Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
... there were large portions of the British government and nobility who held Nazi sympathies throughout the 1930s.
How large? Why is your statement more accurate than, for instance, "There was a small lunatic fringe of British society who held Nazi sympathies throughout the 1930s"?
...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
In the case of #2, the British simply did not care about Czechoslovakia -- or any other country in Eastern Europe.
I'm finding your sweeping generalizations and absolute statements a bit disturbing. Unlike your examples of racist statements by Roosevelt you haven't backed them up with any sources. I think it is quite supportable to say that the British cared less about Eastern Europeans than they did about northwest Europeans, but I'd like to see how you support the claim that the British, as a whole had a monolithic and total disinterest in Eastern European states.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
You should consider that despite declaring war on Germany following the invasion of Poland, neither the British nor the French did anything meaningful in response
It is interesting that you would consider declaring war and mobilizing "nothing meaningful". Perhaps you should consider the British and French views of their own military capabilities at this time. The only trained British armoured formations were in Africa. The Germans were years ahead in the development of armoured warfare doctrine and equipment, and the western Allies knew this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
(according to the Germans, an allied invasion of Germany in September 1939 would have defeated the Wehrmacht in ~2 weeks).
And according to the British and French, an attack by them on Germany would have been a complete disaster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
The reason why Britain and France did not attack Germany in 1939 should be obvious if you stop and think about it ... they didn't want to occupy Germany. They certainly did not want to invade and occupy Germany to save the Poles and Czechs and Jews, whom they viewed as racially inferior and not important to their self-defense.
Could you provide us with some citations of source documents which support this claim (esp. the bolded)?
You should consider that there is less documentary support for your theory than there is for the simple explanation that neither the British nor the French considered themselves adequately prepared to attack Germany in force. There is plenty of evidence to support this view. Several British units in the BEF still had not received their full scale of authorized equipment when Germany attacked westward in 1940. France was still forming Divisions of its armoured force during the battle for France. German armoured divisions outnumber the combined total of British and French armoured divisions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
Given that, I think it's reasonable to assume that had the Germans not attacked them in 1940, the Allies probably would have allowed Germany to occupy Poland and Czechoslovakia indefinitely.
Yes, well, that's not at all a given.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
They simply did not care about Eastern Europeans or Jews anymore than you worry (or probably don't worry) about all of the dogs and cats that are euthanized by the Humane Society.
Now you're are making unsupported, undocumented sweeping claims about the concerns of History Forum readers too.
The practice of history is not to make sweeping generalizations based on speculation and one's own prejudices. It is to draw conclusions from the documented evidence. The best evidence is that France and Britain did not attack Germany in 1939 or 1940 because they did not believe themselves capable of doing so successfully. There are recorded communications between and within the parties stating so. The state of their equipment, training, doctrine and intelligence estimates all indicate that such a belief was reasonably held.