Hello everyone,
when we say World War 2, most people, including probably most of us, imagine the classic stuff: the horrors of war, tanks rolling in, planes flying overhead, concentration camps and all the other awful stuff that happened. Few people are however interested in another part of the war – economics. Wartime economics are a complicated topic, that would fill several book volumes (it does in fact), so today, I’d like to write about one certain aspect of the war – the price of the Czechoslovak resistance in gold.
After the Munich betrayal, many politicians (including president Beneš) foresaw the need to assemble sufficient resources to finance the exile movement in case Czechoslovakia was ever occupied (despite the “guarantees” of the British and the French, only very few people trusted their word – after all, once a betrayer, always a betrayer). Surely enough, the worst happened and Czechoslovakia got occupied by nazi armies in March 1939, forcing many officers and representatives to leave Czechoslovakia to seek exile in other countries. Thus, as predicted, the need to finance the entire exile movement arose.
In the first phase, the exile (not yet an official army) was supported by the finances of the Czechoslovak offices (embassies) abroad, that did not accept the destruction of Czechoslovakia and represented its unbroken continuity until the war was over. Especially the ambassador in Britain (J.Masaryk, son of the legendary president T.G.Masaryk) and in France (Š.Osuský) recieved during 1938 large sums of money for “special purposes”. The president in exile, E.Beneš, also donated his professor’s salary and the money he recieved for giving lectures. Third large source early on was the money, collected by Czechoslovaks living in the USA.
Czechoslovak Military Intelligence Service also had its “special” funding. A day before occupation, the 11 foremost Czechoslovak intelligence experts boarded a plane to London. The Intelligence had its own funds on several accounts abroad and for example the Intelligence funds in France were used to finance the escape of Czechoslovak soldiers from Poland and Yugoslavia to France. There was one embassy that surrendered to Germans – the one in Sweden, where the ambassador V.Kučera transferred the building of the embassy and the access to funding to the Germans. He however did not know the password to the account and so it was useless to the Germans. Unfortunately, the data to the accounts got lost during the war and thus the former Czechoslovak money in Sweden are still on an account somewhere in Sweden to this day.
On 21.7.1940, Britain acknowledged the temporary Czechoslovak government in exile in Britain and on 25.10.1940, a Czechoslovak-British military treaty was signed. This treaty, apart from setting the rules for the organization of Czechoslovak units in Britain, also regulated the means of financing these Czechoslovak soldiers in Britain. Czechoslovak soldiers and their equipment were to be entirely paid by Czechoslovaks from a special loan by the British government.
The loan contract was signed on 10.12.1940 for a sum of 7,5 million GBP. The British insisted that the loan was to be covered by Czechoslovak gold, secured in Bank of England. This gold was made previously available by the Czechoslovak government for the (Czechoslovak) war effort.
Czechoslovak gold reserves in September 1938 consisted of 94771 kg of gold. Because of the threat of war, only a small portion of this gold was actually in Prague – 6336 kg. The rest was moved to several foreign banks, especially in Switzerland and Britain (88435 kg). After the Munich treason, the Germans pressured Czechoslovakia to transfer 14,5 tons of Czechoslovak gold from the foreign bank to the Deutsche Reichsbank to cover the value of Czechoslovak banknotes, “acquired” by the Germans during the annexation of Czechoslovak borderlands (the official reason was that it was “a demand of local population against the state of Czechoslovakia and its economy, to which the Germans contributed by their work”). All of the remaining Czechoslovak gold from Prague was then transported to Berlin on 12.6.1940.
As mentioned above, a part of the gold was “saved” by transferring it to the Bank of England in Britain. Specifically, it was 28309 kg of gold on an account, opened by Bank of International Settlements. Another “batch” of gold (26793 kg) was on an account of Czechoslovak National Bank (also in Bank of England). Two days after the German occupation (18.3.1939), two foremost Czechoslovak bankers in Prague (directors of Czechoslovak national bank, F.Peroutka and J.Malík) were arrested, held for a few days and forced to order the transfer of 23087 kg of gold from the BIS account to a Deutsche Reichsbank account. The British complied (despite the unlawful occupation) and the BIS gold was indeed transferred to Germany, which created a huge political scandal (it is often called “financial Munich treason”). After this screw-up, all the transfers of Czechoslovak gold in Bank of England were frozen. The scandal did hit the British finance minister John Simon hard and in the following months, he was forced to answer many uncomfortable questions in parliament.
F.Peroutka on the right:
In the end, the Czechoslovak government in Britain had only the 26793 kg of gold from the CNB account and the ramaining 3706 kg of gold on the BIS account.
There were other sources of funding for the Czechoslovak armed forces in exile as well. One of them was the “tax” the foreign branches of Czechoslovak companies paid to the exile government (those were de-facto donations). Yet another source were the license and patent fees, paid during wartime. The ministry of trade and industry in exile was very active in enforcing these fees in favour of the Czechoslovak government. Typically, these concerned weapons. In one example, when the war started, Zbrojovka Brno rightfully claimed a license fee for the British production of BESA and Bren machineguns (those were license-produced Czechoslovak arms, as you probably know). At that point, this fee reached 450 thousand GBP and due to series of secret deals, it was the exile, who recieved the money, not the “mother” company in occupied Czechoslovakia. When the war started in earnest, the arms production (and therefore the license fees) peaked sharply. As another example: a license fee for one Bren machinegun was 2 GBP (and that was the lowest value). In 1943 in British Enfield factory alone, 1000 Brens were made per week, with the total production reaching cca half a million.
The last (but morally important) source of income were donations of both private and legal persons. J.A.Baťa for example donated significant sums to the exile (this story had a sad ending, but that’s for another time).
The total sum of Czechoslovak gold lost in the war was 45,3 tons – this was not just the national bank gold, but also gold belonging to large companies, such as Škoda. In April 1945, the Allies captured a cache of gold from the Reichsbank in the Merkers salt mines, a part of it being stolen from other European countries. After the reparations treaty from 1946, a special Tripartite Gold Commission was founded in order to return the stolen gold to the countries of its origin. Czechoslovakia claimed 45,3 tons of gold, but recieved only 24,5 tons (not enough gold was found to satisfy all the claims).
The first 6 tons came back to Czechoslovakia in 1947. The situation was however complicated by the February 1948 coup. At that point, Britain started to demand the payments for the loans it gave Czechoslovakia during the war for the war effort and at the same time, they demanded the “Munich loan” to be paid – it was a special loan of 10 million GBP, provided by Britain after the Munich betrayal in order for Czechoslovakia to cope with being forced to surrender its land to Germany. The war loan was acknowledged by Czechoslovakia, but everyone was counting on this loan to be paid by German reparations. Czechoslovakia however never recieved any reparations from Germany. Furthermore, Britain demanded compensations for the property, nationalized after 1948 (this became another sore point of relationships with the west, as the western countries refused to give up Czechoslovak gold and in turn, Czechoslovakia refused to provide any compensations). Soon enough, the USA joined Britain in their claims. Czechoslovakia felt very bitter about it, as it was considered a double betrayal and the entire dispute lasted until 1982. In the end, Czechoslovakia paid Britain 24 million GBP and USA 81,5 million USD as the payments of the wartime loan (to the USA too, for the American surplus equipment) and remaining 18,4 tons of wartime gold arrived in Prague on 20.2.1982. During the Czech/Slovak split, the gold was split 2:1 (two thirds went to Czechs, one third to Slovaks) only to be sold a few years later (in 1998) practically in its entirety by the Czech national bank.
Sources:
www.fronta.cz/dotaz/financovani-cs-jednotek-ve-velke-britanii-zlaty-poklad
www.fronta.cz/dotaz/financovani-cs-armady-v-zahranici
www.fronta.cz/ceskoslovenske-zlato-za-valky
J.Vykoukal, B.Litera, M.Tejchman: Východ (Vznik, vývoj a rozpad Sovětského Svazu 1944-1989)
Lol.
Poor CZ.
Getting raped all the time… (by US, ENG, FR, and lately, EU…)
To say that the UK did as you put it “rape” is extremely insulting. In the 1930, Britain was still recovering from the depression, the carnage of WW1 was not a distant memory by any standard. The UK’s armed forces had been run down by succesive governments, and was simply not in a position to fight in 1938 or 1939 for that matter. After the war, it was Britain that was utterly bankrupt, by those nice smiling yanks, who took all our gold, our bases in the Caribbean, patents on radar, jet engines, you name it. Rationing in the UK continued until the 1950′s. A lot of us today wondered if our parents and grandparents would have bothered if they could see the resentment from certain eastern european countries today, who young seem to idolise the German armed forces, which is somewhat strange, as the plans the Germans had for the “East” ensured nothing but annihilation of its populations.
I’m so glad the author mentioned the BIS, an international bank that conducted business with all sides during the war. After all they were not going to let a war ruin things, as there was too much money to be made. Todays conflicts, as all conflicts are financed by bankers, some would say orchestrated by the banking cartels. War is a racket, always has been.
The only people raping countries, and their citizens to day are the bankers. I’d suggest reading up on the concept of fractional reserve banking, and how it is practised. Then you will see that we are all slaves being raped day in, day out.
They usually forget all that because it doesn’t suit their point of view…
They need to blame someone else, not themselves or Nazi Germany, or Russia…
SS… sorry, but half of that is shite….One small biased part of history does NOT count as a history…
Totally agree. My grandfather and his brothers fought across the world during the Second World War and they were remarkably bitter about the US. My parents can easily remember post-war rationing and the state of the UK all through until the 1980s. (When we were still paying the US for lend-lease). Who needs allies when what they do best is bankrupt you, whilst plowing money into the economic powerhouse of West Germany. For Britain the twentieth century was an economic disaster, with millions of men lost fighting in a Europe that has never thanked us.
Not that I think we were morally right to leave the Czechs in trouble. But practically speaking, there was little we could do.
Maybe not to sign the treaty of munich that ensured that hitler will have enough resources to conquer half europe ? :) At that time brits and french were cowards who paid for their mistake…
Cowards?
How about.. Fuck off?
WE could NOT do anything at the time.. we were NOT ready…
You had only existed for 20 fucking years by then….
Whinge arse.
Czechoslovakia existed only for 20 years back then, but we were ready to fight. Germans were not that strong yet in 1938, even if we fought alone, we would not be easily defeated. Instead, we were forced by our “allies” to give up our fortifications, equipment and resources which Germans later used to invade Poland.
What are allies for, when they are free to backstab you whenever they don’t feel like standing up to their promises?
We forced you?
Why not say fuck off and fight??
We would have…
Dunkirk isn’t real, then…
Now I wonder why that fucking Göring didn’t carpet bomb those idiots.
He is correct, Britain and France in 1938 were much stronger and could easily have stopped the Germans cold, especially if Poland helped. Germany in 1938 did not have nearly enough men or armor to fight outside it’s borders.
How about you FUCK off, you pathetic apologist? Somehow you forgot to mention, that in 1938 German army wasnt really that great. Combined France/UK/Czechoslovak forces were MUCH bigger, better equiped (except slight german advantege in air power, but Luftwaffe wasnt so powerfull as it was in 39-40 yet too. And giving them Czechoslovakia gave them a lot of weapons, especially much needed tanks (you know those 2, Pzkpfw 35(t) and Pzkpfw 38 (t) – which were on par with early PZ IIIs), which they then used with great succes against France/UK forces, not to mention factories producing them.
Yep cowards… and btw i see that breaking agreements and throwing other over under the bus is common thing in britain :)
UK: went into Falklands and Middle East for no apparent reason.
US: financed militarist-sadist governments in Latin America and armed up Iran.
France: Armed up Iraq in 80′s, and built nuclear reactors for Israel.
Everybody is guilty.
“UK: went into Falklands”
Good job, defended their own land against fascist occupation.
“and Middle East”
Good job, helped defend the only beacon of civilization there.
“US: financed militarist-sadist governments in Latin America ”
Epic work, better dead than red.
“and armed up Iran.”
Options were limited, Shah was better than alternatives.
“France: Armed up Iraq in 80′s, ”
Ugh, no argument here.
“and built nuclear reactor”s for Israel.”
Not exactly but good job nonetheless.
So you got 1 out of 6. Not bad for a rabid retard.
“Rationing in the UK continued until the 1950′s.”
Rationing in Poland lasted until 1990.
“A lot of us today wondered if our parents and grandparents would have bothered if they could see the resentment from certain eastern european countries today”
Cry me a river cupcake. You sold us to communist slavery. Four and a half decade of most retarded economic system. Four and half decades of oppression and denial of basic human rights. We bled for you and you dumped us at first opportunity.
Now enjoy being conquered from within.
Hahaha… Laugh out loud…. Cheers from Russia
Well said that man.
OP, you sit there behind your computer in safety free from persecution writing this post attacking the British, English and Americans don’t forget it was these same people who gave their lives so we could all have freedom of speech. Don’t blanket blame a nation with your poison. We all know who is to blame and I see you don’t have the balls to name them.
Forgetting about Hungary, Poland and Germany there as well as the declaration of independence of Slovakia – all took their chunks.
You alright SS? Your english isn’t up to it’s usual standard
Its long text so its quite hard to keep you english as good as at the start till the end
I have also problems with english as im not “natural english speaking guy”
Also at school we had to learn british english while i rather use american one, american is pretty much simplified british english.
Who would have thought countries would act in their own interest and against that of others, and that the real point of signing treaties is to milk your allies while it’s beneficial and betray them when it’s not. It’s called diplomacy.
It`s called policy, Diplomacy is a way to do it and not to get anything hard for this
Czechoslovaks were fine being german subjects till 1918 and contributed much for Reich military industry during WW2 after surrendering without any resistance (apart from that one crazy officer). Why protect people who won’t fight for themselves?
It is a shame that the Ukraine won’t give in to the bullying tactics of RU imperialism you Putin cocksucking RU fanboy. Pre-war Britain and France were stinking with crypto fascists and appeasers and betrayed Czechoslovakia in the vain hope that Hitler would have enough and leave them alone. The USSR would have taken a big bite if they could have just as they did with Poland and as the Russia is trying to do now with the Ukraine now .
Britain still real had no army in 1938, it could say all it wanted but it did not have the means to actually do anything. Appeasement gave Britain a chance to start re-arming and increasing the size and scope of training of the army (with a limited budget as most still went to the RAF and RN).
Even in 1940 the British were not fully equipped or trained – years of cutting the army budgets and lack of commitment to european mainland war – The British army was set up for police action around the Empire not war.
Czechoslovaks were fine being german subjects till 1918
Part of Austro-Hungarian Empire, not the German Empire.
And “fine” is a very bold overstatement, not that there was any real possibility of change until the aftermath of WWI. The same goes for other slavic nations ruled over by Aus-Hun.
and contributed much for Reich military industry during WW2 after surrendering without any resistance (apart from that one crazy officer)
After being effectively betrayed for a false sense of security (that did not last long) by “allies” and forced to give up most, if not all, of the strategic border defense regions/installations there was no chance for mounting any successful defense.
And to top it up, getting gang-banged by Germany, Hungary and Poland doesn’t help either. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Czechoslovakia_1939.SVG/1059px-Czechoslovakia_1939.SVG.png
About that other part: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totaleinsatz
Why protect people who won’t fight for themselves?
Try saying that in front of a living veteran or their relatives and see how that goes for you – after you wake up from the coma.
>Part of Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austrians are ethnic germans. Hitler was austrian. What I meant is that they got independent by chance as charity from Antanta and gave it away just as easy.
>forced to give up most, if not all, of the strategic border defense regions/installations there was no chance for mounting any successful defense.
They had 2 mln army and decent tanks, better than the german ones. Show enough resolve to fight and germans might have reconsidered their plans, they weren’t drunk with victories like in 1940 yet. And don’t give away “most, if not all, of the strategic border defense regions/installations”, unless you don’t mind being occupied later.
They could even call for help from USSR. There was a 1935 czech-soviet-french pact to protect Czechoslovakia.
>Try saying that in front of a living veteran or their relatives
You kinda lost me there, sorry
>Austrians are ethnic germans. Hitler was austrian
Doesn’t work like that. The Austro-Hungary was a conglomerate of many different ethnicities, including slavic people. By equating it to the Prussian empire you’re just embarrassing yourself.
>The Austro-Hungary was a conglomerate of many different ethnicities, including slavic people.
Still their ruling class were austrians weren’t they? Slavic people and hungarians were second-class.
>By equating it to the Prussian empire
I was talking about ethnicity of the rulers and dominating nation. Not all germans are from Prussia.
>Still their ruling class were austrians weren’t they? Slavic people and hungarians were second-class.
The Habsburgs were of germanic descent, yes, but other ethnicities were not second-class. In fact many achieved high status in the government and society, and had relative freedom to self-govern. You’re still thinking of the Prussian Kingdom. Do learn to google, mate.
>Not all germans are from Prussia.
Technically no Germans are from Prussia, unless your history books start at 19th century. That aside, all Germans are from Germany, that how it works. Austrians are germanic, not German. By the way while the British might be called Anglo-Saxons, they’re not part German either. Although following your train of thought I can see why russians have an easy time rationalizing the conquest of fellow slavic countries…
-> he conquest of fellow slavic countries…
Which one? Ukraine is Russia, after all. And always was it. In fact, they are more russians than Russia itself…
“And to top it up, getting gang-banged by [...] Poland doesn’t help either.”
That’s a whole lot of resentment for a tiny bit of contested land that Czechoslovakia annexed by force during the Polish-Bolshevik war…
The rest, I support.
And yet poles resent russians for doing the same thing in 1939, do they not?
Yes, you are right, that piece of land was source of trouble even before these events occured – one of those less fortunate episodes in Czech-Polish relations.
What about the Hungarians? Southern Slovakia during the First Vienna Awards had 86,5% Hungarian. Treaty of Trianon was made not by ethnic border, just by revenge.
“That’s a whole lot of resentment for a tiny bit of contested land that Czechoslovakia annexed by force during the Polish-Bolshevik war…”
Not merely that. It was a preemptive move designed to block the most important key railway connecting Germany with the just conquered lands.
Did anybody mention that the Czechs closed all german schools and removed the german officials from posts to forcibly “assimilate” the area?
Nice way to ingratiate yourself with a third of the population of your newly created country…
jesus christ….. can you even use google :D……
HEY LOOK EVERYBODY, THIS GUY DOESNT KNOW HOW TO USE GOOGLE :D
you can learn very interesting stuff
Troll or asshole? Soviets were Hitler’s allies (not neutrals, allies) in 1939. Anyway, kkthxbie.
-> Soviets were Hitler’s allies (not neutrals, allies) in 1939
This a lie. Molotov-Ribbentrop (23 august 1939) was assigned a year after Munnich (30 september 1938). We were the only country to be faithful to our agreements ” Smlouva o vzajemne pomoci mezi republikou Ceskoslovenskou a Svazem Sovetskych Socialistickych republik”.
I`m really shocked with a fact that noone remembers that.
In fact, Munich was signal leading to allience with germans
Treason, betrayal…?
No.
How else would you call it when your supposed allies sell you to your common enemy?
We call it collusion
you think he made it up?….. we had mobilization of army, our grandfathers were at pillboxes and trenches waiting for germans, hoping that our allies would stop it….. we had treaty with UK France, that they would come to help and stop hitler…..
and what happened?…. they decided that we have to give up our territory with top notch defences to germany….. whole nation felt betrayed…… since then it is called Munich treason (betrayal)…. it is very sensitive topic in Czech republic and Slovakia
how would you feel smartpants?….. if suddenly China and USA decided that you have to leave your home?!
Try reading some history…
Hitler feared the UK, USA and Russia armies the most… no one else could stand in his way…
He made a pact with Russia…
He knew the USA wasn’t up for a fight so far from home..
That left us…
What he failed to realise is that if he had invaded the UK immediately we would have fallen in weeks.. we had absolutley NO chance of repelling him in 1939 or before.. it was more or less only the RAF fighter pilots that saved us in 1940.. that and the English Channel..
Treason, is only against your own country..
Betrayal is selling you to the enemy..
We did neither off those things because we were NOT IN A POSITION TO STOP HIM THEN…
Fucking morons…. blinkered to shit as usual.
Um, even if you weren’t in a position to stop the betrayal, UK still did it.
Speaking of history, the Western nations twiddled their thumbs for a decade when it was clear that Germany was violating the treaty of Versailles. Then they failed to commit forces giving the Wehrmacht time to consolidate troops after the Anschluss of Czechoslovakia and the invasion of Poland, and only started doing anything when it was clear the Wehrmacht won’t stop at Eastern Europe. That’s plenty reason for name calling.
That was a derp. Should be the anschluss of Austria and the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland.
“Treason, is only against your own country..
Betrayal is selling you to the enemy..
We did neither off those things because we were NOT IN A POSITION TO STOP HIM THEN…”
And what the fuck was the Munich pact then?
UK and France sold Czechoslovakia to Germany for few months of peace and when Germany invaded Poland they sat and watched, acting only when France itself was invaded.
Selling?
Really?
How fucking thick are you??
We went in after France was invaded, and we STILL WEREN’T FUCKING READY THEN!!!!!
Jesus…
You lot did fuckall so don’t complain to me…
Go complain to the yanks who were years late.. again…
“Selling?
Really?
How fucking thick are you??”
I’m going to ask again: what else was it then?
“We went in after France was invaded, and we STILL WEREN’T FUCKING READY THEN!!!!!”
And so you gave Czechoslovakia with its industrial capacities to Germany. How did that help you to get ready?
“when Germany invaded Poland they sat and watched, acting only when France itself was invaded.”
Please read some history books. When Hitler invaded Poland, Neville Chamberlin stated:
This morning, the British ambassador in Berlin, handed the German government, the final note, stating that unless we heard from them, by 11 o’clock, that they were prepared at once, to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now, that no such undertaking has been received, and as a consequence, this country is now at war with Germany. We have a clear conscience; we have done all that any country could do to establish peace. The situation in which no word given by Germany’s ruler could be trusted, and no people or country could feel itself safe had become intolerable … Now may God bless you all. May He defend the right. It is the evil things we shall be fighting against—brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression, and persecution—and against them I am certain that the right will prevail.
And so began the second world war in earnest.
Sure they declared the war. And that was all they did.
True
Don’t confuse them with facts…. its not worth the effort…
Facts? You didnt post a single fact here so far, only pathetic attempts, to wash your country hands clean of treason.
Have you read the fucking meaning of “treason”…??
Go find a fucking dictionary…..
Oh yes.. you reckon CZ tanks were good, and that the German army was terrible?
Why the fuck did you roll over then?
Piss off.
And so began the phoney war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War
diginshere, can you read? Where exactly did i wrote German army was TERRIBLE? Or just another poor atempt to attack someone when you have no arguments? Oh and just one quote from WIKI: He quotes Churchill as saying the Munich agreement meant that “Britain and France were in a much worse position compared to Hitler’s Germany”. After Adolf Hitler personally inspected the Czech fortifications, he privately said to Joseph Goebbels, “we would have shed a lot of blood” and that it was fortunate that there had been no fighting.
You said they werent that great… well.. we were fucked from running the largest empire ever built…
“He quotes Churchill as saying the Munich agreement meant that “Britain and France were in a much worse position compared to Hitler’s Germany”.”
…yes.. as in we couldnt fight them at the time… moron.
“we would have shed a lot of blood”
Why didn’t CZ fight then??? Why?? No one seems to answer this…
If the USA/China said to Brits “leave your home, the french are having it” we would have said fuck off and fought to the last man….
The Sudetan was mostly German anyway… it should always have been part of Germany… ffs the Germans were a quarter of the whole of CZ population anyway, nevermind a small corner of it…
and lol.. using WIKI as your source.. nice research…
dingishere. Was expecting you comment on Wiki as source, just remarkably YOU didnt provide ANY source for your claims, yet. So nice research too.
Dingishere, are you retarded? You say Britain and France weren’t ready to fight as if it was a legitimate reason to betray their allies. At the same time you say Czechoslovakia should have fought on its own when it had much smaller army than France or Britain. Fucking hypocrite.
And how the hell did Britain get more ready for war by handing Czechoslovak weapons and industry to Germany?
“If the USA/China said to Brits “leave your home, the french are having it” we would have said fuck off and fought to the last man….”
Now imagine France is several times larger with much more industrial power, larger population, essentially surrounds your country and if you refuse to move you get labelled as the one who started the war. The only reason Britain wasn’t invaded since the middle ages is that it’s an island.
“…yes.. as in we couldnt fight them at the time… moron.”
Of course you couldn’t after you gave them Czechoslovakia.
“Why didn’t CZ fight then??? Why?? No one seems to answer this…”
Because if Czechoslovakia refused to accept the Munich pact, Germany would invade with French and British support
.”it should always have been part of Germany… ”
No, it was part of Czech lands for hundreds of years.
“nevermind a small corner of it…”
It was almost a third of Czechoslovakia.
Oh, I almost forgot: what was the Munich pact if not selling Czechoslovakia to Germany for few months of peace? Asking this for the fourth time, still no answer.
dingishere. Few quotes from non-wiki source:
“Our knowledge of the Wehrmacht’s sweeping Blitzkrieg
victory in 1940 tends to cloud our thinking on this point. In 1938 no
one – neither the Germans nor their opponents – anticipated the Blitzkrieg.
To reasonable German strategic planners, the French and British
empires with friends in Eastern Europe and backing from across the
Atlantic looked like truly formidable opponents.”
“As we have seen, the army
that was planned in 1936 was vast, but it was not enough to give the
Germans a convincing margin of superiority in offensive weaponry,
notably in tanks.”
“Furthermore, whatever the size of the
army, a land-based offensive would never be enough to defeat the British
Empire.”
Those are from: Adam Tooze’s: THE WAGES OF DESTRUCTION.
Nice read about real state of german economy prior and during war.
And i can cite more sources, but seeing as you provided nothing to support your claims i see no reason to trow pearls to pig.
And to that Churchill quote, you are moron, it was meant like you were NOW (eg. after it) in much worse position, you really have problems with understandig written text. Or do you really think Churchil who said also: “We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat … you will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude … we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road … we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: “Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting”. And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.”
Or: “England has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame, and will get war.” will defend Munich agreement?
also you say that british would fight to the last man…. 80k prisoners from singapore says hi. they were twice as big army than japs had and still went for it :)
Colony… not the Motherland…
Oh yes.. how many tanks and planes did either side have there??.
….. oh, and the Bren and Besa were not licensed copies. They were both so redesigned by Enfield that Brno accepted that they were sovereign designs. Therefore Enfield and Brno agreed a license/fee-free co-ownership of those designs. Under this arrangement, Brno actually made some Brens alongside its own ZB guns…
To write this slanted, biased, resentful piece on the eve of Rememberance day, and on the anniversary of the first world war is really beyond the pale. Disgusting.
If in the event Putin or someother fruit cake decides to take over Europe, I’d suggest to our young men not to bother. Don’t make the sacrifice.
Like you will go for war now. Im pretty sure you will find out, that you are not ready yet, too.
explain to me what is biased about this artical? I only see recolection of history….
Remembrance day is on 11.11.
Well said that man.
OP, you sit there behind your computer in safety free from persecution writing this post attacking the British, English and Americans don’t forget it was these same people who gave their lives so we could all have freedom of speech. Don’t blanket blame a nation with your poison. We all know who is to blame and I see you don’t have the balls to name them.
But we pay our respects on the sunday closet to it… you know nothing
Oh yes, let’s have even more Czech nationalist crap. No wonder I only read this blog on occasion anymore.
No big loss from what I see.
Not that you ever are going to read this (or care, as you have shown on multiple occasions) but getting all your information from a SINGLE source is not a very good strategy. Suppose that source is biased in some way, what then? It will be like “Ronson Sherman” all over again.
The sources are in fact multiple, it’s more like a summary.
So your summary is bias then. This half baked Poisonous propaganda although based on fact is your take on what happened.
We have the capacity to read all the facts and formulate our own opinion. Its this kind of negativity that started the whole thing in the beginnings. Hate and stupidity
I’ve always admired J.A.Baťa, so it would make an interesting story even if it’s only tangential to the war.
Aye. I was thinking about that as well, will check if I can find enough materials for an interesting story.
Great article, SS. It is amazing that it is only a few years ago when “big money” was measured in tons of gold, being a tangible thing, stored in vaults and sometimes actually moved around secretly in armored trucks. Before the internet and virtual money, that is.
I don’t know very much about Czech history, so keep it coming!
Typical butt hurt blaming other counties for your own failure to protect yourselves, French and British boys should have died to protect some tin-pot country on the other side of Europe yea right. They bluffed Hitler called it get over it 70 years ago and the butt hurt is still strong over there.
Pardon my ignorace sir, but werent French and British boys dying anyway at the end? And probably in unnecessarily numbers then it would be, if there were no “Munich treaty” as the bulk of fight in conflict would be at the arms of Czechoslovak army, against which most Wehrmacht divisions were concentrated. So it would be Czech and Slovak boys who would lie dead mostly. We didnt want you to won war for us, we just wanted a help from you, as was promised in aliance agreements. To be precise, blame lies on politicians, not common people.
“lay dead” my mistake
I think that’s basically it.
To be fair, Chamberlain was well aware of what another big war would mean for Britain – the US government at the time was looking for an opportunity to bankrupt Britain and thus eliminate Britain as a competing superpower, and that’s what happened. I’ve maintained for a while that while they were technically on the winning side, Britain and France still lost World War 2 – they failed to achieve their stated objective for going to war (liberation of Poland and, by extension, Eastern Europe – they just exchanged one occupier for another, albeit one marginally better) and came out with their power and influence substantially reduced.
However, as Churchill put it so eloquently at the time: Chamberlain and his government fucked up from both a moral and a strategic perspective. It’s true that Britain and France weren’t ready for war in 1938 or 1939 (but whose fault was that?), but rolling over in 1938 only put Hitler in that much of a stronger position relative to the Allies in 1939, making the war that much worse in every metric when it did happen.
Stron_tenk, you know Czechoslovakia had an alliance with Britain and France? If you agree to be in an alliance, you know, then you are supposed to help your allies. And that if you pledge to help someone, and then you don’t help them, when they need it, because whatever, then you are a betrayer.
“Failure to protect yourselves” you write. You know the british “friends” and “allies” who were supposed to help them didn’t help them, but instead told them to hand over all their fortifications to their enemy, don’t you?
Well, I guess either that you don’t know history, or that you are a British nationalist that automatically gets butthurt if someone says something negative about your pathetic little tin-pot country. Probably both. Try to understand: The british Empire is no more.
All decent people today knows, that the Munich Agreement was a disgrace.
Well Mr. SS, I must question your reason for posting this article. I presume a fellow as intelligent as yourself would have expected such a fallout. Then again, you have stated several times before that it is your opinion, and I respect that.
But I must say, I do sense a small jab here and there at the Western powers. I myself am British, and I do wish Britain had helped the Czechoslovakians properly, but alas, history is history. I do believe that Czechoslovakia would have done the same had the positions and most importantly the attitudes had been reversed. Since Britain was very self-absorbed and busy dealing with its vast empire, the sacrifice of a relatively small eastern European country was seen as the thing to do by Neville Chamberlain if it kept us out of the war, a man who was well-known to avoid confrontation at all costs, not to mention that Chamberlain wished to consult the Czechoslovakian and French governments before the Munich Deal but was shoehorned into making quick, unthoughtful, rash and self-serving decisions by Hitler.
Truth be told, and I know from recollections of my grandfather who was a Royal Navy officer in Southampton at the time, large parts of the British public were somewhat offended by the feeling that the “honour and loyalty” qualities of our people had been thrown down the drain. Unfortunately this seems to have been steamrollered by some into being one giant betrayal by the Western powers. What seems more likely is that our government betrayed your country, our people were right there wanting to fight with you, as by that time, appeasement was losing its appeal for Britons.
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