Sitzkrieg: World War II s Strange Beginning in Western Europe
The lull in the fighting on the Western Front in 1940 came to be known as the Phony War.
Here s What You Need to Know: World War II got off to a slow start in Western Europe.
Within hours of the entry of Great Britain and France into World War II on September 3, 1939, the British liner SS
Athenia was sunk by a German U-boat off the northwestern coast of Ireland, with the loss of 112 dead, including 28 American citizens.
The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS
Courageous was torpedoed by a U-boat off the southwestern English coast on September 17 with the loss of 515 lives; the venerable, 29,150-ton battleship HMS