late '38: 8 39+: 10 You, the reader, probably think of Great Britain as a committed Ally. Indeed, given their commitment to Poland, and the fact that the Poles fought, the British honored their commitment. However, at the time this was unexpected, at least in Germany. Given the Soviet - German treaty, Britain could not hope to affect things in Poland. Hitler expected that the British would be realistic, and conform to their earlier pattern of backing down. Maybe there should be a chance for Chamberlain to, yet again, find Peace in his Time. But Great Britain had decided a war would have to be fought. German aggression elsewhere, say in the upper Balkans, the Baltic States, or even directly against the USSR, would not necessarily bring Great Britain into the war. Closer to war, perhaps. But part of the point of the appeasement policy was to let Germany focus her attention to the East, not the West. A war between Germany and Russia, with Britain and France on the sideline, may not have stayed that way, but it could have conceivably stayed that way short of either side gaining a significant advantage. Great Britain would have been upset by German moves into Romania, Greece or Turkey. Indeed, Britain "guaranteed" these three countries in May 1939 just as they did for Poland, helping to annoy Italy and drive her toward Germany. German invasion, coupled with resistance, in any of these countries would have precipitated the war. An accumulation of some number of German successes would have brought Britain into the war as an opponent of Germany on some pretext, regardless of how it started. Any German move into Scandinavia, the Low Countries, or against France would be expected to bring Great Britain into the war directly. Adding Politics to Your WWII Game A Model Introduction Poland Great Britain France, Belgium, Holland Italy USSR USA Spain and Portugal Hungary and Romainia Yugoslavia and Bulgaria Greece and Turkey Finland Norway, Sweden, and Denmark Political Event Table Treaties Back to Table of Contents -- Against the Odds vol. 1 no. 2 Back to Against the Odds List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by LPS. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com * Buy this back issue or subscribe to Against the Odds direct from LPS.