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Originally Posted by palo5
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Hitler's remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936 was the turning point IMHO; it was a moment when the French Army, with little effort and little risk, could have faced Nazi Germany down and shown the will to enforce European peace. At this stage it was not the means which were lacking, but the will. Will and the Strong Man were big icons in Nazi ideology. The democracies were identified as soft, effete and decadent because they had not the will to resist when Germany tested them.
Later, in July and August 1938, there was a chance for France and Britain (Russia too) to align themselves with Czechoslovakia, which had a modern and efficient army, strong border defences and wanted to fight rather than be territorially dismembered. I have never accepted that there was an argument in favour of the Sell Out which holds water. The disparity of force in 1939 was if anything worse than in 1938, because Russia was disgusted by the Sell Out, decided upon without so much as a telegram to Stalin, and moved over to become aligned with Nazi Germany through the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact.
Strong leadership in either Britain or France might have averted this slide into war. But Stanley Baldwin was a self-serving placeman, who held power and did nothing with it. He wanted to
be Prime Minister, but when he was, he achieved hardly anything because he did not attempt to achieve anything. He presided over drift. All through his years of office, Britain did not re-arm in any credible way. Quoth Winston Churchill, 12th November 1936:
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A friend of mine the other day saw a number of persons engaged in peculiar evolutions, genuflections and gestures in the neighbourhood of London. His curiosity was excited. He wondered whether it was some novel form of gymnastics, or a new religion - there are new religions which are very popular in some countries nowadays - or whether they were a party of lunatics out for an airing. On approaching closer he learned that they were a Searchlight Company of London Territorials who were doing their exercises as well as they could without having the searchlights. Yet we are told there is no need for a Ministry of Supply.
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Stanley Baldwin was rubbish.