alternatehistory.com

Americans love the underdog, and there will never be a shortage of victorious Sea Lion, Barbarossa, CSA, Kaiser Wilhelm, etc. proposals. If Americans were historically literate, we'd be obsessed with the Jacobite victory at Culloden, Godwin's victory at Hastings/defeat at Stamford Bridge, French troops in Berlin in 1871, French victory at Trafalgar, the Persian victory at Arbela, etc. etc.

But here is a rarely considered possibility:

In 1939, France and Britain declared war on Poland, Sitzkrieg, yadayadayada. What if they'd actually taken action? I think France made some kind of token foray into the Rhineland, but not with any force. What if they'd made a real effort, instead of sticking their thumb in their bum and hoping Poland would occupy Hitler for a few years? France was well armed, although they were really prepared for defensive war. Both Britain and France did about the least imaginable.

Did they really think that Stalin and Hitler were BFF? I.e., were they on crack? Could they have done better?
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