What was the Phony war during world war 2?

Answer 1

The period in WWII between Germany's Invasion of Poland and their invasion of France. It was so named because there was a war, but almost nothing was happening.

AnswerWar was declared (by Britain on Germany) on Sept. 3, 1939. Immediately, the air raid sirens sounded. It was a false alarm. For the next six months, nothing happened. Britain and France had declared war to support Poland, but the only way to Poland was through Germany. Until the Nazis had finished with Poland and attacked France, there was a frustrating period during which the countries were at war, but not actually fighting. This was the Phoney War.

Answer

It was the War which Germany caused when they conquered Poland. This then resulted in the two countries, France and Britain to wait for Hitler's next attack, because they were on Poland's side.

Answer 2

Between September 1939 and May 1940 - it was the period after the British declaration of war on Germany and before the German invasion of the Low Countries and France.

Although fighting did occur (Norway, for example) it was characterised by the lack of significant land offensives in the expected theatre.

Answer 3

The Phoney War was a phase early in World War II-in the months following Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany (shortly after the German invasion of Poland) in September 1939 and preceding the Battle of France in May 1940-that was marked by a lack of major military operations by the Western Allies against the German Reich. War was declared by each side, but no Western power had committed to launching a significant land offensive, notwithstanding the terms of the Anglo-Polish military alliance and the Franco-Polish military alliance, which obliged the United Kingdom and France to assist Poland.

Contemporaneously, the period had also been referred to as the Twilight War (by Winston Churchill), der Sitzkrieg ("the sitting war": a play on Blitzkrieg), the Bore War (a play on the Boer War), dziwna wojna ("strange war"), and drôle de guerre ("strange/funny war").

The term "Phoney War" was possibly coined by U.S. Senator William Borah who stated, in September 1939: "There is something phoney about this war."

While most of the German army was engaged in 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 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 U.S. at the outbreak of hostilities, supplementing their own productions. The non-belligerent U.S. contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales, and, later, lend-lease of military equipment and supplies.

Despite the relative calm on land, on the high seas the war was very real indeed. Within a few hours of the declaration of war, the British liner SS Athenia was torpedoed off the Hebrides with the loss of 112 lives in what was to be the beginning of the long running Battle of the Atlantic. On 4 September, the Allies announced a blockade of Germany to prevent her importing food and raw materials to sustain her war effort, and the Germans immediately declared a counter-blockade.