Phoney War

British Ministry of Home Security Poster of a type that was common during the "Phoney War"

The Phoney War, also called the Twilight War by Winston Churchill and Sitzkrieg by Germany (German for "sitting war"), was a phase in early World War II from September 1939 until May 1940 marked by few military operations in Continental Europe, in the months following the German invasion of Poland and preceding the Battle of France. The great powers of Europe had declared war on one another, yet neither side had committed to launching a significant attack, and there was relatively little fighting on the ground.

While most of the German army was fighting against Poland, a much smaller German force manned the Siegfried Line, their fortified defensive line along the French border. At the Maginot Line on the other side of the border, British and French troops stood facing them, but there were only some local, minor 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 large amounts of weapons from manufacturers in the US at the outbreak of hostilities, supplementing their own productions. The non-belligerent United States contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales, and, later, lend-lease of military equipment and supplies. It should be noted that in the 1930s, in a much smaller scale, private companies in Britain and the US were also supplying Germany, without government sanction. Engines of a few German fighters were made in Britain, and American raw materials were being sold to Germany. German efforts to interdict the Allies' trans-Atlantic trade at sea ignited the Second Battle of the Atlantic.

Other designations

The Phoney War was also called "Funny War"; Winston Churchill called it the "Twilight War". The term has equivalents in many other languages, notably the German Sitzkrieg ("sitting war," a play on Blitzkrieg) or komischer Krieg ("funny war" or "strange war", komisch having two meanings), the French drôle de guerre ("strange war," drôle which can also mean "funny" stands for "strange" when used like this), the Italian guerra fittizia and finta guerra (respectively "fictitious war" and "false 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").

Saar offensive

Main article: Saar Offensive

In September 1939, in a purely political move, French soldiers penetrated 3 miles into the Saar before withdrawing. At this time, France had deployed 98 divisions and 2,500 tanks against German forces consisting of 43 divisions and no tanks.

Winter War

Main article: Winter War

A notable event during the Phoney War was the Winter War, which started with the Soviet Union's assault on Finland on 30 November 1939. Public opinion, particularly in France and Britain, found it easy to side with democratic Finland, and demanded from their governments effective action in support of "the brave Finns" against their 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 Norwegian campaign, instead. On 20 March, after the Winter War had ended, Édouard Daladier resigned as Prime Minister in France, due to his failure to aid Finland's defence.

German invasion of Denmark and Norway

Main article: Norwegian Campaign

The open discussions on an Allied expedition to northern Scandinavia, also without consent of the neutral Scandinavian countries, and the Altmark incident on 16 February, alarmed the Kriegsmarine and Germany, by threatening iron ore supplies, and gave strong arguments for a German securing of the Norwegian coast. Codenamed Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway commenced on 9 April. On 12–15 April Allied troops were landed in Norway, but within two weeks most of Norway was in German hands and the Allied troops were evacuated from Northern Norway.

Change 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 himself. On 10 May 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 Phoney War was over.

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

• In October 1939 the British battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk in Scapa Flow, Orkney (north of Scotland) by the German U-boat U-47.
• Luftwaffe air raids on Britain began on 16 October 1939 when Junkers Ju 88s attacked British warships at Rosyth on the Firth of Forth. Spitfires of No. 602 and No. 603 Squadrons succeeded in shooting down two Ju 88s and a Heinkel He 111 over the firth. In a raid on Scapa Flow the next day, one Ju 88 was downed by anti-aircraft fire, crashing on the island of Hoy. The first Luftwaffe plane to be shot down on the British mainland was a He 111 at Haddington, East Lothian, on 29 November, with both 602 and 603 Squadrons claiming this victory.
• In December 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 was captured by the Royal Navy in February 1940 in southern Norway (see: Battles of Narvik, Altmark Incident).

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 "Pamphlet raids" or "Confetti War" in the British press.

See also

• Western betrayal

Further reading

• Halford Mackinder's Necessary War An essay describing the political strategy behind the Phoney War