Maybe Chamberlain was not enough of a coward?


  • In “Mein Kamph” Hitler wrote that he wanted ‘living space’.  The first living space he went after were territories taken from Germany in the first world war, and all of his agression was to the east of Germany (other than the Ruhr).  He never looked at Alsace/Loraine (sp) as an objective because to make a play for that would obviously mean a war with France, which he did not want.

    This is a big “what if” here, but a great mind teaser.

    What if Chamberlain said “bah, who needs the Polish - not worth fighting a war over”.  What would have happened next?  There may not have been peace in Europe’s time, but there could very well have been peace for England and France’s time (not to mention America).  Hitler saw Germany’s ‘living space’ coming at the expense of Soviets.  Had Chamberlain backed down I doubt Hitler would have started a war with France and England, when his desired living space was to the east.  The Franco/Prussian war was fought over Alsace/Loraine, it was never brought up by Hitler.

    Germany and the U.S.S.R. slugging it out on there own is a good thing.  It is like having 2 super villains duke it out.  Or, like an admiral in the British Navy said once he heard Germany had attacked the Soviet Union, “it is a pity that they both can’t lose”.

    In the mean time as these abominations kill each other in war, the west watches and builds strength.

  • '17 '16 '15

    I think stalin had the same hope, obviously from a different standpoint :)


  • @Zooey72:

    Had Chamberlain backed down I doubt Hitler would have started a war with France and England, when his desired living space was to the east.  The Franco/Prussian war was fought over Alsace/Loraine, it was never brought up by Hitler.

    I have no doubt that Hitler would have attacked France sooner or later.  Hitler wasn’t motivated by the Franco-Prussian War or by Alsace-Lorraine; the score he wanted to settle with France was Germany’s defeat in WWI (which Hitler took very personally, regarding it not only as a calamitous event in German history but in his own life as well) and the subsequent imposition of the Versailles Treaty.


  • I think Hitler deseired a one front war.  I agree that eventualy he would have demanded the return of Alsace-Loraine from the French, but I doubt he would have had to fight a war over it if the USSR had been wiped out.  Had Hitler taken out the eastern front he could have told France “give it to me ‘or else’”.

    I know people here know there history, but most people do not understand that just because Hitler orchestrated the Holocaust and has the biggest imprint on history as being evil… he did not kill the most people in camps.  Stalin killed a lot more, including more jews.  The idea of both of these savages killing each other off instead of any of the rest of society having to deal with it is attractive.  It is horrible that all of these people had to die, but that doesn’t mean we have to die.

    Not being political (because I have no urge to get into the details or debate this), but who here would care if ISIS and Iran started butchering each other?  Ya, it would be great if there was world peace, but if there is going to be barbarism I would rather it be between 2 savages than having any of the rest of us shed blood.


  • @Zooey72:

    I think Hitler deseired a one front war.Â

    He certainly did (having said in Mein Kampf that fighting a two-front war was the gravest of military blunders) – and that was exactly the whole point of the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact: to secure his far-eastern flank (meaning Russia) while he took care of a) Poland and then b) France.  Hitler was able to fight a one-front war against Poland because the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact meant he didn’t have to worry about getting into a war with the USSR in the East, and because the French and British launched no offensives in the West.  Then, he was able to fight another one-front war against France and the Low Countries because the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact remained operative, thus continuing to secure his eastern flank.  Hitler managed to conquer France and the Low Countries in this way in about six weeks.  He then fought a one-front aerial war against Britain, which failed.  Blocked from victory against Britain, he then turned his sights on the USSR, which as you point out had always been on his list of objectives.  His generals apparently quoted to him his own line from Mein Kampf, but Hitler argued that Britain, although not defeated, was not an immediate threat against continental Europe, and thus that the Russian campaign of 1941 would still qualify as a one-front war, provided that it was won quickly.  Unfortunately for Hitler’s rationalization of why he ignored his own advice in his own book, the Russian campaign did not turn out to be the quick knock-out blow he had hoped.


  • I am aware of the history of that, but what my point is, is the war and land Hitler desired was in the east.  He believed (and had every reason to) that his attack on Poland would not lead to war with England and France.  This was not his first land grab.  Securing the treaty with Stalin was a ‘just in case’ kind of thing.  My argument is that had England and France let Germany have Poland Hitler’s next target would have been Russia.  You could argue it would leave his western front exposed if the French decided to attack, but in all likelyhood if the French and English did not come to the aid of Poles and Chec’s they certainly would not go to war for the USSR.  The best case scenerio would be for Germany to have attacked Russia, beaten them almost to death, than France and England attack Germany from the west and for the allies to keep pushing east until they take Moscow.  That way the 2 biggest evils of the 20th century anhilate each other with a min. cost to us non savages.


  • My argument is that had England and France let Germany have Poland Hitler’s next target would have been Russia.

    No you’re wrong, the next Hitler target was France not Russia.
    For Hitler….‘’ France was the worst enemy of Germany’'.
    Plane for the invasion of France was on the table just after the surrender of Poland.

    AL


  • @Zooey72:

    I am aware of the history of that, but what my point is, is the war and land Hitler desired was in the east.  He believed (and had every reason to) that his attack on Poland would not lead to war with England and France.  This was not his first land grab.  Securing the treaty with Stalin was a ‘just in case’ kind of thing.  My argument is that had England and France let Germany have Poland Hitler’s next target would have been Russia.  You could argue it would leave his western front exposed if the French decided to attack, but in all likelyhood if the French and English did not come to the aid of Poles and Chec’s they certainly would not go to war for the USSR.  The best case scenerio would be for Germany to have attacked Russia, beaten them almost to death, than France and England attack Germany from the west and for the allies to keep pushing east until they take Moscow.  That way the 2 biggest evils of the 20th century anhilate each other with a min. cost to us non savages.

    You are 100% correct: the war Hitler wanted was in the east. He did not want war in the west. He saw no potential benefit to war in the west.

    In 1939, Franco-British military spending exceeded Germany’s. You may also recall the fact that in 1939, France had promised Poland that if Germany were to go to war against Poland, France would almost immediately launch a general offensive against Germany. While Hitler wasn’t privy to the secret negotiations between Britain, France, and Poland, it was becoming increasingly obvious that after Munich, Chamberlain and Daladier had resolved to go to war against Germany. The false promises they’d made to Poland about a mythical French general offensive were intended to create the diplomatic situation necessary for the war they wanted.

    The Western democratic politicians were also very open to the idea of sitting down at the table with the Soviet Union, and carving up Europe between them. However, Stalin rejected their proposals. He regarded both Nazi Germany and the Western democracies as equally enemies. His objective was to foster war between Germany and the West. A war which would bleed both sides white. Only after that had been accomplished would he launch his invasion of Europe. Accordingly, he ordered communist parties in Western democracies to promote “anti-fascism.” The democracies’ “anti-fascist” foreign policies would–it was hoped–cause the democracies to go to war against Germany, while the Soviet Union stayed neutral.

    Hitler was well aware that the Soviet Union was not ready for war in '39 or '40. He also regarded war with the Soviet Union as inevitable. For him, the war with the Western democracies was an unwanted distraction. Every year of delay would make victory over the Soviet Union less certain. From his perspective, the Nazi-Soviet Pact would allow him to secure his western front, thereby allowing him to focus his military efforts on the east.

    but in all likelyhood if the French and English did not come to the aid of Poles and Chec’s they certainly would not go to war for the USSR.

    This is far from certain. Communist influence in France was far stronger than Polish influence. One of my friends is from France. He informed me that up until Germany went to war against the Soviet Union, there was no French resistance. The French people–or at least a significant subset thereof–were more interested in fighting for communism than for their own country.

    That way the 2 biggest evils of the 20th century anhilate each other with a min. cost to us non savages.

    The Soviets were far, far crueler than the Nazis. Prior to the war, the Nazi German government was guilty of a few thousand murders, the vast majority of which were committed by people acting without orders. In contrast, the Soviet government murdered about 20 million people before the war began. Bearing that in mind, I’d like to alter your best-case scenario for the moment; with the United States invading the Soviet Union from the east–from its Pacific coast.


  • The Soviets were far, far crueler than the Nazis. Prior to the war, the Nazi German government was guilty of a few thousand murders, the vast majority of which were committed by people acting without orders. In contrast, the Soviet government murdered about 20 million people before the war began. Bearing that in mind, I’d like to alter your best-case scenario for the moment; with the United States invading the Soviet Union from the east–from its Pacific coast.

    Why do you have to write this in EVERY POST.

    Example: Is Charmin the best toilet paper?

    Standard answer by you: It is not the best toilet paper and The Soviets were far, far crueler than the Nazis. Prior to the war, the Nazi German government was guilty of a few thousand murders, the vast majority of which were committed by people acting without orders. In contrast, the Soviet government murdered about 20 million people before the war began.

    Latter you go into somehow making what the Nazi’s did against Jews not as bad as the Allies who blockaded Germany/fire bombed and other ridiculous ideas.

    Just stick to the thread and stay on topic.


  • testy testy

    He is right though, and most people don’t know that.  I think most people believe that Stalin was bad, but not nearly as bad as Hitler, and that justifies us allying with him.  Roosevelt pushed the whole “Uncle Joe” propaganda thing on the American people.  Stalin was a bigger monster than Hitler, but he was our monster so as to not make us look bad (for allying with a monster) it wasn’t generaly known how bad Stalin was.

    Just because of that I think it is worth mentioning.  Anyone who was to look at my original post and not know the real history could think I am some kind of Nazi sympathizer because I made the argument “what if we let Germany get away with it”.  The Poles were destined to have what happened to them happen whether England and France declared war or not.  But not declaring war on Germany could have saved a lot of lives for the western democracies. Ultimately France, England, and the U.S. would need to defeat whoever won the Russian/German war, but that would have been much easier after those 2 anhilated each other and having years to stockpile weapons while still holding on to France to launch an offensive against Germany or Russia.


  • Stalin’s crimes have nothing to do with what Chamberlain did or failed to do. Look at his posts, 90% go into this tangent regardless of topic. Then he tries hilariously to defend it.


  • @KurtGodel7:

    Communist influence in France was far stronger than Polish influence. One of my friends is from France. He informed me that up until Germany went to war against the Soviet Union, there was no French resistance. The French people–or at least a significant subset thereof–were more interested in fighting for communism than for their own country.

    I’m puzzled by the claim that there was no French resistance before June 1941.  The Free French movement got started the day after France capitulated, when De Gaulle made his famous BBC address of June 18, 1940.  The resistance in France took time to build up and get organized, as I think was the case in every occupied country, but that doesn’t mean the same thing as non-existence.  Note also that resistance movements in occupied Europe (including France) got a lot of help in the later stages of the war from British and American organizations like the SOE and the OSS.  Those organizations themselves had to be built up before they reached full effectiveness.

    As for the communism thing: it’s true that the left was very powerful in France in the 1930s, but one mustn’t forget that the right was pretty powerful too.  During the Third Republic as a whole, there was strong conservatism in important sectors of French society: wealthy private individuals, the Army, the Church, and sizable portions of the political elite.  (The Dreyfus Affair was a notorious turn-of-the-century example of how nasty and reactionary this political establishment could get.)  In the run-up to WWII, some of the conservative elements of French society (what one individual from the time described as “the possessing classes”) were actually more worried about their own domestic communists than about Hitler.  I’d also point out that the Vichy regime established by Petain fitted precisely with the model of French society that he and other French establishment figures favoured: authoritarian, elitist, conservative and religious.  Hardly the stuff of socialism or communism.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    Hey guys - is this the thread where I can get the communist toilet paper which is less crueler to my a5s?

  • '17

    @Gargantua:

    Hey guys - is this the thread where I can get the communist toilet paper which is less crueler to my a5s?

    Most Soviets used Pravda rather than actual toilet paper  :lol:


  • @Zooey72:

    testy testy

    He is right though, and most people don’t know that.  I think most people believe that Stalin was bad, but not nearly as bad as Hitler, and that justifies us allying with him.  Roosevelt pushed the whole “Uncle Joe” propaganda thing on the American people.  Stalin was a bigger monster than Hitler, but he was our monster so as to not make us look bad (for allying with a monster) it wasn’t generaly known how bad Stalin was.

    Just because of that I think it is worth mentioning.  Anyone who was to look at my original post and not know the real history could think I am some kind of Nazi sympathizer because I made the argument “what if we let Germany get away with it”.  The Poles were destined to have what happened to them happen whether England and France declared war or not.  But not declaring war on Germany could have saved a lot of lives for the western democracies. Ultimately France, England, and the U.S. would need to defeat whoever won the Russian/German war, but that would have been much easier after those 2 anhilated each other and having years to stockpile weapons while still holding on to France to launch an offensive against Germany or Russia.

    I think most people believe that Stalin was bad, but not nearly as bad as Hitler

    You are correct: that illusion is widespread.

    Stalin was a bigger monster than Hitler, but he was our monster so as to not make us look bad

    That was one of the reasons FDR indulged in the “Uncle Joe” propaganda you described. I think the larger reason is that he genuinely liked Stalin. As best I can tell, FDR felt no moral outrage over Soviet mass murder. It was something to be hushed up, because the American people wouldn’t share his own perspective.

    The Poles were destined to have what happened to them happen whether England and France declared war or not.

    I agree with most of your post. But I don’t agree with the above statement. Had Poland’s leaders not been duped by lying French politicians, they would have had a far more realistic view of their options. Poland had the option of retaining its freedom. Back in '38, Hitler had given the Polish a piece of Czechoslovakia, as his way of signaling friendly intentions toward Poland. He’d maintained friendly relations with other Eastern European nations, such as Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. There was no intrinsic reason why Poland couldn’t have been added to that list. Had the Western democracies not inserted themselves into the situation, Germany and Poland could have formed an alliance in 1939, followed by the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1940.

    Ultimately France, England, and the U.S. would need to defeat whoever
    won the Russian/German war, but that would have been much easier after those 2 annihilated each other

    It’s not absolutely clear war was necessary. Imagine this scenario. Germany conquers all the Soviet Union west of the Urals, then makes peace with Stalin. (As described in Mein Kampf.) After that peace treaty is signed, there is a three-way cold war for a number of decades. During those decades, the original (and most fanatical) members of the original Nazi and Soviet communist movements die off. Both governments gradually become more moderate. The remaining Soviet rump state eventually collapses, under a Gorbachev-like dictator. The Nazi German government might not have experienced a similar collapse. But it almost certainly would have grown more moderate and less brutal as the original Nazis died off, and as the memories of world wars and the Versailles Treaty faded.


  • @CWO:

    I’m puzzled by the claim that there was no French resistance before June 1941.  The Free French movement got started the day after France capitulated, when De Gaulle made his famous BBC address of June 18, 1940.  The resistance in France took time to build up and get organized, as I think was the case in every occupied country, but that doesn’t mean the same thing as non-existence.  Note also that resistance movements in occupied Europe (including France) got a lot of help in the later stages of the war from British and American organizations like the SOE and the OSS.  Those organizations themselves had to be built up before they reached full effectiveness.

    As for the communism thing: it’s true that the left was very powerful in France in the 1930s, but one mustn’t forget that the right was pretty powerful too.  During the Third Republic as a whole, there was strong conservatism in important sectors of French society: wealthy private individuals, the Army, the Church, and sizable portions of the political elite.  (The Dreyfus Affair was a notorious turn-of-the-century example of how nasty and reactionary this political establishment could get.)  In the run-up to WWII, some of the conservative elements of French society (what one individual from the time described as “the possessing classes”) were actually more worried about their own domestic communists than about Hitler.  I’d also point out that the Vichy regime established by Petain fitted precisely with the model of French society that he and other French establishment figures favoured: authoritarian, elitist, conservative and religious.  Hardly the stuff of socialism or communism.

    In the run-up to WWII, some of the conservative elements of French society . . . were
    actually more worried about their own domestic communists than about Hitler.

    Long before WWII, the French government had adopted immigration policies which allowed large numbers of non-French, non-white immigrants (primarily from French colonies) to move to France. Hitler, on the other hand, had no plans to resettle France with non-French. Normally, having your nation invaded by a foreign army makes you more likely to have your people replaced. In this case, France’s defeat made resettlement less likely. A fact which may help explain the absence of anti-Hitler resistance from the right. The (temporary) absence of anti-Hitler resistance from the left may have been explained by the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

    The resistance in France took time to build up and get organized, as I think
    was the case in every occupied country, but that doesn’t mean the same thing as non-existence.

    A fair point. On the other hand, my friend from France made it seem as though the French people weren’t that interested in resisting Hitler. (At least not until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.) In addition to the reasons described above, it’s worth bearing in mind that the German occupation was, at least initially, very mild. Far milder than the French had been toward Germany in the aftermath of WWI. The French were pleasantly surprised by the mildness of the German occupation. It’s quite possible many concluded it was best not to provoke the German government into adopting a harsher position.

    I’d also point out that the Vichy regime established by Petain fitted precisely
    with the model of French society that he and other French establishment figures favored:

    This is true. It’s possible French society had been polarized between right and left. The left, of course, was actively pro-Soviet. While the right was not (for the most part) pro-Nazi, it was at least more comfortable working with the Nazis than it was with communists.


  • Still way off topic


  • A fair point. On the other hand, my friend from France made it seem as though the French people weren’t that interested in resisting Hitler.

    I’m afraid that you’re friend from France don’t know a lot of things about France situation during WWII.
    (Or it’s simply his own point of view)….

    AL.


  • Gar, the only toilet paper the Russians ever used to this day is American money and The New York Times.


  • Russians hoard US dollars.

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