Should, undoubtedly.
Could, I'm not so sure... the British army in 1936, even in 1938, was minuscule (compared with the German one) and woefully ill-equipped and underprepared...
Meanwhile, the French army was French-staffed and French-led <vbg> More seriously, the French were geared only for a defensive war, not an aggressive one; and were again very antiquated, expecting a re-run of WW1-style tactics and practice.
If we'd had better bluffers, stronger characters, in charge - Churchill and de Gaulle, for example - then Hitler would probably have backed down nonetheless if confronted over the Saar, or maybe the Rhineland - after that it was too late, IMO, he'd have known he could win comfortably if war had started in 1938 precisely because we were so unready. |
