According to the ’mainstream’ history of the WW2, the Second World War broke out when Nazi Germany attacked Poland. Hence, the answer to this question appears to be obvious: WW2 was started by Nazi Germany on September 1st, 1939. Right?
Wrong. Dead wrong, in fact. On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany started a local war with the neighboring Poland (exactly why it did so is an interesting question that I will cover in one of the following posts). The Second World War started on September 3rd, 1939, when France (and especially Britain) declared war on Germany. It is a very little understood, but nevertheless indisputable historical fact.
Why is it so? Because by declaring war on Germany, Britain essentially forced all its colonies and dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India – which at that time included present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh) to do the same. So did France – to its colonies. Which almost instantly (actually, by September 10th) transformed a significant but still very much local armed conflict into a full-fledged world war.
‘Mainstream’ historians would say that because Britain and France on March 31st 1939 pledged support to guarantee Polish independence and on August 25th Britain and Poland signed the so-called Agreement of Mutual Assistance, both governments had no choice but to declare war on the ‘German aggressor’. As this agreement promises of mutual military assistance between the nations in the event either was attacked by some “European country” (according to then-secret protocol, very specifically Germany).
Unfortunately for the ‘mainstream’ historians, there was a small problem with that guarantee. Lord Halifax – then Foreign Secretary of the British government, on the very next day after that agreement was signed, quite openly stated: “We do not think this guarantee will be binding“.
Polish publicist Stanisław Mackiewicz stated in the late 1940s: “To accept London’s guarantees was one of the most tragic dates in the history of Poland. It was a mental aberration and madness“.
These two statements are more than enough to kill the arguments of mainstream historians right then and there.
In terms of Realpolitik, it meant that the British government by no means considered itself to be bound to offering any military assistance to Poland if the latter is attacked by Germany (let alone declare war on the Third Reich).
Which means that there was nothing ‘automatic’ about the decision by British government to declare war on Nazi Germany on September 3rd, 1939 (ditto for the French government). It was a deliberate choice to go to war – and a very strange choice at that. At least for Britain.
Why? Because Hitler on literally dozens of occasions made it loud and clear, plain and simple that he had no desire to have war with Britain and that the Third Reich did not and never would be a threat – neither to the territory of the United Kingdom proper nor to its dominions and colonies (Poland was obviously neither). France was (no less obviously) an entirely different matter due to the Alsace-Lorraine issue.
Both Britain and France essentially bluffed when they ‘guaranteed Polish independence’, because there was no way they could have prevented a quick and decisive defeat of Poland. iHiHitler obviously knew that and called their bluff by invading, defeating and occupying Poland – all in less than a month.
And on September 17th when the Soviet Union invaded Poland through the eastern Polish border, the Poles got another iron proof of the cynicism of the British government.
On that day, the Polish ambassador in London, Edward Raczyński, contacted the British Foreign Office pointing out that clause 1(b) of the abovementioned agreement which concerned an “aggression by a European power” on Poland, should apply to the Soviet invasion. The Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax calmly responded that the obligation of British Government towards Poland arising out of the Anglo-Polish Agreement, was restricted to Germany, according to the first clause of the secret protocol.
The French were not much better (if not worse). According to Polish historian Piotr Zychowicz, French ambassador to Poland, Leon Noel, as early as October 1938 wrote: “It is of utmost importance that we remove from our obligations everything that would deprive French government the freedom of decision on the day when Poland finds itself in war with Germany“. French foreign minister Georges Bonnet reassured Noel, writing that “our agreement with Poland is full of [deliberate] gaps, [which we] needed to keep our country away from war“.
Which proves beyond the reasonable doubt that the decision by British and French governments to declare war on Nazi Germany had little (if anything at all) to do with German invasion of Poland. Exactly why they did that (and whether it was a good idea) is a subject for one of my future posts, but it is painfully clear that neither government was forced by Hitler to declare war.
It was a conscientious, not automatic decision which means that the Second World War, indeed, was started not by Nazi Germany on September 1st, 1939, but by Britain and France on September 3rd, 1939.
The Essential Guide to Nazi Germany 