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Which they did at enormous cost in lives and money. Ditto for Belgium in 1914. If you had said Czechoslovakia in 1938 that would have been a much better exampl

Which they did at enormous cost in lives and money. Ditto for Belgium in 1914. If you had said Czechoslovakia in 1938 that would have been a much better example.

ju-st 11y ago
He propably refered to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War - the Allies did basically nothing until Germany invaded France
emp_zealoth 11y ago
How can you call fighting to save their own damn asses only after they were attacked by Germany coming to Poland's aid?
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  At that stage the UK had no reason to declare war on Germany other than our promise to Poland. We could have sat back and just watched things play out. Indeed Hilter thought that we would do exactly that. (Bear in mind that there was not evidence of the holocaust for another 2 years. The huge (and real) moral basis of the European side of the second world war was largely discovered post facto.)
rhino369 11y ago
>Which they did at enormous cost in lives and money. They half assed tried it by declaring war on germany without actually starting the war. But they let the USSR--which also invaded Poland--keep the country after the war.
- vkou 11y ago
  As the saying goes, possession is nine tenths of the law. Doubly true when said possession is enforced by the largest military in the world.
- olavk 11y ago
  Yeah, USSR got to keep the part of Poland they invaded. But the treaty between Poland, UK and France only covered aid against a German invasion, so that treaty was honored in the end. In any case, UK and France were not strong enough to beat Germany without help from the USSR.
mikeash 11y ago
When did the UK and France aid Poland after the 1939 invasion? The timeline is something like: 1939 - Poland gets conquered by Germany and the USSR. 1941 - The USSR-occupied part of Poland gets conquered by Germany. 1944-45 - German-occupied Poland gets conquered by the USSR. 1989 - Poland reasserts independence as the USSR slowly collapses from within. As far as I'm aware, no significant British or American forces got anywhere near Poland as part of any of this.
- kazinator 11y ago
  Not only that, but I think it was due to an explicit deal with the USSR to stay away from there so they can have Poland and Czechoslovakia. They deliberately let the Germans go in there and kill the local uprisings, so that the USSR could then move in and take what is left.
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  1939 we declared war. We had virtually no army at the time and virtually no air force. Certainly nothing that could have defeated Hilter's forces.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    That would be a reason why they didn't help Poland, not something that made it so that they did help Poland (as was claimed above). I also don't believe that's true. At the time, the French had about 5 million men, 4,200 tanks, 11,000 guns, and 3,000 airplanes. The Germans had about 4 million men, 3,500 tanks, 7,000 guns, and 4,000 airplanes. That's rough parity, not even counting the UK's potential contribution. And the German army was busy subduing Poland in the east, so there wouldn't have been a whole lot available to defend against an attack from the west.
    - JupiterMoon 11y ago
      Your numbers are meaningless. The German weapons were modern. The French were not and the UK's were virtually non-existent. The UK had no reason to declare war in 1939 other than their promise to defend Poland. We went into a global war that lasted 6 years, took half a million of our lives, bankrupted us and caused us to lose a global empire (well that was a good side effect). Bear in mind that this was ~20 years after a previous war after which the general view in the UK was that we would never fight another.

Which they did at enormous cost in lives and money. Ditto for Belgium in 1914. If you had said Czechoslovakia in 1938 that would have been a much better example.

ju-st 11y ago

He propably refered to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War - the Allies did basically nothing until Germany invaded France

emp_zealoth 11y ago

How can you call fighting to save their own damn asses only after they were attacked by Germany coming to Poland's aid?

JupiterMoon 11y ago
At that stage the UK had no reason to declare war on Germany other than our promise to Poland. We could have sat back and just watched things play out. Indeed Hilter thought that we would do exactly that. (Bear in mind that there was not evidence of the holocaust for another 2 years. The huge (and real) moral basis of the European side of the second world war was largely discovered post facto.)

rhino369 11y ago

>Which they did at enormous cost in lives and money. They half assed tried it by declaring war on germany without actually starting the war. But they let the USSR--which also invaded Poland--keep the country after the war.

vkou 11y ago
As the saying goes, possession is nine tenths of the law. Doubly true when said possession is enforced by the largest military in the world.
olavk 11y ago
Yeah, USSR got to keep the part of Poland they invaded. But the treaty between Poland, UK and France only covered aid against a German invasion, so that treaty was honored in the end. In any case, UK and France were not strong enough to beat Germany without help from the USSR.

mikeash 11y ago

When did the UK and France aid Poland after the 1939 invasion? The timeline is something like: 1939 - Poland gets conquered by Germany and the USSR. 1941 - The USSR-occupied part of Poland gets conquered by Germany. 1944-45 - German-occupied Poland gets conquered by the USSR. 1989 - Poland reasserts independence as the USSR slowly collapses from within. As far as I'm aware, no significant British or American forces got anywhere near Poland as part of any of this.

kazinator 11y ago
Not only that, but I think it was due to an explicit deal with the USSR to stay away from there so they can have Poland and Czechoslovakia. They deliberately let the Germans go in there and kill the local uprisings, so that the USSR could then move in and take what is left.
JupiterMoon 11y ago
1939 we declared war. We had virtually no army at the time and virtually no air force. Certainly nothing that could have defeated Hilter's forces.
- mikeash 11y ago
  That would be a reason why they didn't help Poland, not something that made it so that they did help Poland (as was claimed above). I also don't believe that's true. At the time, the French had about 5 million men, 4,200 tanks, 11,000 guns, and 3,000 airplanes. The Germans had about 4 million men, 3,500 tanks, 7,000 guns, and 4,000 airplanes. That's rough parity, not even counting the UK's potential contribution. And the German army was busy subduing Poland in the east, so there wouldn't have been a whole lot available to defend against an attack from the west.
  - JupiterMoon 11y ago
    Your numbers are meaningless. The German weapons were modern. The French were not and the UK's were virtually non-existent. The UK had no reason to declare war in 1939 other than their promise to defend Poland. We went into a global war that lasted 6 years, took half a million of our lives, bankrupted us and caused us to lose a global empire (well that was a good side effect). Bear in mind that this was ~20 years after a previous war after which the general view in the UK was that we would never fight another.