soc.history.war.world-war-ii

"Rich Rostrom" wrote

> 1991?

1991 is 17 years ago, shocking as that might seem. And lots of the Soviet
archives have become available since then, and some German material also.

> Well, Kershaw has pretty much the same
> take in his book _Hitler 1939-1945: Nemesis_ (2000).
>
> He wrote
>
> Despite all warnings, his plans -
> at every turn backed by his warmongering
> Foreign Minister - had been predicated
> upon his assumption that Britain would
> not enter the war - though he had shown
> himself undeterred even by that eventuality.
> It was little wonder that, if Paul Schmidt's
> account is to be believed, when Hitler
> received the British ultimatum on the
> morning of September 3, he angrily turned
> to Ribbentrop and asked "What now?"

The OP's original claim was "Hitler seems to have believed they would not
fight this time". Kershaw says that Hitler's plans were 'predicated on an
assumption' that Britain would not declare war. A personal belief and an
assumption for planning purposes are not necessarily the same things: I may
believe that the moon is square but assume for planning purposes that it is
round.

Hitler certainly make his plans as if Britain would not honour its guarantee
to Poland, but whether or not he actually believed that Britain would not
declare war is another matter. On that point, we simply don't know for
certain, but taken as whole, what indications we have from Hitler's
behaviour, psychology and comments to others points to the probability that
he knew perfectly well that Britain would honour its guarantee and that his
order of 1 September to invade Poland would bring about the world war which
he so ardently desired. There are plenty of other occasions where Hitler
knew and believed one thing and planned on the basis of the opposite.

Note, BTW, that Kershaw with the benefit of later archival sources correctly
identifies Schmidt as a uncorroborated and possibly dubious source.