Childhood is idolising Churchill. Adulthood is realising Chamberlain

>>2449098
I would've probably sided with Chamberlain if I lived in '38 but in hindsight you'd be an idiot to do that knowing what Hitler was planning.

>>2449098
I think Chamberlain is unfairly demonized by history. Britain suffered terribly as a result of World War I, and I believe (maybe someone can verify this) he was echoing the sentiments of the majority of British people that did not want to get involved in another war. And everything he did was an attempt to do just this.

>>2449110
But what exactly do you mean?

It's not like Chamberlain did nothing. He recognised Hitler was expansionist, and clearly declared that any invasion of Poland would lead to war, which he followed through on.

His greatest folly was presuming that the threat of another great war would dissuade Hitler, but what other options did he have?

His choices were:
- Ignore Hitler's obvious expansionism
- Declare war on Germany after the (illegal, but bloodless) annexation of Austria, which would have dragged Europe into another world war, but with Britain looking like the over-reactor
- Declare war on Germany after the (illegal, but minor annexation of Sudetenland)
- Put a foot down at some point that hadn't yet occured and declare that if Hitler crossed this line it would be war, and follow through on that threat if Hitler did it

He choose the last of those options. Realistically, it's what most people would have done in that position. It's easy af to go "He was dealing with LITERALLY Hitler" in hindsight, but at the time Hitler wasn't LITERALLY Hitler the way he is viewed today.

Keep in mind Germany lost all that territory and faced the treaty of Versailles because they were held to blame for overreacting to a war started between Austria and Serbia 20 years earlier.

>>2449125
By that I mean it was naive in hindsight to think the Munich agreement was secure peace, if anything it only gave Hitler more time for preparations. It's very possible that a combined alliance of France, Britain, Czechoslovakia and Poland would've defeated Germany in '38 since they weren't as ready for war as they were in '39 and '40.

Germans actually used some clever bullshitting to make the international inspectors think the German army was bigger than it actually was, for example an inspector was riding around from airport to airport noting a huge number of German fighter planes at each airport, not knowing the Germans were just flying the same fucking planes from one airport to another between his stops and re-painting the insignia.

>>2449142
Perhaps, but how ready was Britain and France for war in late 1939, let alone '38?

Wasn't the Phony War because neither side was actually ready for a massive war yet?

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>>2449142

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>>2449098
BEADY

>>2449125

This. Chamberlain did nothing wrong.