Posted on 08/01/2012 8:29:58 PM PDT by Dysart
I beg to differ. Chamberlain was an honorable, if incompetent, man. Obama is a, fortunately incompetent, traitor.
Actually, Chamberlain did much to prepare Britain for war. Contrary to popular belief, he knew war was coming and geared up British industry to prepare itself for war production and also pushed a bill through allowing peacetime conscription for the first time in British history (in the face of strong opposition). He knew Britain wasn’t ready for war in 1938, and he delayed it until September 1939, when Britain STILL wasn’t ready, but probably more ready than it had been...
Point well taken and agreed.
“Actually, Chamberlain did much to prepare Britain for war. Contrary to popular belief, he knew war was coming and geared up British industry to prepare itself for war production and also pushed a bill through allowing peacetime conscription for the first time in British history (in the face of strong opposition). He knew Britain wasn’t ready for war in 1938, and he delayed it until September 1939, when Britain STILL wasn’t ready, but probably more ready than it had been...”
Very true. It’s interesting to note how much more capable the UK was in 1939 than the US was.
In 1939 when WW2 started, the total US army was 200,000 strong, the British army had 428,000. The US figure was still 200,000 on July 1st 1940, but by July 1st 1941 it had jumped to 1.31m.
When the war began the US Army Air Corps had 22,000 personnel, 22 serviceable heavy bombers, 700 very obelete light/medium bombers and 500 very obselete fighters. By comparison the RAF had 175,000 personnel, 135 squadrons (74 Bomber, 27 Fighter, 12 Army co-operation, 17 Reconnaissance, 4 Torpedo-bomber and 1 Communications). In addition to this, the Auxiliary Air Force comprised 19 squadrons (3 Bomber, 11 Fighter, 2 Army co-operation and 3 Reconnaissance). By December 1941 the US has 288 heavy bombers, 1100 light/medium bombers (plus 400 obselete) and 1600 fighters plus 500 obselete.
So there was absolutely no chance of the US joining the war when it began in 1939 because they had nothing to fight with but they used the delay between the war starting and them joining in the same way Chamberlain did with his bit of paper - they bought time and built weapons.
The famous, though likely apocryphal, story is that when he showed up at the Navy recruiting station in Times Square, the Chief asked him his name, and when he replied “Hitler”, the recruiter replied, “Glad to meet ya, mine name’s Hess.”
"Dear uncle Hitler, YOU SUCK!..."
Pity how he took over and runs the democrat party.
Thank you both for that info. I absolutely hate it when something I "believe" turns out to be wrong. Whats worse is that it is because of lazyness, it is an ignorance that could be easily fixed on my part.
I've learned more about history on FR than I did through decades of schooling.
My pleasure. Unfortunately Chamberlain did what was necessary but it looked like appeasement and his reputation has paid the price since and of course he was always going to come off second to Churchill’s charisma.
People also forget that Chamberlain had to contend with public opinion (which was very pro-appeasement) and also to opposition to war from the Dominions. The Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, told Chamberlain on several occasions during the 1930s that if he ever declared war on Hitler, Canada would remain neutral. He only made it clear to Chamberlain that he would support Britain in a war against Germany in August 1939 when he started to mobilise the Canadian military in preparation for a conflict.
Chamberlain gets a very bum rap as the poster child for appeasement when the fact of the matter is he didn’t really have any choice due to Britain’s military weakness (which he was doing his best to correct) public opinion and the opposition within the Empire.
He did nevertheless, do his best to prepare for the war that became increasingly inevitable, and was the man who in the end was the first world leader to finally stand up to Hitler and declare war on him on September 3rd 1939, later followed by the rest of the Empire and France.
It's probably apocryphal.
Hitler’s patronymic grandfather was named Johann Georg Hiedler (whether or not he was Alois Hitler’s biological father). Hitler’s father, wrote his name as Alois Hitler. Since Hiedler is a fairly common German family name, his father did a lot of people a favor.
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