Redstate

By streetwise Posted in History — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sixty-eight years ago today, the Germans launched their long-anticipated invasion of France, which shattered the world geopolitical balance forever. The Western democracies, which had dithered infamously in standing up to the Nazi juggernaut during the 1930’s, should at least have had the ability to keep their homelands free. But their war planning was poor, and they did not show the ability to improvise in the face of reverses, which are a certainty in all wars. France collapsed ignominiously in seven weeks, despite many acts of bravery by its soldiers.

As for Britain, it was a damn close thing several months later. Good weather for the Dunkirk evacuation, Spitfires & Hurricanes, exceptionally brave pilots, British stoicism and the providential arrival of Winston Churchill as PM were all that kept the swastika from flying over the Houses of Parliament as well.

A look at the campaign can be found here.

We have a lot of good military minds on RS, who are more qualified to comment on military history than me. I would like to focus on something else- that dithering mentioned above. What the hell were the elites of France and Britain thinking beforehand?

By and large, the historical record shows that they weren’t thinking much about their own security. They were dilatory in responding to German rearmament. They did nothing when Hitler remilitarized the Rheinland, dismissed preemptorily as Hitler’s own “back garden”. They threw away the chance to defend Czechoslavakia, which could be defended, and gave a guarantee to Poland, which couldn’t be once the Czech state had been destroyed with Allied consent. And for the eight months of the “Phoney War”, the less said the better.

Their negligence is better understood when viewed in the context of the 1930’s. The British and French governing classes were into navel-gazing of the most determined sort, concentrating almost exclusively on the distractions of domestic affairs. These were certainly engrossing. The French Third Republic pursued its traditional pastime of revolving, ineffective governments and juicy scandals like the Stavisky Affair.. And three years before the fatal war with Germany, the Popular Front government of Leon Blum made the 40 hour workweek its top priority. One of its slogans: "tout est possible" (everything is possible). Is that French for "Si, se puede"?

Meanwhile, across the Channel, the Brits were caught up in the
Abdication Crisis, where even Churchill showed a lack of judgment regarding King Edward VIII and his obsession with Mrs. Simpson. Afterwards, the Brits' gentlemanly politicians, of whom the phlegmatic Stanley Baldwin and the earnest Neville Chamberlain were such typical representatives, continued to slouch towards their nation's almost fatal rendezvous with destiny.

But life was pleasant in the country houses and the chateaux, right up until the time the bombs started falling and the arrival of the jackbooted thugs.

A salutary lesson for our times, I think, on this quiet Sunday when we honor those who bring life into this world, which must be protected from its destroyers.