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Then I hope that you have plenty of jokes about the country whose prime Minister came back from Germany "with peace for our time" in 1938 :)

yread 4y ago
Not to mention that the main reason why French army underperformed in the war is that lots of resources were spent on Maginot line as spending them on a potentially offensive things would upset the British
- panick21_ 4y ago
  This is an old theory that doesn't hold up at all. The Maginot line was a good investment and worked as intented. And it was by no means as large an investment as people claim. Where they failed is in terms of their officers, command&control and training. The French Generals made some horrible mistakes and never managed to recover.
dagw 4y ago
Of course, however they are all framed as "LOL, look how stupid/naive politicians are" rather than "LOL look how stupid/naive our country was". "Chamberlain" is still used as a shorthand for a politician accepting a deal that no one believes will be upheld.
mellavora 4y ago
Yes, a misleading statement, but also one which bought the British valuable time to build up their military. It isn't clear that Chamberlain believed what he said, politicians are sometimes cleverer than they appear.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  > Yes, a misleading statement, but also one which bought the British valuable time to build up their military. This is not really the case. The most important things the British could do against the Germans was the Blockade. And the Blockade was available at literally any time since WW1. And the Germans were already in full buildup, they delay between 1938 and 1939 helped the Germans far more then it would have helped the Allies. Not to mentioned it took out the Czech military. Specially since its only when the Germans invaded Prague that the British really started the buildup. And in the end, the British army was kind of useless in the Battle of France, since the breakthrew happens in Verdun and the British were in Belgium.
- gattilorenz 4y ago
  He then proceeded to fool the whole cabinet by telling them that Hitler is not insane and has very limited objectives: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinet-office-100/the-munich-pact/chamberlains-account-of-his-first-meeting-with-hitler/ https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinet-office-100/the-m...

yread 4y ago

Not to mention that the main reason why French army underperformed in the war is that lots of resources were spent on Maginot line as spending them on a potentially offensive things would upset the British

panick21_ 4y ago
This is an old theory that doesn't hold up at all. The Maginot line was a good investment and worked as intented. And it was by no means as large an investment as people claim. Where they failed is in terms of their officers, command&control and training. The French Generals made some horrible mistakes and never managed to recover.

dagw 4y ago

Of course, however they are all framed as "LOL, look how stupid/naive politicians are" rather than "LOL look how stupid/naive our country was". "Chamberlain" is still used as a shorthand for a politician accepting a deal that no one believes will be upheld.

mellavora 4y ago

Yes, a misleading statement, but also one which bought the British valuable time to build up their military. It isn't clear that Chamberlain believed what he said, politicians are sometimes cleverer than they appear.

panick21_ 4y ago
> Yes, a misleading statement, but also one which bought the British valuable time to build up their military. This is not really the case. The most important things the British could do against the Germans was the Blockade. And the Blockade was available at literally any time since WW1. And the Germans were already in full buildup, they delay between 1938 and 1939 helped the Germans far more then it would have helped the Allies. Not to mentioned it took out the Czech military. Specially since its only when the Germans invaded Prague that the British really started the buildup. And in the end, the British army was kind of useless in the Battle of France, since the breakthrew happens in Verdun and the British were in Belgium.
gattilorenz 4y ago
He then proceeded to fool the whole cabinet by telling them that Hitler is not insane and has very limited objectives: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinet-office-100/the-munich-pact/chamberlains-account-of-his-first-meeting-with-hitler/ https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinet-office-100/the-m...