I am currently reading Peter Hitchens book "The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion". The book places the blaim for the outbreak of WW2 squarely on the United Kingdom. I find this very significant, since Hitchens is a famous main stream journalist and author. Thus, WW2 revisionism is slowly moving into the main stream. Unsurprisingly, Richard Evans dislikes the book. To me, that is a recommendation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phoney_Victory
I would like to quote from the second chapter of the book named "what this book is not", which outlines its major thesis:
"What this book is not":
„...I am saying that the war could have been fought differently and that the British guarantee to Poland, by consciously giving Warsaw control over our decision to declare war, was one of the gravest diplomatic mistakes ever mady by a major country. A.J.P. Taylor concluded in his „Origins of the Second World War“ that the outbreak of war had been the result of mistakes by both sides. I am not so sure. The behaviour of the Foreign Office between March and September 1939 strongly suggests that it sought a war, largely to assert Britain‘s standing as a Great Power. We dragged France, which had similar feelings but also knew at its heart that it was no longer truly great, into conflict. ...“
„But Hitler was quite correct in thinking that, whatever we said, we would not fight for Poland. We did not do so. From the outbreak of war to the surrender of Warsaw and the disappearance soon afterwards of the entire Polish nation, we did nothing to help the Poles. Yet we had solemnly agreed to guarantee their independence in a treaty finally signed on 25 August 1939, less than a week before the German invasion. We could hardly pretend we had forgotten, that we did not mean it, that circumstances had changed or that the agreement had weakened over time. It is an astonishing episode of conscious duplicity, and can only be understood in the following way:
Poland was a pretext for war, not a reason. And it was a pretext for an essentially irrational, idealistic, nostalgic impulse. We were a Great Power, after all. We had to do our duty and stand up to Germany, even if we had no serious weapons with which to do so. We may even have feared (with some justification) that Germany would never provide us with any excuse to got to war with it.“
I find it extremely astonishing to read something like this in a mainstream book. His conclusion seems blatantly obvious to me, but this is blasphemy to the mainstream in Britain. Hitchens wants to dispell this myth of the "good war", which has been used over and over again for waging wars all over the world. He is sick and tired of this and thus has published this book. Kudos to Peter Hitchens."
"The Phoney Victory" WW2 Revisionism in the main stream.
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"The Phoney Victory" WW2 Revisionism in the main stream.
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Re: "The Phoney Victory" WW2 Revisionism in the main stream.
More astonishing statements at the end of chapter 3 of "The Phoney War":
„In the end, Halifax‘s Polish guarantee forced that Left into support for a war iti would once have despised. It did this through a series of very clever chess moves. First, it encouraged Poland to resist what might otherwise have been a workable compromise with Germany. Next, it maneuvered Germany into an unwanted but unavoidable confrontation with Poland, a former ally. Finally, it obliged Britain to declare war on Germany, and Germany alone, if Poland did then (predictably) resist, and if Germany (predictably) reacted by attacking Poland. The maneuvre made an entirely voluntary war look like a response to aggression and a mattre of honour…
The left still like to think that the 1939 war belongs to them, that it was their outrage at Hitler which finally drove the appeasers into action. This is one of the reasons why they have since sentimentalised the war and falsified its history. But it is not true. It was in fact Neville Chamberlain‘s Tories who rearmed the counry and manoeuvred Britain intoo its first People‘s War….“
„In the end, Halifax‘s Polish guarantee forced that Left into support for a war iti would once have despised. It did this through a series of very clever chess moves. First, it encouraged Poland to resist what might otherwise have been a workable compromise with Germany. Next, it maneuvered Germany into an unwanted but unavoidable confrontation with Poland, a former ally. Finally, it obliged Britain to declare war on Germany, and Germany alone, if Poland did then (predictably) resist, and if Germany (predictably) reacted by attacking Poland. The maneuvre made an entirely voluntary war look like a response to aggression and a mattre of honour…
The left still like to think that the 1939 war belongs to them, that it was their outrage at Hitler which finally drove the appeasers into action. This is one of the reasons why they have since sentimentalised the war and falsified its history. But it is not true. It was in fact Neville Chamberlain‘s Tories who rearmed the counry and manoeuvred Britain intoo its first People‘s War….“
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Re: "The Phoney Victory" WW2 Revisionism in the main stream.
Indeed interesting book. I like the timeline he has:
The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion
https://archive.is/zY55G or http://web.archive.org/web/201907271517 ... g/dxEKfZ16
The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion
https://archive.is/zY55G or http://web.archive.org/web/201907271517 ... g/dxEKfZ16
Timeline
Some significant events in this narrative, or relevant to it. I have of course selected them to reflect my biases and preoccupations. Not all are traditionally viewed as major in British accounts of the war. I have left out some events that are very well known, to give prominence to others which are less celebrated but in my view important.
6 February 1922
Washington Naval Treaty ends two centuries of British global naval supremacy.
17 August 1923
Anglo-Japanese Alliance (dating from 1902) cancelled on American insistence.
1 December 1925
Locarno Treaties open way for eventual renegotiation of borders between Weimar Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland, as only recently agreed at Versailles. Józef Beck, Polish foreign minister, later says, ‘Germany was officially asked to attack the east, in return for peace in the west.’
1929
Construction of Maginot Line begins, also undermining French post-1918 pledges to fight future German aggression in concert with Poland.
25 July 1932
Polish–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed.
25 October 1933
Recapture of Fulham East seat at by-election by Labour candidate John Wilmot (who campaigned, among other things, for ‘peace’). Wilmot persuades some Tories that rearmament is an electorally dangerous policy.
26 January 1934
German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact signed.
15 June 1934
Britain suspends repayment of its World War I debts to the USA, never subsequently resumed and worth about £40 billion by today’s values.
25 July 1934
Austrian Nazis murder Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in an attempted putsch. Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini sends troops to the Austrian border and aids Austrian government against the Nazi putschists. Putsch fails.
6 March 1935
British Defence White Paper greatly increases spending on armaments, decried by Labour-supporting Daily Herald on 7 March as ‘an affront to Germany’ and a threat to peace.
18 June 1935
Anglo-German Naval Agreement (like Locarno Treaties) undermines Versailles settlement, gives Germany effective naval supremacy in Baltic.
18 December 1935
Resignation of Sir Samuel Hoare as Foreign Secretary over moral outrage at Hoare–Laval Pact is followed a few days later by similar outrage in France. Any serious Franco-British attempts to detach Italy from Nazi Germany come to an end.
29 February 1936
US Congress retaliates against British suspension of war debt by passing amended version of 1935 Neutrality Act, forbidding all credits to belligerents (later modified in 1937 and 1939, partly circumvented by Destroyers for Bases Agreement of 2 September 1940, and superseded by Lend-Lease Act of 11 March 1941).
25 February 1936
Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance ratified by French parliament. In fact, this pact will remain a dead letter.
7 March 1936
Germany (on pretext of France’s ratification of Franco-Soviet pact) reoccupies Rhineland.
23 October 1936
Belgium begins its withdrawal from military pact with France, nullifying Maginot Line by leaving France’s northern frontier exposed.
13 October 1937
Germany guarantees Belgian neutrality.
12 March 1938
Germany absorbs Austria after a Nazi putsch, successful rerun of the action first attempted in 1934 but prevented, partly by intervention of Mussolini. This time Mussolini, by now a German client, does nothing.
24 April 1938
Konrad Henlein, leader of Sudeten Germans, demands removal of ‘injustices’ imposed on German minority and seeks ‘autonomy’ for Sudetenland. Soon afterwards Henlein establishes paramilitary organisation. Britain (where sympathy for German minority has long been strong) and France urge Prague government to compromise with Sudeten demands.
21–23 May 1938
Rumours (possibly spread by Czech intelligence) become current that Germany is preparing an invasion of Czechoslovakia. They are untrue. Czechoslovakia mobilises, and impression is given that Hitler has backed down. Hitler is furious. Britain is exasperated and increasingly sympathetic to Sudeten grievances; France warns Prague it will not go to war for Czechoslovakia.
20 May 1938
Hitler, seething with humiliation, holds conference at Berlin Chancellery, outlining his plans to smash Czechoslovakia by October.
29 May 1938
Sudeten German Party (SdP) scores landslide victory in Czechoslovak local elections.
5 September 1938
Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš accepts almost all demands of Sudeten Germans. But Sudeten Germans break off negotiations after arrests of two SdP deputies in Moravská Ostrava.
12 September 1938
Hitler, at Nuremberg Rally, vows to ‘protect’ Sudeten Germans.
13 September 1938
Neville Chamberlain requests meeting with Hitler.
15 September 1938
Chamberlain meets Hitler at Berchtesgaden, concedes vital point that Sudeten Germans should be transferred to German rule.
22 September 1938
Chamberlain meets Hitler at Bad Godesberg. Hitler demands immediate occupation of Sudetenland by German troops.
29–30 September 1938
Munich Agreement dismantles Czechoslovakia.
2 October 1938
Polish Army (using tanks) enters formerly Czech Teschen, seizing more territory than originally agreed, but is indulgently allowed to do so by Germany, still hoping Poland will join Anti-Comintern Pact. Édouard Daladier, French prime minister, tells William Bullitt, US ambassador to France, that ‘he hopes to live long enough to pay Poland back’ for its behaviour. USSR also threatens Poland with cancellation of their non-aggression treaty, but backs down.
24 October 1938
Joachim von Ribbentrop invites Józef Lipski, Polish ambassador to Berlin, to lunch at Grand Hotel, Berchtesgaden. Proposes deal over Danzig and Polish corridor, offers Poland Ruthenia (part of former Czechoslovakia also claimed by Hungary) as reward.
27 October 1938
Quintin Hogg comfortably wins Oxford by-election against anti-Munich candidate of combined Left, the academic Sandy Lindsay. Lindsay’s supporters had used the slogan ‘Hitler wants Hogg’.
9–10 November 1938
Kristallnacht state-sponsored pogroms throughout Germany, while police look on, leave no room for doubt that homicidal anti-Semitism is German government policy.
17 November 1938
Anti-Munich campaigner Vernon Bartlett, a popular broadcaster, narrowly defeats Tory candidate at Bridgwater by-election.
5 January 1939
Polish foreign minister Józef Beck has tea with Hitler at Berchtesgaden. Hitler repeats and elaborates on Ribbentrop’s offer. Beck does not accept it.
10 January 1939
Soviet ambassador in Berlin, Alexei Merekalov, tells German Foreign Ministry that USSR desires ‘new era in German–Soviet economic relations’.
25 January 1939
Ribbentrop arrives in Warsaw for fifth anniversary of Polish–German pact. Urges Józef Beck to strengthen alliance, join the Anti-Comintern Pact. Beck shows interest in Ukraine, but rejects proposal, including offer of what remains of Slovakia. Also backs down from earlier interest in a deal over Danzig.
7 March 1939
Rump of Czechoslovakia begins to disintegrate. President Emil Hácha dismisses the Ruthenian government. Three days later Hácha uses force to remove Slovak premier Jozef (Father) Tiso, who flees to Vienna and seeks German ‘protection’.
13 March 1939
Father Tiso meets Hitler, who urges him to declare independence, which he does the following day. Hungary seizes Ruthenia.
14 March 1939
President Hácha requests meeting with Hitler (not, as often claimed, the other way round), travels to Berlin, is met with full honours (his daughter, accompanying him, receives a box of chocolates from Hitler). He is then threatened with military attack by Hitler, appears faint, is revived, agrees to German takeover of Bohemia and Moravia. His foreign minister, František Chvalkovský, remarks as they return home: ‘Our people will curse us, and yet we have saved their existence. We have preserved them from a horrible massacre.’
15 March 1939
At 6 a.m., German troops occupy Prague. German vehicles break down in snow. Pre-printed curfew posters have to be taken down because they are in Romanian.
17 March 1939
Neville Chamberlain, in Birmingham, denounces Hitler’s seizure of Prague.
31 March 1939
Britain and France guarantee the independence of Poland (though both know perfectly well they have no intention of defending Poland if attacked).
10 May 1939
Beginning of Operation Fish, as first loads of British gold bullion are secretly transferred to Canada aboard warships accompanying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their visit to Canada and the USA. About £26 billion in gold and more in negotiable securities will eventually be transferred, by mid-1941, in a series of fast convoys, undetected by German intelligence. Most will be used to pay for the war before Lend-Lease, and so become US property and be stored in Fort Knox, Kentucky, never to return.
23 May 1939
British Parliament approves Palestine White Paper, restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine to 75,000 over the next five years and restricting Jewish land purchases, as German persecution of Jews intensifies. Winston Churchill votes against it.
11 June 1939
King George VI eats hot dogs at Franklin Roosevelt’s private house in upstate New York. Soon afterwards, posters warning ‘Beware the British Serpent! Once more a boa constrictor – “Perfidious Albion” – is crawling across the American landscape, spewing forth its unctuous lies’ are observed on walls in Chicago.
5 August 1939
Admiral the Hon. Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax RN (Soviet foreign minister Molotov will later refer to him as ‘Admiral Nobody’) sails from Tilbury bound for Leningrad aboard elderly steamer City of Exeter at head of Anglo-French delegation to discuss military cooperation with USSR. The journey takes five days.
12 August 1939
Anglo-French delegation finally begin talks in Moscow with Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, People’s Commissar for Defence of the USSR. Admiral Drax reveals he has no formal powers to negotiate on behalf of British government.
15 August 1939
German ambassador in Moscow, Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, receives Ribbentrop’s proposals for Nazi–Soviet negotiations.
20 August 1939
Red Army forces, led by corps commander Georgi Zhukov, defeat Japanese at Khalkhyn Gol (Nomonhan).
22 August 1939
Anglo-French mission to Moscow fails to reach agreement and prepares to leave.
23 August 1939
Joachim von Ribbentrop arrives in Moscow. Film studios (engaged on an anti-Nazi propaganda film) plundered to provide German flags for his route into the city. At 10 p.m. Nazi–Soviet Pact is signed, and Stalin drinks a toast to Hitler.
29 August 1939
Germany, going through the motions of diplomacy but expecting and hoping to be rebuffed, makes final offer of negotiations to Poland. Poland, convinced it has Anglo-French support, spurns the offer.
1 September 1939
Germany invades Poland, which enters an era of mass murder, partition, ethnic cleansing and foreign domination that will continue for decades.
3 September 1939
Britain and France declare war on Germany, but do nothing, then or later, to help Poland.
3 September 1939
After the British and French declarations of war, US president Franklin Roosevelt proclaims, ‘I hope the United States will keep out of this war. I believe that it will. And I give you assurance and reassurance that every effort of your Government will be directed to that end.’
15 September 1939
Soviet Union and Japan agree ceasefire.
17 September 1939
Soviet Army invades Poland.
22 September 1939
German and Soviet armies hold joint victory parade in formerly Polish city of Brest-Litovsk. Shortly afterwards Soviet NKVD and German Gestapo exchange prisoners and begin series of friendly contacts.
5 October 1939
German U-boats granted permission to use secret Soviet port of Teriberka, east of Murmansk.
30 November 1939
USSR invades Finland. France and Britain contemplate intervening on the side of Finland, but do not, in the end, do so.
16 February 1940
British destroyer HMS Cossack stops and boards German freighter Altmark in violation of Norwegian neutrality. Frees large contingent of British prisoners.
9 April 1940
German invasion of Norway begins.
10 April 1940
Second destroyer flotilla of five ships under Bernard Warburton-Lee inflicts heavy damage on a German fleet twice its size. Warburton-Lee dies at his post, on bridge of HMS Hardy. His final signal is ‘Continue to engage the enemy.’
13 April 1940
A greatly reinforced British fleet returns to Narvik and annihilates the damaged German destroyer flotilla. Half of Germany’s destroyer fleet having been sunk, Germany will now effectively be unable to mount an invasion of Britain.
10 May 1940
Germany invades Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.
11 May 1940
RAF bombers attack German city of Mönchengladbach, the first time they have deliberately bombed a city. Among the small number of casualties is a British woman living in Germany.
14 May 1940
German Luftwaffe bombs Rotterdam, destroying much of the ancient city.
26 May 1940
President Roosevelt, fearing British surrender to Germany after French collapse, discusses possibility of US takeover of British Royal Navy in secret talks with a Canadian envoy.
4 June 1940
Dunkirk evacuation ends. British troops will not be in contact with the main body of the German enemy for the next four years and two days, that is, more than two thirds of the duration of the war.
14 June 1940
USSR invades Baltic states Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia under secret protocol of Nazi–Soviet Pact.
3 July 1940
British Royal Navy opens fire on French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir. 1,297 French sailors are killed, but France’s modern battleship Strasbourg escapes owing to weakness of British forces.
16 July 1940
Hitler orders preparations for invasion of Great Britain ‘if necessary’. There are no landing craft. German Navy and Army quarrel incessantly about plans during subsequent weeks, and never agree on best approach.
2 September 1940
Destroyers for Bases Agreement requires first surrender of British imperial territory to USA since War of Independence. In return, Britain and Canada get 40 ancient US Navy destroyers, all of which must be renamed after towns and cities which have namesakes in the USA.
17 September 1940
Hitler postpones invasion of Great Britain ‘until further notice’.
14 November 1940
Roughly two months after supposed defeat of Luftwaffe in Battle of Britain, German bombers attack Coventry by night, killing an estimated 568 civilians.
23 November 1940
Lord Lothian, British ambassador to Washington, tells US newspaper reporters in New York: ‘Well, boys, Britain’s broke; it’s your money we want.’
11 March 1941
Lend-Lease Act (symbolically titled ‘H. R. 1776’) follows stripping of British assets with a carefully controlled flow of war aid. Initially consists of little more than dried milk.
24 May 1941
British battlecruiser HMS Hood, in appearance majestic, in truth far too lightly armoured and obsolete, sunk by German battleship Bismarck with the loss of almost every man aboard her. HMS Prince of Wales, new battleship accompanying Hood, breaks off engagement.
1 June 1941
Almost exactly a year after Dunkirk evacuation, those defeated British troops who could not be evacuated from Crete finally surrender to German forces. More than 12,000 go into captivity. Evelyn Waugh is among those who get away.
22 June 1941
Germany invades USSR.
10 August 1941
Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt (meeting for the first time) and hundreds of British and American sailors take part in joint divine service on quarterdeck of HMS Prince of Wales in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
14 August 1941
Official communiqué (later dubbed ‘the Atlantic Charter’ by the Daily Herald) reveals that USA will not join the war on Britain’s side, and contains several clauses threatening the future of the British empire.
18 August 1941
Butt Report reveals that RAF bombing of Germany is hopelessly inaccurate and ineffectual.
25 October 1941
HMS Prince of Wales leaves Greenock for the Far East on the insistence of Winston Churchill and against the advice of the Admiralty.
7 December 1941
Japan attacks the US fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor.
10 December 1941
HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse both sunk by Japanese land-based aircraft off Malaya.
11 December 1941
Hitler declares war on the USA.
19 December 1941
Commander ‘Johnnie’ Walker (passed over for promotion in peacetime and saved from early retirement by outbreak of war) sinks five U-boats in defence of convoy HG 76, first major victory in Battle of the Atlantic.
15 February 1942
British and Australian forces surrender to Japan at Singapore, 85,000 men go into captivity. Greatest single defeat of British arms in history.
30 March 1942
Frederick Lindemann first circulates his ‘dehousing’ paper, urging deliberate bombing by RAF of civilian housing in cities.
30 May 1942
RAF makes first ‘thousand-bomber raid’ on Cologne.
4 July 1942
British Admiralty orders Anglo-American convoy PQ 17, bound for Russia, to scatter, fearing an attack by German battleship Tirpitz (which never materialises). Two thirds of convoy’s ships are sunk. Worst British naval defeat of this or any war in modern times.
2 February 1943
German forces defeated by USSR at Battle of Stalingrad.
24 July 1943
RAF begins a week of heavy attacks on Hamburg in ‘Operation Gomorrah’. These create a firestorm in which at least 42,600 people die.
23 August 1943
Battle of Kursk ends with Soviet victory, in which Germany definitively loses initiative in war with Soviet Union.
28 November 1943
Tehran Conference opens. Churchill sidelined by Stalin and Roosevelt. Churchill presents Stalin with ‘Sword of Stalingrad’ made by British craftsmen as tribute to Soviet war effort. Marshal Kliment Voroshilov drops it on the floor.
9 February 1944
Bishop George Bell of Chichester attacks the policy of deliberately bombing German civilians, in a speech to the House of Lords.
6 June 1944
Operation Overlord brings British troops into direct contact with the main body of the German enemy for the first time in four years and two days.
4 February 1945
Yalta Conference convenes, effectively appeasing Stalin by handing him control over Eastern Europe. Churchill says afterwards, ‘Poor Neville Chamberlain believed he could trust Hitler. He was wrong. But I don’t think I am wrong about Stalin.’
9 March 1945
Tokyo hit by Operation Meetinghouse, the single most destructive bombing raid of this or any war. 16 square miles of central Tokyo annihilated, over 1 million made homeless, with an estimated 100,000 civilian deaths. (To put these figures into context, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima some months later killed 70,000, and the one dropped on Nagasaki killed 35,000.)
2 August 1945
Stalin, Truman and Attlee sign Potsdam Agreement, which dishonestly promises an ‘orderly and humane’ transfer of Germans from central Europe. The agreement will in fact license untold suffering.
8 August 1945
USSR declares war on Japan.
15 August 1945
Japan surrenders. Historians differ on whether this is brought about by atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or by USSR’s entry into war.
13 September 1945
Last surviving elements of Japanese Imperial Army surrender to British forces in Burma, after a war of great ferocity and bitterness. Britain grants Burma independence shortly afterwards, on 4 January 1948.
8 June 1946
Victory parade, for war originally begun to defend Poland, takes place in London. No Poles take part.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance -- that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
NOTE: I am taking a leave of absence from revisionism to focus on other things. At this point, the ball is in their court to show the alleged massive pits full of human remains at the so-called "extermination camps." After 8 decades they still refuse to do this. I wonder why...
— Herbert Spencer
NOTE: I am taking a leave of absence from revisionism to focus on other things. At this point, the ball is in their court to show the alleged massive pits full of human remains at the so-called "extermination camps." After 8 decades they still refuse to do this. I wonder why...
Re: "The Phoney Victory" WW2 Revisionism in the main stream.
More startling admission in Peter Hitchens book. Churchill started targetin civilians in bombing raids:
"„One startling fact is that the deliberate bombing of civilian targets in World War II for its own ssake was not, in fact, begun by the Germans. It was one of the first effects of Winston Churchill‘s arrival in Downing Street…. Overy records that the deliberate bombing of cities in World War II was not a retaliation against Hunnish barbarism, but definitely begun by the RAF, on 11 May 1940, long before the Blitz. The turning point was a minor, ineffectual RAF raid on the town which was then known as München Gladbach (and is now known as Mönchengladbach) in western Germany. This was not, as some claim, a righteous response to Germany‘s notorious bombing of Rotterdam. It cannot have been, because Rotterdam was not bombed until 14 May, three days later. What is more, German bombing or Rotterdam, barbarous as it no doubt was, formed part of a military operation to capture the city. It was not bombing for its own sake, a tactic not used bevore in the 1939 – 45 war...“
"„One startling fact is that the deliberate bombing of civilian targets in World War II for its own ssake was not, in fact, begun by the Germans. It was one of the first effects of Winston Churchill‘s arrival in Downing Street…. Overy records that the deliberate bombing of cities in World War II was not a retaliation against Hunnish barbarism, but definitely begun by the RAF, on 11 May 1940, long before the Blitz. The turning point was a minor, ineffectual RAF raid on the town which was then known as München Gladbach (and is now known as Mönchengladbach) in western Germany. This was not, as some claim, a righteous response to Germany‘s notorious bombing of Rotterdam. It cannot have been, because Rotterdam was not bombed until 14 May, three days later. What is more, German bombing or Rotterdam, barbarous as it no doubt was, formed part of a military operation to capture the city. It was not bombing for its own sake, a tactic not used bevore in the 1939 – 45 war...“
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
-
Otium
Re: "The Phoney Victory" WW2 Revisionism in the main stream.
Lamprecht wrote:Indeed interesting book. I like the timeline he has:
The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion
https://archive.is/zY55G or http://web.archive.org/web/201907271517 ... g/dxEKfZ16Timeline
[...]
29 August 1939
Germany, going through the motions of diplomacy but expecting and hoping to be rebuffed, makes final offer of negotiations to Poland. Poland, convinced it has Anglo-French support, spurns the offer.
Does he actually substantiate this claimed that Hitler wanted to be rebuffed? As far as I can tell Hitchens doesn't. I searched through the archive using keywords, perhaps not thoroughly enough because I cannot find anymore on this claim. Although it is a claim i've heard before without much reason attached, I cannot imagine it would be true. Simply the way Hitler reacted when war did come should tell us that much.
Of all mornings, this was the one that Schmidt, in bed only a few hours, overslept. Rushing by taxi to the Foreign Office, he saw Henderson enter the building and himself raced into a side entrance. He was standing, somewhat breathless, in Ribbentrop’s office as the hour of nine struck and Henderson was announced. The ambassador shook hands but declined Schmidt’s invitation to sit down. “I regret that on the instructions of my government,” he said with deep emotion, “I have to hand you an ultimatum for the German government.” He read out the statement, which called for war unless Germany gave assurances that all troops would be withdrawn from Poland by eleven o’clock, British Summer Time.
Henderson extended the document. “I am sincerely sorry,” he said, “that I must hand such a document to you in particular as you have always been most anxious to help.” While Henderson would not be remembered for astuteness, retaining as he did a naïve conception of the Führer to the end, he had succeeded in outshouting him and staring down Ribbentrop on successive evenings, feats worthy of some applause.
In a few minutes Schmidt was at the chancellery. He made his way with some difficulty through the crowd gathered outside of the Führer’s office. To anxious questions on his mission, he said cryptically, “Classroom dismissed.” Hitler was at his desk; Ribbentrop stood by the window. Both turned expectantly as Schmidt entered. He slowly translated the British ultimatum. At last Hitler turned to Ribbentrop and abruptly said, “What now?” “I assume,” said Ribbentrop quietly, “that the French will hand in a similar ultimatum within the hour.”
Schmidt was engulfed in the anteroom by eager questions but once he revealed that England was declaring war in two hours there was complete silence. Finally Göring said, “If we lose this war, then God have mercy on us!” Everywhere Schmidt saw grave faces. Even the usually ebullient Goebbels stood in a corner, downcast and self-absorbed.
[...]
Hitler was already preparing to leave the chancellery with his entourage to board a special train bound for the fighting front. Nine minutes before it left Berlin, the Führer sent off a message to the ally who had failed to support him in his greatest crisis. Unlike the telegram to Moscow, this one to Mussolini was sent in the clear and was replete with dramatic phrases. He was aware, said Hitler, that this was “a struggle of life and death” but he had chosen to wage war with “deliberation,” and his faith remained as “firm as a rock.” As the Führer’s train pulled out of the station at exactly 9 P.M. he did not show the confidence of this letter. One secretary, Gerda Daranowsky, noticed he was very quiet, pale and thoughtful; never before had she seen him like that. And another, Christa Schröder, overheard him say to Hess: “Now, all my work crumbles. I wrote my book for nothing.”
Source: John Toland, Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography, (Anchor Books, paperback edition, 1992), pp. 575-576
"Now all my work crumbles" doesn't sound like the words of a man who got what he wanted.
Nor does it sound like Hitler's much lauded and lied about 'life's work' of starting the second biggest war in Human history as many hack job historians claim is legitimate in the slightest. Including this ridiculous claim from Hitchens.
The only possible 'document' I can think he might be referring to is 'Hitler’s Address to the Commanders-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht on 22 August 1939' where it falsely claimed that Hitler said "I am only afraid that at the last moment some swine will offer me a plan for mediation".
Grand Admiral Raeder: “The Führer was not accustomed to using expressions like swine (‘I am
only afraid that at the last moment some swine will offer me some plan of arbitration’); certainly not in my recollection.” 3)
General Admiral Hermann Boehm swore an affidavit before the IMT that neither the sentence referring to the plan of arbitration nor the one about destroying England’s hegemony were ever spoken. It was a question of inventions, pure and simple, just like the word ‘swine’.4)
Field Marshal Erich von Manstein:
“Hitler’s speech on this occasion was the subject of various prosecution ‘documents’ at the Nuremberg trial [of the General Staff]…All this is quite untrue. It is equally untrue that Hitler said anything about ‘his only fear being a last-minute offer of mediation from some pig-dog or other’.” 5)
Source: Udo Walendy, Who Started World War II?, (Castle Hill Publishers, 2014), pp. 460
Even David Irving on page 242 of the Millenium Edition of Hitler's War claims Hitler said this:
With a gesture toward Ribbentrop he announced triumphantly that the foreign minister was flying to Moscow immediately to sign the pact. ‘Now I have Poland just where I want her!’ Now Germany could not be blockaded, because the USSR would supply all the cereals, cattle, coal, wood, lead, and zinc that Germany needed. ‘I am only afraid that at the last moment some Schweinehund might put to me a plan for mediation!’
This entire speech is a controversy worthy of it's own thread, and it's a lot more complicated than revisionists have covered so far because not all the claims have been addressed. I want to make a post on it, but it's difficult to know how to start.
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