September 3, 1939

Half a lifetime ago, I studied British history and that's what I'm posting about today.  Everyone knows about Munich when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain cut a deal with Hitler to give the Sudetenland areas of Czechoslovakia to Germany.  But then on March 15, 1939, Hitler sent German troops into Prague and occupied the rest of the country.  No longer did Hitler seem like the kind of fellow the British could do business with.  Where would the Germans move next?  South was their ally Italy.  North was water.  West were France, the Netherlands, and Belgium.  The British were already committed to come to their aid.  The only practical direction for Germany to strike next was East -- against Poland.  On March 31, 1939 Chamberlain told the House of Commons if the Germans moved into Poland that his government would consider it an act of war.  He drew a line in the sand.  (My thesis covered this ground.)  On September 1, 1939 the Germans crossed that line and invaded Poland.  After two days of telling the Germans that they really meant it this time, the British declared war on Germany.  Sixty-seven years ago today World War II began in Europe.