Ukraine Says Russian Troops Join Separatists in New Assaults

[happyslug]

16. I am getting sick of these references to Chamberlain, why do you NOT mention his declaration of war?

Chamberlain and the French Premier had a problem. Hitler had started to rearm in 1934, England started in 1936 but the key to any war with Hitler depended on the French Army (When War was declared, one out of every 48 Citizens of the United Kingdom were called up for duty, one of the EIGHT Frenchmen were called up for duty, i.e for every British Soldier in France in 1940 you had SIX French Soldiers).

France had entered into a non violent Civil War in 1934 and did not end till 1938. During that time period NO expansion of the French Army took place. Thus France was two years behind Britain and four years behind Germany in getting its army up to par. The French determined they could NOT go on the offensive till 1941 and questioned their ability on the defensive till 1941. As to aircraft and tanks, 1941 was the year the French thought they could equal the Germans.

Hitler thus had a window of opportunity between 1938 and 1941. By 1941 Britain would have been producing as much weapons as Germany was doing (and France would have come close to matching German production). Thus both the British and the French knew they could NOT go to war with Germany before 1941 UNLESS they had an alliance with the Soviet Union, and Poland kept veto that proposal.

Thus why Munich occurred, it was NOT to appease Hitler, but to buy time. Time that was desperately needed. If Hitler had gone to war in 1938, he would have attacked France in 1939 and the "Battle of Britain" would have been fought in 1939 between British Biplanes and ME-109s. The Spitfires and Hurricanes of 1940 were just entering production in 1939 and NOT operable till 1940. France by holding out for nine weeks after it was attacked, permitted Britain to barely produce the planes needed to win the Battle of Britain. Had the battle of Britain been fought in 1939, Britain would have lost it.

Thus the Munich agreement was NOT to appease Hitler but to give France and Britain time to build up their armies and maybe convince the Poles to work with Stalin.

Lets remember what happened to Chamberlain. After Munich he REMAIN PRIME MINISTER. On September 1, 1939 it was Chamberland that presented the ultimatum to Hitler to withdraw from Poland or be at war with Britain AND France. Chamberlain remained Prime Minister till France was falling. At that point it was decided Britain needed a unity Government, one made up of the Conservative (lead by Chamberlain), Labour (Lead by Attlee) and the few Liberals still in Parliament. The problem was Attlee refused to work with Chamberlain do to previous acts by Chamberlain and when Attlee agreed to be in the Unity Government, he agreed ONLY if Chamberlain was no longer Prime Minister. Please note the disagreement had NOTHING to do with the war and clearly nothing to do with Munich. Thus it was agreed that Churchill be Prime Minister with Attlee in his cabinet. Chamberlain actually stayed a leader of the then majority party in Parliament. the Conservatives till he died later in 1940. Chamberlain was extremely popular within the Conservative party, more popular then his fellow conservative Churchill.

Please note Churchill first election when he was Prime Minister was in 1945, five years AFTER he became prime minister (and he LOST that election). the British Parliament did not hold an election from November 13, 1935 to July 5, 1945:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_1935

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_1945

Sorry, Chamberlain's actions where supported by most people. The French Army had be to rebuilt and that required a delay in going to war from 1938 to 1941 (The problem was Hitler decided to fully exploit his window of opportunity by taking all of the Czech Republic in the spring of 1938 and Poland in the fall.