World War Briefing
Based on a series of short talks by the author for a local group for descendants of US veterans, intended to provide a basic overview of the conflict.
Operation Barbarossa
Part Three: The War
The war witnesses its most dramatic escalation to date as the Axis launch the largest invasion in history, with over three million men and thousands of tanks and aircraft invading the Soviet Union along a front stretching almost 2,000 miles. In addition, this was to be a war of annihilation, with the Germans in particular focused on the extermination of both communism and the peoples of the USSR.
The Battle of France
Part Three: The War
The massive German offensive in the West commences with a simultaneous invasion of Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. As the Germans penetrate into France, the Allied forces quickly are overwhelmed, and France falls in June in one of the most stunning events of the war.