1 September – 1939 Hitler invades Poland to liberate German people living under Polish occupation since the end of the First World War
2 September 1939 – Debate in Parliament – Conservative leader Neville Chamberlain proposes no knee jerk reaction.
Labour deputy leader Arthur Greenwood voices anger at PMs reluctance to honour Britain’s treaty with Poland.
3 September 1939 – A cabinet meeting is held at which Churchill presses for a declaration of war on Germany. Churchill gets his way and war is declared by Britain.
As a consequence millions of UK and German citizens will die. Many millions more Russians will die. Hundreds of millions of eastern European citizens will be condemned to live under a totalitarian Soviet dictatorship for forty years.
Was it worth it?
If Britain had not declared war what would have happened? Hitler would have focussed his attention on expanding into mainland Europe and exploiting natural resources in Africa and the Middle East. It is very doubtful that he would have wasted his time attacking Britain. If Hitler had been successful in capturing significant areas of Russia it is likely that the Soviet Union would never have have been created as we knew it.
Eventually, as always, Hitler’s regime would have over extended itself and collapsed, with a new order replacing it.
Without the war Britain would not have had to rely on immigrants to staff its essential services and allow businesses to expand. It could have focussed on maximising economic success instead of wasting huge resources on the war effort. Was it really worth sacrificing millions of young British citizens in order to avoid this alternative future which in many ways could have been better than what actually happened?
What do you think? Would the world have been a better place in the second half of the twentieth century if Churchill and the other warmongers had been outvoted by the more pacifist Jeremey Corbyns of this world and refused to declare war?