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I am reading the novel “Winds of War” and there is an interesting segment with a German general making a statement that had Britain made peace with Hitler in 1940 that GB would have retained her colonial empire for another 20 years. He was chastising Churchill and GB for continuing a war that did nothing but bring ruin to GB as the war basically bankrupted GB and collapsed its control of the empire. Although the book is fiction, I thought it a very interesting point.

What if Churchill formed a government and then he went and had a one-on-one with Hitler and they agreed that Germany

1. Now Germany had their pre WWI borders (plus)

2. That the Allies would no longer allow him to expand Westward or into the Balkans

3. That GB would guarantee German commerce across the oceans

4. That they may be interested in selling back Germany’s pre-WWI African colonies


While this looks like a total cave-in upon further review…

This may create many interesting scenarios as it would allow GB and its allies to;

1. Gain time to strengthen and focus their military

2. Turn Germany away from building Navy (thereby reducing the naval threat)

3. Shed some of their less profitable African colonies and letting Germany get embroiled (bogged down) in the colonial aspect of managing these places

4. Allow Germany to be the buffer against the Communist threat, which was still a major issue for the Western governments.

My questions:

1. Do you think Hitler would have respected this truce?
  • (I think he would have! At this point he had recreated the German empire and gained significant land and resources to further his build up. He could have afforded then to slow down his military expansion and work on economic expansion.)
2. How long would this have allowed GB to maintain control of its Empire?
  • (I know India was already rumbling, but if they could have protected their far east possessions could the Empire have continued into the 50’s or early 60’s?)
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