The French and British Role with Regard to Poland
There are so many facets of the greatest and most devastating World conflict (known as the Second Great War) I could write all year and still not provide to you near the level of information I would need in order to convey the conflict properly. Therefore, it is in this regard it is best to broach the subject of this significant world event bit by bit and in various times and segments. To dive in and absorb the subject in whole can be overwhelming; although I must say you can attain a fairly good introduction and synopsis of World War II if you review my article about the subject on the eHow site. It is probably the best article composed where the conflict is summarily presented. Here is the link: http://www.ehow.com/how_2269692_understand-history-world-war-II.html.
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Following I present the war from the angle of how the French and British viewed their role with relation to Poland. Also this is a period prior to full engagement known as The Phony War and quite important to the conflict as a whole.
Had the French and the British worked together in establishing an offensive in the west, the Polish might have been involved in battle for a longer duration of time. However, such was not the case. There had not been enough British troops involved to launch such an offensive in a reasonable amount of time. Therefore, it was mainly left up to the French as to staving off Germany’s attacks until more British troops were made available. The strategy of the French, in the meantime was a defensive approach, with its basis in keeping the Germans from advancing past the Maginot border: The line was strongly fortified by the French.
Germany’s expedient takeover of Poland found the French and English over indulging their thoughts in preventing a remake of the bloodshed and battles experienced during the First World War.
In the interim, the German chancellor made a half sincere offer of peace simultaneously in ordering his key military leaders to make themselves ready for an attack on France as well as some of the other European nations.
The key German leaders who had been instrumental as to the invasion of Poland did not feel at the time that the same strategy used in Poland could be successfully affected on France. In this regard, they asked for more time to plot a course of action. However, they did suggest it would be possible to capture the nations of Belgium and Holland and the portion of France referred to as the coast along the French Channel.
During this period of time being the first week of October, the German’s submarines were in operation working unfavorably toward merchant vessels. Additionally, the British mandated a blockade. Other than the actions just mentioned little was going on in the way of a war after the first week of October—so little in fact that the newspapers in the United States coined the whole affair: The Phony War.
For more information regarding “The Phony War” refer to the following site.
www.historylearningsite.co.uk/phoney_war.htm.
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