wearing off, it called off the invasions. This marked a turning point to the course of the war and ensured the survival of a sovereign Britain (Dupuy, 1965).

In 1940, the Italians attacked Greece under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Initially, Greece resisted Italian invasion, but the Nazi troops joined in. Greece had refused to let British forces camp in their country because they did not have enough forces to resist the German forces.  British forces were later allowed to enter in large numbers in Greece after Germans had invaded Bulgaria. Although they had critical weakness in their defense, British positioned themselves on the defense line on the northern part of Greece (Cavendish, 2004). Greek forces refused to allow the advancement of the British in their defense line. This together with the governments refusal to withdraw the common line led to their defeat. German forces fully exploited the gap that was left between the British forces on the left and the Greek forces on the right in Albania. The battle of Greece was a determinant for the future course of the war. Hitler and Stalin came to an agreement concerning their relevant spheres of influence (Hellenica, n.d.).

British and Greek forces retreated to Crete after they had been thrown off Greece mainland. In Crete still, the Germans exploited the defense weakness that existed in the British as well as the Greek forces. However, the German paratroops that landed at various points in the island were destroyed and seaborne forces dispersed by the Royal Navy. The battle of Crete, which lasted for only ten days, saw the death of over 4000 German troops and curtailed the force with which German troops had swept throughout Europe (Titterton, and Brown, 2002).

According to Xylouris (n.d.), the British and Greek forces retreated to Crete because they believed that, with the help of New Zealand troops, Australian forces and local civilians on the island they could resist and defeat the German as well as Italian forces. The Greek and the British forces had been unable to match the German amour and their attacks from the air and therefore sought for a higher ground where they could mount their artillery and lob their mortar shells down a massive enemy. This made them to retreat to Crete which was a higher ground. The geographical location of Crete had its three air fields within striking distances of the Romanian oilfields, and provided a base to strike at Italy, North Africa as well as Greece. Its geographical setting also acted as defense for the allied forces. The British felt that with the help of the Royal Forces, they could outdo the Germany sea forces. They believed that after closing all the sea routes, Germany forces could not get military supply from the main land. The allied forces went to Crete because they wanted to prevent the use of the island by Germans as a springboard for their operations further towards the Mediterranean East Basin.