‘I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s. He came back for more, costing us far more lives to stop his aggression,’ UK foreign secretary writes
For the record, while Chamberlain was pursuing appeasement, he was also very rapidly building up his nations warfighting capability. This tends to get glossed-over in secondary school history studies.
Yes, despite the bad name Chamberlain gets, it’s not like there was much choice. Britain was woefully unprepared for a full-scale war in 1938, and they knew France, who they’d ally with, were too.
Did appeasement work to stop the Nazis? No. But that was never what appeasement was about. It was about buying time so Britain’s armed forces would be able to prepare for the inevitable conflict that was coming their way.
Yeah, when you look at how the build-out of radar capabilities and fighter aircraft pitched in a couple years later you start to see things in a different light.
I think he was playing both sides somewhat, he seemed to genuinely want peace-in-our-time and naively think it was possible, based on his public messaging anyway. But he also allowed a very expensive militarization just in case. A prudent politician, not putting all his eggs in any one basket.
Then when the war began and it became clear he could not keep his country unified after bungling Norway, he very courageously took full responsibility for his soft direction and resigned, taking that whole shame onto his own shoulders, and personally paved the way for a more hard-nosed guy and brilliant public speaker to come in clean and run the actual war. And, most importantly, it all worked. The Battle of Britain was a victory. Britain withstood, protected by the navy and airforce that he funded, where so many others were defeated.
He’s a very conflicted figure, but I think he does deserve credit where it’s due.
Piggybacking to remind everyone that exiled Poles played a big role in behind the scenes efforts that provided a decisive edge to the UKs war effort. Radar, mine detectors, code breaking and cryptography, early semi-conductor fabrication, HF radar detection for u-boats, etc
For the record, while Chamberlain was pursuing appeasement, he was also very rapidly building up his nations warfighting capability. This tends to get glossed-over in secondary school history studies.
Yes, despite the bad name Chamberlain gets, it’s not like there was much choice. Britain was woefully unprepared for a full-scale war in 1938, and they knew France, who they’d ally with, were too.
Did appeasement work to stop the Nazis? No. But that was never what appeasement was about. It was about buying time so Britain’s armed forces would be able to prepare for the inevitable conflict that was coming their way.
Yeah, when you look at how the build-out of radar capabilities and fighter aircraft pitched in a couple years later you start to see things in a different light.
I think he was playing both sides somewhat, he seemed to genuinely want peace-in-our-time and naively think it was possible, based on his public messaging anyway. But he also allowed a very expensive militarization just in case. A prudent politician, not putting all his eggs in any one basket.
Then when the war began and it became clear he could not keep his country unified after bungling Norway, he very courageously took full responsibility for his soft direction and resigned, taking that whole shame onto his own shoulders, and personally paved the way for a more hard-nosed guy and brilliant public speaker to come in clean and run the actual war. And, most importantly, it all worked. The Battle of Britain was a victory. Britain withstood, protected by the navy and airforce that he funded, where so many others were defeated.
He’s a very conflicted figure, but I think he does deserve credit where it’s due.
Piggybacking to remind everyone that exiled Poles played a big role in behind the scenes efforts that provided a decisive edge to the UKs war effort. Radar, mine detectors, code breaking and cryptography, early semi-conductor fabrication, HF radar detection for u-boats, etc