"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (5 Viewers)

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GTX said:
As I have stated elsewhere, while people might like to 'beat up' on Chamberlain, one has to also remember that neither Ramsay MacDonald or Stanley Baldwin before him were big advocates of re-arming/going to war either. They were also dealing with the economic situation and a hope to avoid another major war so soon after the 1914 - 1918 conflict. In the case of Baldwin, I believe the following comment from him to Chamberlain in 1938 sums up well some of the thinking: "If you can secure peace, you may be cursed by a lot of hotheads but my word you will be blessed in Europe and by future generations".

The situation now is not the same as then and to make similar comparisons is to oversimplify things.
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Chamberlain shot himself in both feet when he said "I think I can trust Herr Hitler". "Peace in our time..." sure!
 
Chamberlain bought the RAF & Army a year to get closer to ready after the damage done by the small budgets of the 20's and 30's championed by Churchill as the Chancellor of the Exchechor. War in 38 would have been a disaster.
 
wlewisiii said:
Chamberlain bought the RAF & Army a year to get closer to ready after the damage done by the small budgets of the 20's and 30's championed by Churchill as the Chancellor of the Exchechor. War in 38 would have been a disaster.
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I think the worst message from Munich was political, not military. Of course the British and French couldn't fight in that time and place. That plain fact made German pressure on Poland another lost cause, as it was clear the Western Allies could not back up their promises.

Whether Churchill was to blame for small budgets is open to question, given that the Depression was a thing already, and Churchill was not Exchequer after 1929 -- a full six years before rearmament and ten before war broke out. The Ten-Year Rule may have had a bit to do with it as well. Churchill shares some blame for that, but that also predates his assuming the Exchequer.

At any rate, there's no way France and Britain can project power to Czechoslovakia. None. And they had no way to project power to Poland either, in 1939. It's less to do with budgets than with technology and geography not permitting their intervention into a Central/Eastern European war.
 
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Thumpalumpacus said:
Whether Churchill was to blame for small budgets is open to question, given that the Depression was a thing already, and Churchill was not Exchequer after 1929 -- a full six years before rearmament and ten before war broke out. The Ten-Year Rule may have had a bit to do with it as well. Churchill shares some blame for that, but that also predates his assuming the Exchequer.
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That is correct. The ten year rule wasn't as big a factor as a cursory look would have you believe. Also, Britain wasn't expecting
any major military trouble anywhere in the twenties which proved to be the case.

Once the thirties rolled around Churchill was one of the only ones who could see what was coming.

In the end, the government of Neville Chamberlain made the crucial decision in late 1937 that Britain could only afford the buildup of a fighter, as opposed to a bomber, force, but it reached that decision because fighters were cheaper, rather than based on any belief in the efficacy of air defense. Churchill's constant hammering on the lack of preparedness in the air and the importance of air defense supported what buildup did occur and provided much of the narrow margin by which Fighter Command won the Battle of Britain in 1940.

It was fortunate that Churchill stuck to the task as he faced opposition from both sides of politics in Britain;

In April 1938, an exasperated backbencher interrupted Churchill during one of his speeches urging more air defense, crying, 'How much is enough?' Churchill replied that the question reminded him of the man who received a telegram from Brazil informing him: 'Your mother-in-law dead; wire instructions.' The man, Churchill indicated, immediately replied: 'Embalm, cremate, bury at sea. Take no chances.'

Ref: Historynet.com
 
wlewisiii said:
Chamberlain bought the RAF & Army a year to get closer to ready after the damage done by the small budgets of the 20's and 30's championed by Churchill as the Chancellor of the Exchechor. War in 38 would have been a disaster.
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Actually I am not so sure. It also gave the Germans 12 months to further their preparations. This is an aviation site so look at the aircraft in 1938. Almost no Me109E's all D's and maybe C's. The French fighters would have been in a much better place fighting them. He111 aircraft would have been the He111E also a much lower performance aircraft.
For the Army the tanks would nearly all have been Pz1 or II, Pz III would have been few and far between.
 
Glider said:
Actually I am not so sure. It also gave the Germans 12 months to further their preparations. This is an aviation site so look at the aircraft in 1938. Almost no Me109E's all D's and maybe C's. The French fighters would have been in a much better place fighting them. He111 aircraft would have been the He111E also a much lower performance aircraft.
For the Army the tanks would nearly all have been Pz1 or II, Pz III would have been few and far between.
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Some where (can't remember where) I read something like that. While the Munich agreement bought some time for the west to rearm, it also gave that time to Germany and made its armed forces a better equipment also (for example, by late 1938 few Bf.110B and none Ju.88 and by late 1939 hundreds of Bf.110C and some Ju.88).

Also, the defensive position of Checoslovaquia in 1938 was better, with mountains ranges to the west of the country that the one in 1939. And italian support wasn't as firm in 1938 as in late 1939.
 
Thumpalumpacus said:
US intelligence reportedly assesses that China is seriously considering sending weapons to Russia amidst continued pressure from Western sanctions regimes on Russia's defense industrial base (DIB).
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China is facing a fork in the road. If they arm Russia they'll be telling the world that they support territorial gain, and disregard international borders. The US, NATO, EU and ASEAN countries that buy Chinese products and allow Chinese investments in their economies will not forget this.
Glider said:
I am reminded of a comment Churchill made of Chamberlain and the 1938 peace in our time agreement, made with Hitler.
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The only thing I fault Chamberlain for is giving Poland a security guarantee in March 1939 that Britain was either unable or unwilling to enforce. Poland didn't need a British DoW from afar if Germany invaded. Poland needed British forces in Poland beforehand - Hitler and Stalin would have scratched their heads had in early April 1939 a battle squadron and troop convoy sailed around Denmark, right past the German coast and arrived at Danzig, offloading ten thousand British soldiers. A tiny force, but sufficient to challenge assumptions in Berlin. And if our resident contrarians think this impossible, then Chamberlain should have never given the guarantee - leaving Poland to negotiate with either Germany or Russia.

And that's what Obama should have done before Russia took Crimea. Conduct long term USAF, US Army or USMC exercises with the UAF in Crimea in late 2013, including a brief USN visit to Sevastopol. In 2011 the USAF sent F-16s to Ukraine.


View: https://twitter.com/kpszsu/status/1625819699622584320?s=61&t=NcMKKFiLnaG0TPmw7Axd1Q
 
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Feb 25 (Reuters) - Ukraine plans no more outages to ration electricity if there are no new strikes and has been able to amass some power reserves, the energy minister said on Saturday, after months of interruptions caused by Russian bombings.

"Electricity restrictions will not be introduced, provided there are no strikes by the Russian Federation on infrastructure facilities," Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in remarks posted on the ministry's Telegram messaging platform.

"Outages will only be used for repairs."

www.reuters.com

Ukraine has electricity reserves, no more outages planned if no new strikes

Ukraine plans no more outages to ration electricity if there are no new strikes and has been able to amass some power reserves, the energy minister said on Saturday, after months of interruptions caused by Russian bombings.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
Thumpalumpacus said:
Feb 25 (Reuters) - Ukraine plans no more outages to ration electricity if there are no new strikes and has been able to amass some power reserves, the energy minister said on Saturday, after months of interruptions caused by Russian bombings.

"Electricity restrictions will not be introduced, provided there are no strikes by the Russian Federation on infrastructure facilities," Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in remarks posted on the ministry's Telegram messaging platform.

"Outages will only be used for repairs."

www.reuters.com

Ukraine has electricity reserves, no more outages planned if no new strikes

Ukraine plans no more outages to ration electricity if there are no new strikes and has been able to amass some power reserves, the energy minister said on Saturday, after months of interruptions caused by Russian bombings.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
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A quite remarkable achievement.
 
Thumpalumpacus said:
President Biden in a new interview said he is ruling out providing F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine "for now," despite pleas from Ukrainian leadership for the planes in their war against Russia.

"He doesn't need F-16s now," Biden told ABC News's David Muir when asked about the requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"I am ruling it out for now," Biden said, adding that there was no rationale at the moment to provide the planes, according U.S. military leaders.
thehill.com

Biden rules out sending Ukraine F-16s ‘for now’

President Biden in a new interview said he is ruling out providing F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine “for now,” despite pleas from Ukrainian leadership for the planes in their war against Russia. “He do…
thehill.com thehill.com

God-damn, quit dithering. If we're gonna send them later, why not get started now?
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You are not the only person who thinks that.
 
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