What if Germany started the war after 1940?

Answer 1

It is my view that Germany did NOT start the war, as Britain actually declared war on Germany a year earlier, conveniently ignoring that fact that the Russians escaped a similar declaration by Britain and France even though the USSR also invaded Poland albeit later on (and eventually Finland, Estonia Lithuania and Latvia) but EQUALLY tore Poland apart with Germany in the re-organisation of Polish territory. The British pretence of "saving Poland" was not only a lie; it was proved as such by the de facto surrender of Polish territory to the Russians in 1945 by the Western allies. The British declaration of war was not even strictly legal as it was done without the consent of Parliament at the time and this coming from a nation that had conquered a quarter of the planet! It took Hitler - and Germany with just over 75 million people - barely 9 months to conquer Europe with an amazingly small loss of life, both militarily and in terms of civilian casualties, at least if one compares it to previous attempts in Europe's millennia's long history. Up to the surrender of France on June 25th, the periods of active hostility barely lasted more than 1-2 months at a time. Compare that to a SINGLE major battle in the Great War, a quarter of century earlier, which in its own right could last several months with the loss of hundreds of thousands of men and casualties numbering a half a million or more. What Hitler achieved for Europe up June 25th was nothing short of a miracle. Now, compare that to the deliberate and continued execution of the war by Britain, despite numerous well documented attempts by Germany to conclude a peace, resulting in the re-conquest of Europe by America, Russia and Britain, which took nearly 60 months and cost Europe TENS of MILLIONS of dead soldiers and civilians, and STILL did not ensure peace in Europe without a massive superpower build-up and nuclear stand-offs. It further enslaved millions of Europeans to communist oppression that would last for half a century. All this achieved by three world powers that between them had a combined population of several hundred millions and controlled some 24+ million square miles of the earth's land area - nearly 50% of it! At the end, Germany was decimated and Britain was so bankrupt and indebted to the USA that it took another 60 years to pay off war loans and indirectly brought about the collapse of the British Empire - an Empire Hitler admired and no doubt had intended to emulate in Europe (and probably would have done with relatively little loss of life, again, comparatively). For all this we are supposed to be happy that Nazi Germany was defeated? Hitler stands as probably the greatest man in German and European history only to be cut down, dragging Europe with him, and creating the multi-racial nightmare by 'modern' European politicians as a fitting epitaph to the slain of Europe's battlefields. What a total waste of human life and energy. So, it's not a case of what if Germany had started the war AFTER 1940, but what if Britain had accepted peace terms, then Europe could have entered a golden age of creativity, the British Empire would probably still by in existence and the Soviet Union crushed.