“The British did not start the war.”
True. But they and their French allies were hypocrites in that they declared war on Germany due to their alliance with Poland while saying NOTHING about the Soviets who had simultaneously invaded Poland. Myself, I do not find the bombing of Dresden or any other city to be the most shameful episode of that war, no, what I find shameful is how the West allied themselves with the pigs and rapists from the Soviet Union so as to appease their own left wing populations.
General Patton was right that we should have crossed the Rhine and kept going on to Moscow and put an end to the scourge of Communism once and for all.
“General Patton was right that we should have crossed the Rhine and kept going on to Moscow and put an end to the scourge of Communism once and for all.” Patton was a GREAT General HOWEVER if he would have “invaded” the Soviet Union(Russia) he would have suffered the SAME fate as Hitler, and Nepolean(sp?) did. Russia like their Skythian(sp?) ancester will and always have used “Defense in Depth” Russia is 11 time zones wide and invading it will ALWAYS over stretch you supply Lines and LOCs. And General “Winter” will ALWAYS get you. Sherman Tanks, M-1 Garands and US Soldiers dow just a poorly in -50 Deg F Winter Weather as Tiger Tanks, Gewher 98 and Weirhaht(SP?) Soldiers did.
Not exactly. Germany invaded on 1 September, USSR on 17 September, after Poland had more or less been defeated.
The Soviet rationale for their action was that they were acting to protect the (largely) Byelorissuan and Ukrainian population of eastern Poland against German aggression now that the Polish state had collapsed.
It was a pretty threadbare excuse, and if the Allies had been able to get there, they might have very well wound up at war with USSR when it invaded Finland.
The issue of Poland is sad, but not as disgraceful as what occurred with Czechoslovakia at Munich.
The USSR didn’t invade until after the Britain and France had already declared war on Germany. The honorable thing to do would have been to also declare war on the USSR, but practically, they would have had zero chance of defeating or even defending themselves from an allied USSR/Germany alliance.
The USSR had declared that they were invading Poland to save it from Hitler. I doubt anyone believed that, but motivation was a moot point unless the Germans could be defeated first.
All of that said, the Germans left almost nothing in Germany to defend against the French. Even then, having declared war, the French and British sat on their hands until attacked by the Germans, who had time to reposition after taking Poland.
Had the French taken their tanks and airforce and attacked into Germany, while the German army was beginning its attack on Poland, they might have actually kept the Germans from taking Poland and simultaneously kept Stalin from jumping off into Poland.