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Tryglaw

Well-known member
Actually, Munich could have been Chamberlin setting things up so France and England could rearm to fight Germany. In 1938 were France and England ready for a land war with the Reich?

Germany was very much not ready for a full scale war in '38, if Western Allies had the will the matter could have been settled there and then. Poland + Czechoslovakia + France + England, would have seen Hitler coup'ed and removed from power.
 
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It’s important to remember Hitler was gambling his way a lot early on. The German victory in France was shocking to Hitler and the German High Command. They did not expect it would be that fast at all.

Many of the old Prussian brass were not entirely onboard with Hitler and would have likely deposed him if things had gone belly up, it was only after the fall of France that Hitler was the German Napoleon whose thousand year Reich seemed a bit more than rhetoric.

Hitler actually made a lot of smart calls in the early years, strategic decisions that worked, and gambles that payed off. Often over the objections of his staff. Which served to secure the trust and loyalty of the military, which was a lot more conservative and cautious than Hitler was.

As for the French, their doctrine was terrible and leadership set in its ways. It had lost a generation of men and didn’t want to lose another in western front 2.0.

I suspect if the phony war had actually been a real war-the French even invaded Germany(in real life-briefly in a half hearted comical affair). Hitler would likely have backed off and been satisfied with what he got in the east. That is if the Prussian brass didn’t depose him.

That didn’t happen due to a lot of complex factors like the aforementioned French problems.

It’s also important to note the western allies did not want war. They had experienced one only a generation prior. The French weren’t too keen on dying en masse again. Neither were the British. That extreme reluctance explains a lot of allied decision making and action(or lack thereof) in the late thirties and 1940.
 
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Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
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Much like their promises to not attack Health Care providers during the Wuflu pandemic... These symbolic donations by Ransomware gangs won't lead to anythimg, including money actually going to these charities.
 

ATP

Well-known member
Actually, Munich could have been Chamberlin setting things up so France and England could rearm to fight Germany. In 1938 were France and England ready for a land war with the Reich?

Yes,becouse german army was not ready for war at all.Their armored dyvisions not fight anybody,but still was stopped by technical problems.And they had ammo and fuel only for few weeks.

About Poland and Hitler contact - i just reading "Taniec z Hitlerem"/my translation - dance with Hitler/ by Radosław Golec - and apparently from 1933 to 1939 Hitler try made alliance with Poland against soviets.We refused,becouse both Piłsudzki and his successors belived that we should balancing between soviets and Germany.
Good tactic,if we were superpower,but not with we really had.

Only logical approach was:
1.Surrender to Stalin - since he genocided his own people,it means genocide for us,too.
2.Surrender to Hitler - either become his puppet-state, or get bombed to the ground if USA joined war.
3.Help Czech in 1938,or attack Germany in 1936 alone.

I would prefer option 3,but our country had no one leader - Rydz-Śmigły,Mościcki and Beck was fighting over power - so it was impossible.If Piłsudzli leave successor when he was still in good conditions,it could worked,alas,he do not did so.

P.S Hitler asked by his generals in 1936 what to do if France send even one dyvision to Rhineland,answered that he would schoot himself and they could do whatewer they wont.
Sending one polish corps would have the same effect - unfortunatelly,we were dictatorship without one dictator.
 

Typhonis

Well-known member
The question, though, is did France and Britain know this at the time? Or did Hitler manage to pull the wool over their eyes and make them think the German Army was stronger than it actually was? In all warfare there is deception. To quote Sun Tzu. Was there a way for the allies to ascertain it was a paper tiger without throwing their men into a new WW1 style grinder?
 

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