Phony War

The Phony War (the Phoney War, in Britain), or in Winston Churchill's words the Twilight War, was a phase in early World War II marked by few military operations in Continental Europe, in the months following the German invasion of Poland. Although the great powers of Europe had declared war on one another, neither side had yet committed to launching a significant attack, thus there was relatively little fighting on the ground. The term has cognates in many other languages, notably the German Sitzkrieg ("sitting war," a pun on Blitzkrieg), the French drôle de guerre ("funny war" or "strange war") and the Polish dziwna wojna ("strange war"). In Britain the period was even referred to as the "Bore War" (a pun on "Boer War").

While most of the German army was fighting against Poland, a much smaller German force manned the fortified defensive lines along the French border (Westwall). At the Maginot Line on the other side of the border, British and French troops stood facing them, but there were only some local skirmishes. The British Royal Air Force dropped propaganda leaflets on Germany and the first Canadian troops stepped ashore in Britain, while western Europe was in a strange calm for seven months. Meanwhile, the opposing nations clashed in the Norwegian Campaign. In their hurry to re-arm, Britain and France had both begun buying weapons from manufacturers in the USA at the outbreak of hostilities, supplementing their own productions. The United States, technically neutral in the war effort, contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales, and, later, lend-lease, of military equipment and supplies. It should be noted in the 1930s that Britain and the US were also supplying Germany - engines of a few German fighters were made in Britain and raw materials were being sold in America to Germany. German efforts to interdict the Allies' trans-Atlantic trade at sea ignited the Second Battle of the Atlantic.

Winter War

A notable event during the Phony War was the Winter War, which started with the Soviet Union's assault on Finland on November 30, 1939. Public opinion, particularly in France and Britain, found it easy to side emotionally with democratic Finland, and demanded from their governments effective actions in support of "the brave Finns" against the incomparably larger aggressor, the Soviet Union, particularly since the Finns' defence seemed so much more successful than that of the Poles during the September Campaign. As a consequence, the Soviet Union was excluded from the League of Nations, and a proposed Franco-British expedition to northern Scandinavia was much debated. British forces that began to be assembled to send to Finland's aid were not dispatched before the Winter War ended, and were sent to Norway's aid in the Battle of Norway, instead. On March 20, after the Winter War had ended, Édouard Daladier resigned as Prime Minister in France, due to his failure to aid Finland's defense.

German invasion of Denmark and Norway

The open discussions on an Allied expedition to northern Scandinavia, also without consent of the neutral Scandinavian countries, and the Altmark incident on February 16, when (in the Germans' view) the British Royal Navy demonstrated grave disrespect for Norway's neutrality, alarmed the Kriegsmarine and gave strong arguments for a German securing of the Norwegian coast, codenamed Weserübung. The German occupation of Denmark and Norway commenced on April 9. The Royal Navy was nearby and on April 10 the First Battle of Narvik resulted in the sinking of two German and two British destroyers. On April 15–16 Allied troops were landed in Norway, but within two weeks most of Norway was in German hands and the Allied troops were evacuated from southern Norway.

Fall of British government

Main article: Norway Debate

The debacle of the Allied campaign in Norway, which actually was an offspring of the never-realised plans to aid Finland, forced a famous debate in the House of Commons during which the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was under constant attack. A nominal vote of confidence in his government was won by 281 to 200, but many of Chamberlain's supporters had voted against him whilst others had abstained. The humiliated Chamberlain found it impossible to continue to lead a National Government or to form a government of national unity (in Britain often called a "coalition government", to distinguish it from Chamberlain's existing national government) around him. On May 10 Chamberlain resigned the premiership whilst retaining the leadership of the Conservative Party. The King, George VI, appointed Winston Churchill, who had been a consistent opponent of Chamberlain's policy of appeasement, as his successor and Churchill formed a new coalition government that included members of the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Party as well as several ministers from a non-political background.

Later that day, German troops marched into Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. It was the 10th of May, 1940, a short eight months after Britain and France had declared war on Germany. The Phony War was over.

Other military events during the Phony War

Most other major actions during the Phony War were at sea, including the Second Battle of the Atlantic fought throughout the Phony War. Other notable events among these were the following:

In October 1939 the obsolete British battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk in Scapa Flow, Orkney (north of Scotland) by the German U-boat U-47.
In November 1939, the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was attacked by the Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles in the Battle of the River Plate. The Admiral Graf Spee fled to Montevideo harbour to perform repairs on damage sustained during the battle. She was later scuttled rather than face a large British fleet the Kriegsmarine falsely believed was awaiting her departure. The support vessel for the Admiral Graf Spee, the tanker Altmark, tried to return to Germany by going around the north of Great Britain and then along the Norwegian coast.
In February 1940, the Altmark was boarded by the British destroyer HMS Cossack, in Jøssingfjord, Norway. Some 300 British merchantmen captured during the Admiral Graf Spee's campaign and interned in the Altmark were freed.
On April 10, 1940, the mining of Norwegian fjords by British warships, intended to block Swedish iron ore shipments to Germany, followed by two months of battle around the harbour of Narvik in northern Norway (see: Battles of Narvik).

The warring air forces also showed some activity in that period, running reconnaissance flights and several minor bombing raids during this period. The Royal Air Force also conducted a large number of combined reconnaissance and propaganda leaflet flights over Germany. These leaflet flights were jokingly termed "Bomphlet raids" or "Confetti War" in the British press.

External links

Halford Mackinder's Necessary War An essay describing the political strategy behind the phony war

World War II Western European Theatre | World War II politics

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Phony War

Winter War

German invasion of Denmark and Norway

Fall of British government

Other military events during the Phony War

See also

External links