Had Germany not attacked

What if after the attack an Poland Germany had not attacked France and ended the siezkreig. Do you think France and England would have ever switched over to the offensive or would they have come to peace?

I think that if Germany didn't attack nothing would have come of it. France and England were to scared of having another great war, so that after a year they would have talked it out and problably given in on Poland.

 

If Germany had not taken the offensive in the West nor the East, then I agree that Great Britain and especially France would have done nothing but prepare their defenses, not offenses.

 

On land their was a calm spell, not so at sea. World war was well under way in all the worlds oceans, how Germany brings France and Britian to the table to break the blockade is beyond me. Waiting only hurts the Germans, allowing the French to incorporate new aircraft,tanks, and other equipment into their army plus reorganize forming more DRC and DLM units. The British would have more time with which to move units into France, especially colonials, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwi's, and South African units would arrive in large numbers in England by July/August '40, and more troops would quickly be moved to the continent. The French wouldnt want to attack BUT the British would, maybe forcing French hands.

 

I don't think the people of France and England would want to fight and if their armies launched an attack I don't think it would get very much surport from home. Plus if they did attack it problably won't be very successful. Their armies weren't trained and prepared for going on the offensive and it would've meant more rationing and spending more money on fighting then avoiding conflict all together. So I think the end would be decided by poltics not by force.

 

Thats difficult to say but, I think they would try for somekind of settlement with the Germans. Providing that had failed, then it would have to be all out war.

 

G'day mates

Out of some papers I read that Germany rushed into the war because they were afraid that Great Britain and France were slowly arming themselves. In '39-'40 these two country's were weak. Germany was at that moment the strongest on land but was not at the aimed strenght with their U boats. If Germany had waited what would have happend to the strenght of the British and France army. Would they have waited arming themselves? Because the German army, navy and luftwaffe were rushed into war by the politicians they weren't at full strenght but neither were the others. For the Germans I think the attack on Poland came too early, because it woke the British into arming themselves. The people of France and Britain didn't want a war which they remembered of just 20 years before with the great losses in mind. If you see the situation in which Britain is in just after Dunkirk you see that a half years warning did not bring the country in full alert with the weaponfactorys working at full strenght.
If Germany had worked on their armourment and for instance landingcraft longer they would have been able to take Europe and GB in one strike.Then they could prepare to invade the SU.
Greetings Popski

 

Excellent posting Popski!! I do agree with what you say. I think that the Germans actually should have waited till 1941 before launching any invasion as it would have given them more time for building and training their forces and developing better weapons and tactics.

I agree, I think Hilers invaded Poland too early but I believe they did so at that time just to make sure the Soviets would know that Hitler and Germany could not be pushed around by uncle joe hisself.

Hitler was flaxing his muscles for all intents and purposes, showing his strength to great advantage.

 

G'day

Was the SU a theat to Germany? They had the non agression pact of '39 and Stalin was slowly killing his best armyofficers making the organisation of the army very bad.

Popski :

 

I think we would all agree that Germany was premature in attacking but it was due to one reason.....Hitler's impatience and his false sense of security in thinking that the Allies would do nothing as in previous experiences.

The Soviet Union may not have been an immediate threat but could easily become one and Hitler's expansion towards the East also opened the eyes of Stalin. Therefore, I would say that the Soviet Union was definitely a threat besides, Hitler has always made it known that lebensraum was to take place towards the East.

 

G'day

Maybe Hitler was just checking howmany stunts he could pull before he got bitten. The Elzas and Sudetenland he could just take because he wanted it and there was only little reply from the rest of the world. And indeed like you mentioned Hitler was looking for lebensraum as he wrote in Mein Kampf and the SU would be that place but without the Russians.

 

G'day

Maybe Hitler was just checking howmany stunts he could pull before he got bitten. The Elzas and Sudetenland he could just take because he wanted it and there was only little reply from the rest of the world. And indeed like you mentioned Hitler was looking for lebensraum as he wrote in Mein Kampf and the SU would be that place but without the Russians.