re: #73 William Lewis

At the time of Chamberlain’s “Peace In Our Time” compromise, England was not even close to ready for war. The year of production - both at home and bought from the US made an enormous difference especially via the numbers of Spitfires & Hurricanes; Matilda II & Cruiser II; produced before the outbreak. I don’t think it was planned as such but I do believe Chamberlain understood that the English could not stop the Germans by force of arms in 1938 and needed more time to rearm against the threat that was Germany.

It worked both ways, incidentally: despite what was generally thought at the time, the Germans (as since has been confirmed by historical research) were likewise, in the Fall of 1938, nowhere near as prepared for war as the Allies had been led ( by VERY effective German propaganda) to believe. However, Hitler was a consummate bluffer: the British and French unfortunately fell for it….