DBWI What if no Czech war

As we know there were those both in the Conservative Party and in Labour who opposed the Lloyd George government to support France’s ally in 1938.

Of course the war looks like a victory. As we know Nazi Germany was defeated by the combination of the British Blockade, initial Czech resistance and then by the Polish intervention with Czech munitions.

We know that a Hitler emerged from Versailles. There has now been decades of resentment to the still harsher Peace. Yes Aeschylus was permitted. Many people regard the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emporship of a united Germany and Austria as being almost a puppet of France.

Nor should we forget that the War distracted the West when Stalin took Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia and nearly Finland.

Perhaps the now mighty Poland is an important bulwark against the USSR, especially with its close now close to links Czechoslovakia.


Some said the war was for Democracy. Well yes Czechoslovakia kind of qualifies- though it was as enthusiastic as Poland was in its newly acquired territories of East Prussia and Danzig (sorry Gdansk) about expelling any ethnic Germans who did not show total loyalty.


What if there had been no such war? I have heard it claimed that Hitler could have threatened all Europe, but surely that is crazy.

Is it desirable that Italy be so powerful in the Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa, especially when allied to their fellow Fascists in Spain?


Might the Japanese have attacked European as well as US colonies had there been, as some have suggested, a later bloodier war in Europe?
 
As we know there were those both in the Conservative Party and in Labour who opposed the Lloyd George government to support France’s ally in 1938.

Of course the war looks like a victory. As we know Nazi Germany was defeated by the combination of the British Blockade, initial Czech resistance and then by the Polish intervention with Czech munitions.

Kinda forgetting about the French thrust into the Rhinelands, aren't we? :rolleyes:

We know that a Hitler emerged from Versailles. There has now been decades of resentment to the still harsher Peace. Yes Aeschylus was permitted. Many people regard the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emporship of a united Germany and Austria as being almost a puppet of France.

'Anschluss.' And in a world of atomic weapons, German resentment can lead to what? Germans may be resentful, but they're not suicidal.

Nor should we forget that the War distracted the West when Stalin took Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia and nearly Finland.

The Soviets have never expanded beyond traditional Russian borders. In any event, do you think France or the UK would have mustered the effort to stop them from grabbing the Baltics in the absence of a war?

Perhaps the now mighty Poland is an important bulwark against the USSR, especially with its close now close to links Czechoslovakia.

Bulwark, shmulwark. Nuclear weapons: that's what keeps the Soviets out. Not the Polish army, which hasn't been in a serious fight in decades.

What if there had been no such war? I have heard it claimed that Hitler could have threatened all Europe, but surely that is crazy.

Well, say Hitler takes over the Sudetenland and neutralizes rump Bohemia: then border rectification with Poland would be next on the agenda, and would the British fight for the Polish junta when they hadn't fought for the Czechs? In the end it might be France and the UK alone against Germany and perhaps Italy, which would be rather more even odds: who in Eastern Europe would trust the Allies not to sell them out at that point?

(Some say Hitler would have gone no further. Hokum. It's pretty clear from all evidence that he was trying for German supremacy in Europe, and a showdown with France would have been inevitable in the long run).

Is it desirable that Italy be so powerful in the Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa, especially when allied to their fellow Fascists in Spain?

It's not desireable, but how would not fighting Hitler have prevented it? :confused:


Might the Japanese have attacked European as well as US colonies had there been, as some have suggested, a later bloodier war in Europe?

Well, they were insane enough to stumble into war with the US over their aid for the Chinese republic and military buildup in the Phillipines (were all Japanese junior officers on crack at the time?): they might as well have made enemies of the European powers as well, if they were tied up in a fight in Europe. After all, there's all that yummy oil in Indonesia...

Bruce
 
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