ABSTRACT
Feverish diplomatic activity and British and French military preparations against Germany forced him to settle for the minimal demand of occupation of the Sudeten region; but Adolf Hitler occupied Bohemia and Moravia on 15 March 1939, and Slovakia became a client state. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September, and Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada followed. A German submarine offensive against Britain inflicted serious losses, but on the whole it was frustrated by the British fleet and by American naval support. German-Italian efforts to dominate the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa were similarly unsuccessful. German advance units reached the outskirts of Moscow, but by December 1941 the German invasion had collapsed in early rains, snow and frost. The transition had to be achieved during the most ferociously fought war the world had known, with Germany vastly outnumbered and fighting off dangerous enemies on all sides.
