Operation Himmler was a series of false flag operations enacted just prior to the invasion of Poland that were supposed to make it look like Poland struck first so that any German military actions against Poland could be called "self defense".
It failed to convince anyone on the international stage, with apparently only German citizens buying into it. Hitler himself didn't care how credible the casus belli was, just that he had one.
Germans invade Poland, Allies declare war on Germany . . . You know the rest.
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What I will ask is simple. What if the operation succeeded? What if these false flag operations had been enough to make the world believe that the Poles attacked first, and in doing so made the Allies nervous enough to hang Poland out to dry. (I'm assuming guarantees made to Poland would be null and void if the Allies thought the Poles started it.)
What would have happened next? Would the Allies have been much harsher when it came to the Soviets taking eastern Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia? When they went for Finland?
Would they have continued to focus their attention on Germany and whatever it might do next and, more or less, ignore Soviet expansionism?
Would we have seen a strictly Axis-Soviet War?
Against all odds, could the Axis and the Allies go after the Soviets? Maybe fighting separate wars? Allies fighting for Finland, Axis fighting just to gank Soviet lands?)
Or is this all utterly ASB and war over Poland was going to happen no matter what? (So I guess this boils down to, is it possible for appeasement to be given one last chance and for the Allies to go . . . "Fuck it. We let the Germans get away with it but we aren't going to let the Soviets do it too!"
It failed to convince anyone on the international stage, with apparently only German citizens buying into it. Hitler himself didn't care how credible the casus belli was, just that he had one.
Germans invade Poland, Allies declare war on Germany . . . You know the rest.
-------------------
What I will ask is simple. What if the operation succeeded? What if these false flag operations had been enough to make the world believe that the Poles attacked first, and in doing so made the Allies nervous enough to hang Poland out to dry. (I'm assuming guarantees made to Poland would be null and void if the Allies thought the Poles started it.)
What would have happened next? Would the Allies have been much harsher when it came to the Soviets taking eastern Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia? When they went for Finland?
Would they have continued to focus their attention on Germany and whatever it might do next and, more or less, ignore Soviet expansionism?
Would we have seen a strictly Axis-Soviet War?
Against all odds, could the Axis and the Allies go after the Soviets? Maybe fighting separate wars? Allies fighting for Finland, Axis fighting just to gank Soviet lands?)
Or is this all utterly ASB and war over Poland was going to happen no matter what? (So I guess this boils down to, is it possible for appeasement to be given one last chance and for the Allies to go . . . "Fuck it. We let the Germans get away with it but we aren't going to let the Soviets do it too!"