Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "Knowledgia" channel.

  1. Wouldn't being attacked at Pearl Harbor and then having the Germans declare war on them have made that somewhat difficult?
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  2. Indeed. The 13 division of the BEF were evacuated. Possibly because the over 100 divisions of the Belgian & French armies either had collapsed or were in the process of collapsing.
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  3.  @remittanceman4685  Correct.
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  4.  @iansneddon2956  I wonder if, when the Germans couldn't devise a workable scheme to get troops across the English Channel, Mr. Barry would explain how they could find a way to get troops and aircraft to Ireland. In short, which ships, which aircraft, and what might the Royal Navy think of the attempt. In other words, utterly impossible.
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  5. The Germans had a small number of merchanised armoured and infantry divisions, but the vast majority of the German army used the horse. Indeed, a typical German WW2 infantry division in 1940 was barely distinguishable from one of 1916.
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  6.  @iroscoe  Indeed. I have seen his rants on other sites, although I have not worked out what all these references to 'leaking' are meant to mean. I suppose that, when your nation failed as badly as France did in 1940, it is a so much easier to blame everyone else. I am surprised he didn't lambast Luxembourg for not doing more to defend France, however!
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  7. Think about it yourself. How would they invade, without any assault ships, and with a tiny fleet, across a seaway defended by the largest navy in the world?
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  8. At the time of Dunkirk, the Soviet Union was had close, friendly, relationships with Germany. There was a possibility that, had most of the BEF been captured, a British Government led by Halifax might have accepted a humiliating, French style, armistice. Of course it was a turning point. Events 12 months later could not have been foreseen.
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  9.  @sam1111979  The Toulon scuttling proves nothing. The war situation in November 1942 was far different than that of July, 1940. Moreover, the Armistice imposed by Germany required that the French fleet return to Atlantic ports, where it would be placed under German supervision.
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  10.  @davidpryle3935  What do you think was happening in North Africa, and subsequently in Italy, in 1942 & 1943.
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  11. Perhaps because American, British, & Canadian servicemen gave their lives to liberate France?
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  12.  @Anton-kp3mi  The resistance could not have been anything more than a nuisance without the knowledge that regular, well-equipped, forces were on the way. It might perhaps be considered unfortunate that many of the French victims of the holocaust were actually rounded up with the assistance of French collaborators and French local government officers. Incidentally, the Allied High Command did not believe that the bombing was ineffective, although I agree that they over-estimated how effective it could be.
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  13. The last of the BEF were not actually evacuated until 25 June. 51 Highland were lost when the French force to which they were attached surrendered. Had they not done so, Admiral James' evacuation fleet was waiting offshore to lift them out.
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  14. But the result of the action was to make the incoming French government aware of the probable consequences if the French fleet was used in an attempt to support a German landing. Much more importantly, it convinced FDR that the advice being given to him by Joseph Kennedy was wrong, and that the British were not about to come to terms.
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  15.  @herrmannwerrmann3854  Most kind of you. I know precisely how much credibility to give to an article headed 'Hitler – the forgotten candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize,' which uses David Irving & William Joyce as sources, which claims that Poland attacked Germany, and which claims that 'Churchill wanted war. Churchill was a war criminal. Churchill did not want peace. He wanted the war to go on as long as possible,' when Churchill didn't even hold a government position of any sort between 1929 & September, 1939, when he joined the cabinet of a country already at war. Even ploughing through this demented nonsense, the only actual alleged peace proposal is a reference to Hitler's supposed 'Appeal to Reason' made after the British attack at Mers el Kebir made it obvious even to him that they were not going to fall in with his needs and agree an armistice. Even then, the Appeal, which basically said 'surrender or we bomb you' was less of a peace proposal than a threat. The other eleven to which you referred simply do not exist.
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  16. Unfair. Just because an army is defeated does not indicate cowardice.
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  17. The so-called 'Shingle Street' incident tells a similar tale. However, the reality at Shingle Street seems to have been that troops based in the area had looted empty homes, and the government imposed restrictions on any reporting, which led to the subsequent urban myth. Personally, I would have expected that, had any sort of German attack of this sort been attempted and defeated, the last thing the British government would have done would have been to seek to hush it up.
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  18. Invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium, and France might be considered an unusual way of trying to avoid war.
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  19. So, you have airborne drops on Southern England, Wales, & Scotland? In May 1940, the Germans had 4500 trained paratroopers, and lost around a third during the campaign in the Low Countries. Moreover, by September, 1940, they had only just over 220 transport aircraft. How would you propose getting these non-existent paratroopers across. At the very least, Wales & Scotland are far beyond the range of fighter cover, and Ju52s were even more vulnerable than Ju87s without serious protection. 'Dropping a few Airborne divisions in a small locale' Except, as I have said, the Germans had no such resource. Their only airborne division was at less than 1/3rd strength. 'Naval Blockade?' With what? The German surface fleet at the time consisted of one heavy cruiser, three light cruisers, seven destroyers, a similar number of smaller, escort type destroyers, and about a dozen minesweepers. The RN had over 100 destroyers and light cruisers in Home Waters, backed up by the Home Fleet of battleships, battlecruisers, and heavy cruisers. You might as well suggest that the Belgian army should have invaded Germany in May! 'It would certainly bode very badly for the British once the Germans got across the channel.' The operative word here is 'once.' The Admiralty had put plans in place which were designed to ensure that this never happened, and the Germans, in the end, were wise enough not to put them to the test.
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  20. Why would they have wanted Hitler to attack Poland, when the terms of their alliance meant that this would require a declaration of war? The alliance was intended to be a line in the sand, to halt further German expansion, and thus prevent a general European, not precipitate one.
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  21.  @tadeuszczernia5422  No. From start to finish, Hitler's true enemy was the Soviet Union. Read what Trevor-Roper wrote in his book. The attack on France was intended to prevent her interfering with his eastern ambitions.
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  22.  @tadeuszczernia5422  As I said, read what Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote. The German attack on France was intended to ensure that Germany would not need to fight on two fronts. Hitler had condemned Kaiser Bill for this. However, his hopes for a one front war collapsed when Britain refused to play ball. It was a gamble, and it failed.
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  23. Actually, the British bombed Berlin in response to German bombs landing on London the night before.
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  24.  @Brian-om2hh  I know. However, I expect Churchill didn't.
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  25. How did the French and British persuade Japan to attack Pearl Harbor, and then persuade Hitler to declare war on the US? What was this peace with Britain that you imagine the Germans offered? At best, a humiliating surrender/armistice akin to that accepted by France, along the lines of Hitler's 'Appeal to Reason' which basically said 'surrender or we bomb you.'
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  26. Actually, the Admiralty had been assembling a register of small vessels of between 30 & 100 feet in length since 14 May, for potential use as Harbour Defence Ships.
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  27.  ERWIN DUBOIS  Would you include as 'Cowards' the British, Canadian, & American servicemen who died to liberate France in 1944-5 after France fell apart in a couple of weeks in 1940?
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  28.  ERWIN DUBOIS  Why should you think it significant that a small number of French units took part in the liberation of France?
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  29.  ERWIN DUBOIS  What you describe as a 'diatribe' most normal people see as simple facts. Would you have been happier if the Allies had left France in German hands? Eventually, wouldn't the French puppet administration have run out of slave labourers to send to the fatherland?
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  30.  ERWIN DUBOIS  So, in your world there were more troops in the 10 French Divisions than in the 20 British Divisions which were active in Europe at the end of the European war?
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  31. The US didn't show much inclination to join the war against nazism until dragged into it by the Japanese & Germans at the end of 1941. Who was going to stage the 'violent coup?' The right wing elements, never more than a tiny minority, had declined into irrelevance after September, 1939. The most notorious, Mosley, was interned in May, 1940.
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  32. Indeed, the French 1st Army fought very gallantly. Which doesn't really explain the performance of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th & 9th armies.
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  33.  @theflyingpig6361  Of course. Isn't your enemy more likely to come to terms if you have 300,000 troops in a prison camp, than if his troops have been miraculously lifted out of harm's way?
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  34. George Orwell, hardly a raving reactionary once wrote 'The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.' The vast majority of people in the UK are, I believe, proud of their country, but the so-called 'opinion formers' who dominate the BBC & public life have a different agenda.
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  35. The BEF and around 120,000 French troops were not 'evacuated via various means but especially the small boats, mainly fishermen from SE England.' The vast majority were evacuated by the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine.
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  36. My money has always been on Montgolfier balloons.
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  37. It would be really peachy were you to choose to substantiate your claim 'The genocide of billions by English' by providing accredited sources and evidence. You can't? Oh, what a surprise!
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  38. Because it isn't true, perhaps? Immediately after WW1, British governments regarded Germany as a bulwark against the westward expansion of Communism.
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  39.  @FiveNineO  When did Germany try to negotiate peace multiple times? The Western Allies viewed the Soviet Union as the lesser of two evils, and allied with them on the grounds that 'my enemy's enemy is my friend.' Similarly, the Allies didn't help the Soviet Union to take over half of Europe. Rather, they prevented them taking over all of it. Hess was never released because he was convicted of war crimes.
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  40.  @FiveNineO  I have tried to find a source for the alleged German peace offers, without success. I am in good company, as no other credible historian has either. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but Britain & France did not go to war to save Poland. The alliance, with the threat of a declaration of war, was intended to be a line in the sand, which would prevent further German aggression, and thus avoid a general European war. 'The war had barely started at this point.' Really? Tell that to the countries occupied by Germany in early 1941. You are right that Hess wasn't convicted of war crimes, but he was found guilty on two counts: crimes against peace (planning and preparing a war of aggression), and conspiracy with other German leaders to commit crimes. He was never released because Spandau was located in West Berlin, and its existence gave the Soviets a foothold in that sector of the city. Hence, the Soviets repeatedly vetoed it. In fact, the British made 11 unilateral appeals for Hess to be freed. The Americans and French supported them in a further nine. The Soviets always refused to consider the case.
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  41.  @FiveNineO  Traditional British foreign policy has always been to maintain a balance of power in Europe, hence the wars at regular intervals against France up to Waterloo. When the British weren't actively fighting people like Louis XIV or Bonaparte, they would at least finance people who did! That rather changed with the unification of Germany in the 1870s, when the British began to see Germany as the greater potential threat. The Entente Cordiale with France was seen as a means of ensuring that Germany did not come to dominance in Europe. After the carnage of WW1, both Britain & France were willing, with massive support among their populations, to seek to appease Germany in order to encourage her to tone down her territorial ambitions, and avoid a general European war. Of course, we all know how that ended!
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  42.  @justinklinck6575  'They would have found a way, man.' Would they? Odd, then, that they didn't, don't you think?
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  43.  @justinklinck6575  After Barbarossa, the Soviets and the British/Empire were going to win, however long it took. The likelihood is that the Soviet Union would have occupied much more of western Europe.
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  44.  @justinklinck6575  'You would have lost if not for the U.S.' Was what you said in your first post. I observe that you are now diverting from that comment.
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  45.  @Hshs726sjyz  No. The Royal Navy saved Britain in 1940. The Soviet Union, however important a role it may have played from late 1941, was in 1940 Hitler's best pal, supplying him with the raw materials needed to continue his campaign. You even say that yourself later in your post. 'I guess if Germany wouldn't have had attacked the Soviets with time if they built up their navy and airforce they could surely have invaded Britain.' Hardly, British & Canadian shipbuilding resources were vastly greater than those available to Germany, and the British were outproducing Germany in aircraft, and particularly in fighter aircraft, from as early as mid 1940.
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  46. Why would Hitler possibly want to let the British escape? Answer, he didn't. Von Rundstedt issued the halt order, and Goering had already told Hitler that the Luftwaffe would destroy the Dunkirk pocket.,
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  47.  @b.baggins8893  The Germans missed their opportunity because of the land-centred understanding their commanders had of warfare. To von Rundstedt and his peers, an army with it's back to the sea was trapped, and could be finished off at leisure. To the British, with centuries of understanding of the role of sea power. An army on the coast had a wide-open escape route, courtesy of the Royal Navy.
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  48. 'Hitler offered to withdraw from Poland if they could have Danzig and other pre-WW1 German lands back.' Really? Documentary source for such an offer, please.
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  49.  @johnphillips4776  What did he do, and what did you think he wanted to do?
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  50.  @johnphillips4776  The 1943 famine in Bengal was brought about by a combination of the arrival of refugees, hoarding by profiteers, inability to import food supplies from Japanese occupied areas, the Bengal Administration keeping the facts secret from London, and the refusal of Franklin Roosevelt to release shipping space. Once the facts became known to the government in London, the distribution of food relief was handed over to the Anglo-Indian army, and grain convoys diverted from Australia to India. The worst charge that could be laid against Churchill is that he ought to have known about the situation. After all, there wasn't much going on in the world in 1943, was there? Are you seriously naive enough to believe that Churchill would have engineered a famine in India at a time when 2.5 million Indians, all volunteers by the way, were serving in the Allied forces? Perhaps you simply believe all the propaganda spoon fed to you? The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran was a pre-emptive measure, intended to protect oil supplies. At the time, Iran was ostensibly neutral, but in reality pro-German. People like you, pontificating sagely at a distance of 80 years, may not like the idea, but nations in wartime will take whatever measures they deem necessary in order to survive. What 'plan' to starve Kenyans?
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