In this timeline, (which i made with help of Tryglaw) Czechoslovakia and Poland stand against Germany in 1938.
Chapter I: Prelude
In year of 1936 Germany began to fan the flames of another war in Europe. Western democracies sought to avoid pushing their nations into war once more. They didn't want to lose another generation, one just raised in the postwar world. They would pay almost any price to avoid, or at least, delay it. And if somebody else could be made to pay the price, well, so much the better...
If they only knew that Rhineland Remiltarization was but the beginning...
However, Germany's other neighbor saw the danger, and was willing to act. Poland, having regained it's independence almost 20 years ago, did not want to risk losing it again. On three separate occasions Poland called for preventive war against Germany - to no avail. Polish volunteers in Spanish Civil War provided a great deal of information of German technological and tactical advances. These factors made the cause for mobilization and rearmament stronger. The passiveness of Western Powers, forced a re-evaluation of geo-political calculus. With the West unwilling and unreliable, with the East unacceptable, alternative solutions had to be found. One was to play along with the Germans, seeking to play them against the Soviets. Another... would come most unexpected.
Two years later situation became more intense. In twelfth day of march the Wehrmacht entered Austria, it's government toppled and replaced by Nazi puppets. The Fuhrer annouced "Anschluss of newest Reich bastion". No one really doubted who was going to be next. Czechoslovakian General Staff frantically prepared backup plans and scenarios in case of war. These were depending on foreign help. Hope for French involvement evaporated. What hope was left, was for aid coming from Soviet Union, Romania, or, a most unlikely of sources - Poland. Shortly after these plans were put to the test. Western powers continued their appeasement politics. During the Munich Conference, they presented Czechoslovakia with an effective partition of it's territory, giving up Sudetenland to Germany.
However, the General Staff both anticipated, and subsequently refused this breech of sovereignty. To realize their plans, they knew foreign help would be needed. Romania agreed to help only but Hungary had it's own claims.
While the Munich Conference was taking place, a secret meeting took place, between the Czechoslovakian military attache to Warsaw, and the ruling Polish Triumvirate, President Ignacy Mościcki, Foreign Minister Józef Beck, and marshall Edward Rydz-Śmigły. A meeting of which the civilian leadership of Czechoslovakia knew nothing.
The position of Czechoslovakian General Staff was, that German threat outweighed the all in all petty political differences between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and in this case any disputes with Poland needed to be resolved or looked past. Czechoslovakian military leadership was ready to give up annexed Zaolzie region, which had a Polish majority anyway, as the price of helping to guarantee Czechoslovakian territorial integrity on it's German border. In addition, to sweeten the deal, Czechoslovakian arms industry would share, license-free, many of it's designs with Poland, and any arms sales, should Poland choose to make them, would be at the same price as domestic ones.
As the points were debated over, President Mościcki made a most surprising counter-offer.
Mościcki was a man of many, many deeply seated insecurities, overshadowed by the other two triumvirs, and a man of a severe inferiority complex. During his presidential term while Marshal Piłsudski was alive, Mościcki was, effectively, little more then a well-dressed puppet. And now, finally, he saw an opportunity to move out of the shadow, to see his name written in annals of history on par with the Father of the Nation, Piłsudski himself. Indeed, if he should succeed, he would overshadow Piłsudski and equal Jagiełło and Sobieski themselves.
As the talks went, Mościcki stated: "Gentlemen, I believe we can all agree that the root of all our problems is our position of weakness, relative to East and West alike. Trading Zalozie, trading tanks and guns back and forth does nothing to solve this fundamental problem. Yet history teaches us, that there used to exist here, on these lands, an entity that feared neither West nor East. I propose that we resolve our problems with one bold stroke, recreating this entity. I propose a new Union of Lublin, and with it, the birth of the "Commonwealth of Three Nations".
Chapter I: Prelude
In year of 1936 Germany began to fan the flames of another war in Europe. Western democracies sought to avoid pushing their nations into war once more. They didn't want to lose another generation, one just raised in the postwar world. They would pay almost any price to avoid, or at least, delay it. And if somebody else could be made to pay the price, well, so much the better...
If they only knew that Rhineland Remiltarization was but the beginning...
However, Germany's other neighbor saw the danger, and was willing to act. Poland, having regained it's independence almost 20 years ago, did not want to risk losing it again. On three separate occasions Poland called for preventive war against Germany - to no avail. Polish volunteers in Spanish Civil War provided a great deal of information of German technological and tactical advances. These factors made the cause for mobilization and rearmament stronger. The passiveness of Western Powers, forced a re-evaluation of geo-political calculus. With the West unwilling and unreliable, with the East unacceptable, alternative solutions had to be found. One was to play along with the Germans, seeking to play them against the Soviets. Another... would come most unexpected.
Two years later situation became more intense. In twelfth day of march the Wehrmacht entered Austria, it's government toppled and replaced by Nazi puppets. The Fuhrer annouced "Anschluss of newest Reich bastion". No one really doubted who was going to be next. Czechoslovakian General Staff frantically prepared backup plans and scenarios in case of war. These were depending on foreign help. Hope for French involvement evaporated. What hope was left, was for aid coming from Soviet Union, Romania, or, a most unlikely of sources - Poland. Shortly after these plans were put to the test. Western powers continued their appeasement politics. During the Munich Conference, they presented Czechoslovakia with an effective partition of it's territory, giving up Sudetenland to Germany.
However, the General Staff both anticipated, and subsequently refused this breech of sovereignty. To realize their plans, they knew foreign help would be needed. Romania agreed to help only but Hungary had it's own claims.
While the Munich Conference was taking place, a secret meeting took place, between the Czechoslovakian military attache to Warsaw, and the ruling Polish Triumvirate, President Ignacy Mościcki, Foreign Minister Józef Beck, and marshall Edward Rydz-Śmigły. A meeting of which the civilian leadership of Czechoslovakia knew nothing.
The position of Czechoslovakian General Staff was, that German threat outweighed the all in all petty political differences between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and in this case any disputes with Poland needed to be resolved or looked past. Czechoslovakian military leadership was ready to give up annexed Zaolzie region, which had a Polish majority anyway, as the price of helping to guarantee Czechoslovakian territorial integrity on it's German border. In addition, to sweeten the deal, Czechoslovakian arms industry would share, license-free, many of it's designs with Poland, and any arms sales, should Poland choose to make them, would be at the same price as domestic ones.
As the points were debated over, President Mościcki made a most surprising counter-offer.
Mościcki was a man of many, many deeply seated insecurities, overshadowed by the other two triumvirs, and a man of a severe inferiority complex. During his presidential term while Marshal Piłsudski was alive, Mościcki was, effectively, little more then a well-dressed puppet. And now, finally, he saw an opportunity to move out of the shadow, to see his name written in annals of history on par with the Father of the Nation, Piłsudski himself. Indeed, if he should succeed, he would overshadow Piłsudski and equal Jagiełło and Sobieski themselves.
As the talks went, Mościcki stated: "Gentlemen, I believe we can all agree that the root of all our problems is our position of weakness, relative to East and West alike. Trading Zalozie, trading tanks and guns back and forth does nothing to solve this fundamental problem. Yet history teaches us, that there used to exist here, on these lands, an entity that feared neither West nor East. I propose that we resolve our problems with one bold stroke, recreating this entity. I propose a new Union of Lublin, and with it, the birth of the "Commonwealth of Three Nations".
