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This may be my longest single post yet. I decided to cram many items into one post. There is some good stuff in here, if I do say so myself. For you Mil-heads I especially recommend the image of an artists impression of the interior of the Maginot Line. Note the theatre where, presumably, the French soldiers can watch movies in air conditioned comfort as their gray-clad foes are outside marching in the hot sun. Here is a table of contents:

From the Sunday magizine, "News of the Week in Review"

Hitler Fails to Crack Morale of Opponents
'Crust' of Gunpowder Guards France
Mussolini Uneasy over Czech Crisis
World Watches Nazis' Rally
Japanese Drive Bogs Down in China

From page 15 of the front section

More Immigration is Zionist Demand
4 short articles and a chart

Finally, cute puppies!

Little did anyone reading these articles realize but Hitler had already set October 1 as the deadline for the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and he was not going to change it. He was a dictator whose iron will, once bent on this particular course, could not be swayed by any change of circumstances.

At the same time, it was all a colossal military bluff. His army was not ready to fight. The Czechs were actually superior in some aspects, although they were numerically inferior. It’s worth noting that after the fall of Czechoslovakia, Hitler was able to outfit several panzer divisions with Czech T-38 tanks. Those tanks saw action all the way to Stalingrad (although by that time they were obsolete, and had been pawned off to the Romanian armored division, where they went to their “death ride” in Operation Uranus).

Contrast Hitler’s iron will with the vacillation of the western powers. “Peace missions” from the British abound. French troops watch movies in their air conditioned concrete wall wide open at one one end. Cartoons featuring dead ghosts of all parties from World War I. Nope, no conflict up there in heaven! How foolish; they assumed Hitler wanted peace too. To quote Sir John Fisher, all nations want peace. They merely want a peace that suits them.

Nothing changes with mankind. Today, we have Achmedinijad’s iron will to develop nuclear weapons. We have Vladimir Putin’s iron will to reforge the Russian Empire and dominate western Europe through control of their energy resources. We have a weak and vacillating Barack Obama all set to appease them at every turn.

The result of this brew in 1938 was the costliest and most destructive war in the history of mankind. It began with cavalry charges and ended with the use of atom bombs. What fate awaits us at the beginning of the new century?

One eminent Nazi, according to a credible story from Prague, thought the effort had succeeded. Field Marshal Goering was represented as boasting that Britain would “not raise a finger” to save the Czechs if Germany moved.

The results, however, have been quite contrary to any such expectations. Britain, instead of showing a spirit of avoidance, has shown firmness. She has not yet said she would fight for Czechoslovakia but her actions in the last week have carried very definite implications.

Every indicator is showing that the Germans are on the offensive and on a war footing but Britian's "firmness" only involves talks "without bluster or threats". Goering and Hitler knew full well that Chamberlain would fold and take no action. At the same time they stood by and watch Hitler fortify the Western fronteir. It's almost comical how the likes of Chamberlain and his ilk joyfully kept their head in the sand.

The Maginot Line was actually a very well built defensive line.

It had two flaws.
1. The line ended at the border with Belgium which invited the Germans to go into Belgium.
2. The French, despite having a very good tank in the Char B, lacked the mobile doctrine to use them effectively.

The Germans on the other hand had mostly inferior tanks, but knew how to use them.