Figure 1.-- This is a real color, not cooorized photograph, the Germans were leaders in color photography. It was taken during the summer of 1938, some where in southern Germany. The NAZI press was stiring up the rhetoric against Czechoslovakia to a fever pitch. There were soldiers every where, notice how excited the boys are. Goebbels propaganda machine liked to photograph tanks, but the soldiers were mostly on foot, and stayed that way throughout the War--the only exception was the Afrika Korps in the Western Desert.

Hitler was finally bin a strong bargaining position by 1938. His rearmament program had greatly strengthened the German military--all branches. And the military spending had not been matched by the British and French. And on the ground, Britain and France were in no position to even reach the Czechs with military aid. No one at the time, however, appreciated the fatal weaknesses of the French Army, even the Wehrmacht which feared a possible war. The British Army was still tiny. Any fighting would have had to be done primarily by the French Army which was intent on staying behind the Maginot Line. Another factor is that if the war had begun in 1938 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1940 rather than 1941, there would have been no T-34 tank to stiffen the Soviet defense. German Army movements were everywhere that summer, especially in southern Germany and Austria bordering Czechoslovakia. The Czechs had a highly motivated army and strong defenses, but there was no way of getting material aid to them, even if the British and French had been disposed to try. The Czechs faced a huge German Army, but it was in the air they were particularly concerned, as were the British and French. The Luftwaffe had demonstrated its prowess in Spain and its bombing capabilities. Luftwaffe Chief Herman Göring extend a 'friendly' invitation to his French counterpart (August 1938). The new chief of Staff of the Armée de l'Air Gen Joseph Vuillemin (February 1938-July 1940). What really stunned Vuillemin was Göring's demonstration of dive bombing which the French had rejected as impractical. He and his predecessor were pessimistic about the ability to stand up against the Luftwaffe, even before the visit. Göring put on quite a show, stunning Vuillemin with the Luftwaffe's capabilities. The French air military attache in Berlin, Paul Stehlin, noted that his reporting had been ignored. Even after this visit, there was no major French effort to modernize the force or bring it to a state of readiness. There was no modern equipment such as radar and very little radio communications or radio navigation equipment-. This was an area -as the RAF under Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding had been focused on. If the war had begun in 1938, however, the Allies would have been hopelessly outclassed in the air. According to the French Minister for Air, the French would have had 600 planes to face the Luftwaffe's 6,500 modern planes. [Freidel, p. 303.] The RAF had begun to receive new fighters, but despite Dowding's herculean efforts would have faced Luftwaffe with a fighter force that would have been mostly biplanes

Created: 2:12 AM 5/23/2011
Last updated: 2:12 AM 5/23/2011