World War II Questions of the Day

1. World War IIQuestions of the Day Daniel W. Blackmon IB HL History Coral Gables Sr. High

2. Essay of the Day • "Wars are caused by miscalculations of the aggressor and the failure of politicians and diplomats to exercise crisis management." Discuss the validity of this statement with reference to ONE twentieth century war. (1993) (HL)

3. Thesis • The statement is not valid for World War II • It is certainly true that Hitler miscalculated with his invasion of Poland, and that Chamberlain’s, Daladier’s and Stalin’s diplomacy failed.

4. Thesis • However, given Hitler’s determination to obtain Lebensraum for Germany, war was inevitable

5. The Crisis from Munich to Danzig • Following Anschluss, Hitler now decides to swallow Czechoslovakia. His pretext is the sizable German minority in the Sudetenland. • On Hitler's orders, the leader of the Sudeten Nazis, Konrad Henlein, demands autonomy.

6. The Munich Crisis • Hitler actually expected to fight his war against Czechoslovakia: • "We must always demand so much that we never can be satisfied."

7. The Munich Crisis • Hitler signs a directive for Operation Green, the invasion of Czechoslovakia on October 1.

8. The Munich Crisis • Chamberlain meets Hitler at Berchtesgaden and is told that Hitler would risk war to incorporate the Sudetenland.

9. The Munich Crisis • Chamberlain agrees in principle to Czechoslovakia's dismemberment and returns to consult with his cabinet. The Czechs are not consulted

10. The Munich Crisis • Neville Chamberlain still sees Hitler as simply trying to achieve national self determination for ethnic Germans. • He still agrees with his brother that nothing in eastern Europe was “worth the bones of a British grenadier.”

11. The Munich Crisis • Edouard Daladier of France believed he had little choice but to follow the British lead. • France simply could not fight Germany alone.

12. The Munich Crisis • Chamberlain meets Hitler at Godesberg only to find that Hitler is now pressing Hungarian and Polish demands on Czech territory as well as Slovakian independence. • Taken aback, Chamberlain returns to consult with his cabinet.

13. The Munich Crisis • The French begin mobilization and the British mobilize the fleet.

14. The Munich Agreement • Chamberlain, French President Eduard Daladier, Mussolini and Hitler agree to a German partition of Czechoslovakia.

15. The Munich Agreement • Germany would occupy the Sudetenland, leaving Czechoslovakia without a defensive line and without the Skoda armaments factories.

16. The Munich Agreement • France and Great Britain guarantee the new borders--surely a great comfort to the Czechs, who have still not been invited to the party.

17. The Munich Agreement • His Majesties' Government is prepared to defend Czechoslovakian sovereignty to the last drop of Czech blood.

18. The Munich Agreement • Hitler assures Chamberlain that he had no more territorial demands.

19. The Munich Agreement • Chamberlain returns to Britain with the agreement and says he has secured "peace in our time.“ • This is the high point of the policy of "appeasement."

20. The Munich Agreement • Churchill rightly pointed out that it made a great deal more sense militarily to fight for Czechoslovakia than it did for Poland.

21. The Munich Agreement • Chamberlain is influenced by the insistence of his Imperial Staff that Britain was unprepared for war and needed time to rearm.

22. The Munich Agreement The Imperial Staff also argued (correctly) that Britain could not fight Germany, Italy, and Japan at once. Britain must therefore avoid conflict in every theater in which it was possible.

23. The Munich Agreement • The conditions for war would have been much more favorable in 1938 than in 1939, as any glance at a map would show. The Czech army and its equipment were of high quality, and the Skoda works a crucial addition to German armaments capacity.

24. The Munich Agreement • In the opinion of the generals and of some subsequent historians, Germany could not have gone to war in 1939 without the addition of the Czech tank fleet.

25. The Munich Agreement Four of Germany's ten armored divisions in 1939 were equipped largely with Czech tanks

26. The Munich Agreement • The Munich Pact convinced Stalin that collective security was not possible. • He suspected that Britain and France wanted to embroil him in war with Germany. • He decides to cut the best deal he can.

27. The Munich Agreement • Germany occupied the Sudetenland on October 1, 1938

28. The Danzig Crisis • February 1, 1939, Beginning of a reversal of British policy. Chamberlain expresses unqualified support for French security.

29. The Danzig Crisis • The Imperial Staff submits a paper arguing that Home Defense required the territorial defense of France and that Britain must build a continental army.

30. The Danzig Crisis • This is a sharp reversal of policy. • Previously, the Imperial Staff had insisted on defending Britain via air power, and avoiding conflict with more than one potential opponent.

31. The Danzig Crisis • Their thinking is hard to understand. • If the RAF could fly from Britain to Germany or France, then the Luftwaffe could fly from Germany or France to Britain. • Europe does not have a roof.

32. The Danzig Crisis • In 1939, the Luftwaffe was the largest, most modern air force in the world.

33. The Danzig Crisis • Stalin's speech to the Eighteenth Party Congress, where he indicates he has no preference between the competing blocs of capitalist states. • Stalin did not comprehend the nature of the threat from Hitler.

34. The Danzig Crisis • Hitler violates his promise to Chamberlain. • Germany absorbs Bohemia and Moravia while Slovakia becomes a German puppet state. • For the first time, Germany has absorbed non-Germans

35. The Danzig Crisis • Chamberlain delivers a speech in Birmingham in which he states that Britain will resist an attempt to dominate the world by force. • He realizes that Hitler has deceived him (Gasp! Shock!)

36. The Danzig Crisis • In point of fact, the hardening public attitude in the West is that Hitler simply cannot be trusted, there is no point in further negotiation, that Hitler was bent on world domination and that he posed a very real and palpable threat to the very moral foundations of the West's way of life.

37. Hitler’s Miscalculation • Hitler does not comprehend this change in public opinion.

38. Hitler’s Miscalculation • It was not rational to fight for Poland and not for Czechoslovakia; • Hitler had formed a contemptuous opinion of Chamberlain and Daladier.

39. Hitler’s Miscalculation • Up to this time, Hitler has not miscalculated; Chamberlain and Daladier have miscalculated.

40. The Danzig Crisis • March 23: Germany annexes Memel from Lithuania. • Great Britain offers Poland a guarantee of independence; that is, war with Poland means war with Great Britain.

41. The Danzig Crisis • April 7: Italy invades Albania. • Britain and France offer Greece and Rumania guarantees of independence. • Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland are added a few days later.

42. The Danzig Crisis • April 23: Hitler denounces his nonaggression pact with Poland.

43. The Danzig Crisis • May 3: Probable opening gambit from Stalin to Hitler: • Foreign Minister Litvinov, a Jew, is replaced by Vyacheslav Molotov.

44. Negotiations with Poland • Negotiations between Britain, France, Poland, and the Soviet Union, which ultimately break down.

45. Negotiations with Poland • Only the Red Army could provide support for Poland in a timely manner. Britain wants to include guarantees for the Baltic and Balkan states.

46. Negotiations with Poland • Stalin wishes to write a treaty that would permit him to "protect" client states on terms that he defines. The British, not surprisingly, are highly suspicious and refuse to agree.

47. Negotiations with Poland • The Poles also flatly refuse to permit the Red Army on their soil, on the grounds that they would never leave.

48. Negotiations with Poland • May 22: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel. • Hitler believes that Britain and France are bluffing and that, faced with a wider war, they will blink first.

49. Negotiations with Poland • May 23: Hitler tells his generals that Poland must be attacked and destroyed as soon as possible. • He also announces that the rearmament program must be completed by 1943 or 1944.

50. Negotiations with Poland • The rearmament program would have allowed Hitler to “rearm in depth” and fight a protracted war of attrition. • Hitler expects to fight a local, brief war against Poland only.