Russian invasion of Ukraine

[flook]

Serious enough. They would have had to create an army on the west coast of France, provide transport across the channel, maintain supply lines etc etc etc. I don’t think they had the capability of doing that in 38, mainly because at that stage they had no intention of invading us and no prep for that eventuality had been done. Different by 1940, but the military planners recognised the need for air superiority or even supremacy to mount a successful invasion. The Battle of Britain sorted that!
Ultimately, I don’t go along with the revision of Chamberlain’s rep. His judgement was flawed both in the approach at Munich and in his view of what benefit there was to us in our policy which I think was nil.
The Czechs have never forgiven us.

I tend to agree 1938,1940 however Germany had the infrastructure and plans in place (operation sealion) to invade. What they were lacking was air supremacy, but had they launched an invasion in parallel with the battle of britain rather than plan for it as an follow on campaign, the "distraction" would probably have changed the outcome of the airborne campaign.

It's all theoretical of course, one thing which is pretty much unarguable is that 20 miles of sea caused Hitler to pause for thought, which probably cost him the war

 

[i kne albert davy]

I'm not sure this is a serious question. Are you doubting the viability of a German invasion in 1938/39? Perhaps in 38 it was not viable, but once France was subdued it was most definitely achievable. In terms of numbers, at a guess I'd say about a quarter of the number of allied troops who involved in D-Day in 1944

Not a chance in hell of a successful German invasion, Hitler would have lost his army in the channel or what made it ashore in Great Britain. Not a chance his tinpot navy in 38,39 or 40 could have withstood the Royal Navy and he knew it,whats more so did his Military commanders. We shouldn't have abandoned the Czechs WW2 may well have been shorter, that said there wasn't much the British Empire could do at the time France on the other hand maybe.

 

[Sir peace frog]

There is a correlation though isn't there, expansionist dictator, attempts at political appeasement which achieve very little, shuttle diplomacy by european politicians and all the while people are suffering

so like nearly every war from 1939 until present, ww2 really has nothing to do with what's happening in ukraine 80 years later, i appreciate the knowledge shared on ww2, and find ww2 fascinating, but when i'm reading about the present i don't really want to go down the road of ww2.

 

[Blue Mist]

in your defence, Sudetenland was pretty much never mentioned during school history and is pretty much ignored completely by "popular" TV

I did wonder what Sudan had to do with WW2

 

[KS55]

so like nearly every war from 1939 until present, ww2 really has nothing to do with what's happening in ukraine 80 years later, i appreciate the knowledge shared on ww2, and find ww2 fascinating, but when i'm reading about the present i don't really want to go down the road of ww2.

The parallels are obvious.There is a lesson the west seems to have forgotten. Appease a mad dictator and reap the wind.

 

[kaz7]

Ukraine news pretty please

 

[Blue Mist]

Ukraine news pretty please

I think we are struggling to get much news. Like anything else when the TV get fed up they move onto something else.
People forget that the Russians basically invaded 8 years ago. Once the media had moved onto Brexit, covid and all the other stuff they stopped reporting on the insurgency and Ukraine were left pretty much alone. I hope the same does not happen again.

 

[BlueAnorak]

Macron is like Chamberlain. Although it does need someone to try for diplomacy

Not going to happen till Russia are losing, sadly.

 

[BlueAnorak]

There was something in Blair’s autobiography about a diary entry of Chamberlain from around the time of Munich he read at Chequers one weekend, which made it clear that he didn’t remotely trust Hitler but had done what he thought was right in the circumstances. He certainly wasn’t the right PM for a war, but I think the way he gets pilloried over Munich is grossly unfair. He probably enabled us to hold out for long enough for the Americans to enter the war. If Germany had attacked us in 1938 we’d have been fucked.

Not sure about that at all.
Germany had barely enough tanks to defeat Poland and produced over half of thier tank forces that won the battle of France between the invasion of Poland and the start of the battle of France where British and French tanks outnumbered German tanks 2:1 it would have been 4:1 in 1938 but at much lower numbers.
The Germans won by the use of Blitzkreig tactics and even so would probably have lost the battle of Arass (a very close run victory for the Germans even with their supperior tactics) if it had been fought a year earlier. Theoretical of course but in May 1940 German armaments were at a sweet spot compared with the allies. Enough in number to punch a hole in the Allied line from the Arden AND survive a counter attack from the north.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Not sure about that at all.
Germany had barely enough tanks to defeat Poland and produced over half of thhere tank forces that won the battle of France between the invasion of Poland and the start of the battle of France where. British and French tanks outnumbered German tanks 2:1 it would have been 4:1 in 1938.
The Germans won by the use of Blitzkreig tactics and even do would probably have lost the battle of Arass (a very close run vuctory for the Germans even with their supperior tactics) if it had been fought a year earlier.

Are you suggesting that in the latter part of 1938 we were better placed to fight a war with Germany than a year later?

And do you think without the Munich Agreement, declaring war in 1939 would have been so straightforward?