Could Hitler have been stopped? Could the Second World War have been prevented by bolder and more assertive action? Need Britain have fought the Second World War at all? Hitler: Could He Have Been Stopped? I, 5 Select 2023
‘I don’t believe that anything is inevitable. And yet, at the same time, it was going to be extremely difficult to have stopped Hitler once he had come to power.’ ibid. Tim Bouverie
‘There is nothing inevitable about the period from 1933 up to 1939.’ ibid. Professor John Bew
‘If you want to know whether a war with Hitler was always going to happen, the answer is yes. Was Britain involved in it? That is Britain’s choice.’ ibid. Professor John Charmley
There is a powerful argument made that appeasement in the 1930s gave Great Britain the time to rearm and to build the Spitfires and Hurricanes that were going to win the Battle of Britain and eventually with help from the Empire, the United States and Russia, to win the Second World War. There was a counter-argument that Chamberlain and his government of appeasement were in retrospect both weak and deluded. But there is another perhaps more accurate narrative that British politicians under the influence of public opinion failed to understand to facts that Hitler was determined of war. ibid.
‘We made a big error in implementing the Treaty of Versailles.’ ibid. Frank McDonough
Nothing was done when Hitler invaded the Rhineland … Czechoslovakia was betrayed at Munich ibid.
‘The more Hitler had dealings with Chamberlain, the more contempt he felt for him.’ ibid. Professor Sir Richard Evans
Britain had changed its opinion. The reluctance of Britain and France to make an alliance with Russia … led Stalin and his new Foreign Minister Molotov to see that Russia’s interests lay in a treaty with Hitler. ibid.
Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement had completely failed and he was forced to resign. ibid.
By standing alone in 1940 and the first half of 1941 Britain however denied Hitler the victory, and this is the crucial point. Had Britain come to the peace table after the fall of France or refused to fight … then there is no doubt in my mind that we would be looking back upon decades of a continent, indeed perhaps a world, which had been dominated by the Nazi regime. Hitler: Could He Have Been Stopped? II
If Hitler had Europe, Britain could have its empire. ibid.
‘The discussions that then took place about peace in May 1940 were an absolutely crucial moment in British history.’ ibid. Andrew Roberts
‘In the debate in Churchill’s cabinet it’s Chamberlain who comes to his defence and he turns against his old friend Halifax.’ ibid. Professor Frank McDonough
Then an extraordinary error of judgement: Hitler declared war on Russia. ibid.
Britain was now part of a world war it was ill equipped to fight. ibid.
‘Fighting a war of limited liability helped the British.’ ibid. Professor Frank McDonaugh
War debts to the United States were not paid off until 2008. ibid.