“... in‘39, war raised it’s ugly head”
I think historians generally agree now that WWII actually started when Japan invaded China, which was around 31. Or roughly 10 years before the Blitzkrieg of Poland and the annexation of Czechoslovakia which was Chamberlain’s claim to fame... and it meant the subjugation of the whole peoples of Czechoslovakia, for some reason Britain deemed itself the master of Czechoslovakia and turn it over to Nazi Germany without so much as a stone being tossed.
Although there is an argument to be made for 1872 when Japan invaded Okinawa.
Chamberlain was caught between a rock and a hard spot.
Britain was not ready for war, so he came home waving a piece of white paper, having been played for a chump.
Privately, he told his ministers to prepare for war, knowing that history would remember him as a chump.