Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 I watched "Munich, The Edge of War" on Netflix last night. It's based on Neville Chamberlain's dealings with Hitler on the issue of the Sudetenland and trying to avoid war. Darned good film with Jeremy Irons as Chamberlain. I don't know how many of the details were pure fiction but it's a subject that has not been touched on very deeply other than the fact that Chamberlain was duped by Hitler and it cost him his position as Prime Minister. Good acting and a thriller of the old school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chantry Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 I haven't watched it yet, but I have spent quite a bit of time reading WWI history. I sometimes wonder if Chamberlain has been treated fairly by historians. In 1938 the British weren't ready for war and I doubt the French were in any better shape for war. I know for certain the U.S. wasn't ready for war. Hitler certainly acted as if Germany was ready for war, although I believe I have read that in fact Hitler was probably bluffing and that Germany was no more ready for war than the United Kingdom and France. Whether the British and French knew that is not something I know. Knowing his country wasn't ready for a war, did Chamberlain make the right decision to sign an agreement he hoped Hitler would keep while he tried to get England ready for war? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 Posted January 24, 2022 Author Share Posted January 24, 2022 Chantry, you are right about all that. France had the largest army in the world at that time but they were set up for a defensive, WWI trench-style war, not one of fast movement, i.e. "blitzkrieg". In any case Hitler bluffed them all.. I just read that the Munich conference was filmed in the same building the real thing happened. Definitively worth watching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 I have read that had Chamberlain stood up to Hitler, the German General Staff was prepared to remove him! When Chamberlain appeased Schikelgruber, there was nothing for the generals to do but go along with the invasion of Poland and the rest of WWII. I was taught in freshman AFROTC that deterrence only works if a nation is willing to use it, if necessary. Part of the problem with Russia and its leaders is there is an institutional paranoia about being invaded from outside. This is somewhat understandable as Russia has been invaded by the Mongols, Napoleon and Germany. But Putin also has visions of restoring the power and hegimony of the Soviet Union (don't forget he was head of the KGB). While we are not going to start WWIV (the Cold War was really not so cold and I call it WWIII), it is going to be interesting to see what we will do if Putin does invade the Ukraine. I would hope that the types of umbrellas at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are not the ones that Neville carried when he got off the plane to proclaim "Peace in our time!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 Hmm... Wonder how our defenses are around the Fulda Gap? Just in case... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chantry Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 4 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said: Hmm... Wonder how our defenses are around the Fulda Gap? Just in case... American combat ground forces are slim in Europe. It consists of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany which is composed of Strykers, it has the expected artillery, engineer and other units one would expect of an independent brigade sized force. The other unit is 173rd Airborne Brigade in Italy, also with the expected supporting units There are 4 brigade equipment sets, enough for a division (my guess is for either an armored or mechanized division) and a maritime pre-position squadron in the Mediterranean which contains enough equipment for a Marine expeditionary brigade. Add the 82nd Airborne and the U.S. has roughly the equivalent of 3 divisions that can (probably) deploy with in a week. After that it will depend on the unit and available airlift. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 14 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said: Hmm... Wonder how our defenses are around the Fulda Gap? Just in case... The Fulda Gap is now irrelevant since it is surrounded by NATO. Countries must be crossed to get to it. In Soviet years it was a focal point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubious Don #56333 Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 Fulda Gap. We spent a lot of man-hours figgering out ways to bottle them pesky-russkies up there long ehough so's the cavalry could come-A-stormin' over the hill. A common theme was three days for that to happen and our forces there weren't much but a speed bump. My old First Sergeant said if we can get clear of the kaserne and disperse like we were supposed to, we might just make that but chances were, minutes, not hours or days was our expected lifespan. That was when we had hundreds of thousands of troops there. And a plan. Today, there ain't no plan and Germany is effectively sabotaging the rest of NATO. The other countries aren't much help and Vlad can pretty much do as he pleases IMO. FJB is an id10T. 100,000 Russians and he's putting 8500 on alert? Hocus-pocus would be better than that. State already declared a level 4 but find yer own ride because we ain't doing it. (repeat of Afghanistan I suspect) There are already reports coming out of the UK's arresting teams of Russians behind the lines disrupting things like infrastructure and such. And all because there's probably some other deal a certain basement dummy has with them not-the-Russians and the fact that Putin doesn't like globalist idjits telling him what to do. This ain't 1914 and it sure ain't Sept 1939. Whatever it's going to be, all we can do is watch the show. Because it's just a show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 Sad the way many of our leaders either didn't read history or have ignored it, for what ever reason. Manchuria; Ethiopia; Sudeten Land; Austria; Czechoslovakia; then Poland; France; Belgium; Finland; Norway; Denmark etc. etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.