The First World War brings an end to most imperial regimes, but on the eve of World War II, the British Commonwealth of Nations continues to stretch from North America to Southwest Asia, encompassing nearly one-quarter of the world population. By 1938, two decades have passed since a generation of young British men were lost in the trenches of France and Belgium, and there remains little public appetite for another such conflict. When Hitler, backed by a rebuilt German military, threatens to reclaim the Sudetenland—a portion of Czechoslovakia that includes three million ethnic Germans—the British pin their hopes on diplomacy to defuse tensions.
BRITAIN
German air raid on London, September 194O
- PRELUDE TO WAR
- BRITAIN
They join with French officials in brokering a compromise, convincing Czech leaders to cede the Sudetenland to Hitler in exchange for a mere promise the Nazis would reach no further. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain claims victory, declaring the agreement “peace for our time,” but the appeasement strategy proves a clear failure when an emboldened Hitler orders an invasion of Czechoslovakia just six months later. With Poland next in Hitler’s crosshairs, the British respond more forcefully, pledging to answer any attack on the central European country with a declaration of war.
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