@Baron:
In it, they got the testimony of Hitler’s translator. When he said UK declares war, all the chiefstaff of Hitler turned silence and astonished. It seems they weren’t prepare to declare war against UK.
The twist about it, I think is pretending about Hitler’s motive. He maybe surprised because he probably thought that France and UK will let them go without risking war but got it in his face.
Hitler’s earlier territorial gains – the remilitarized Rhineland, Austria, the Sudentenland and the rest of Czechoslovakia – had been achieved without war. Had he been given the opportunity, he would no doubt have been happy to keep acquiring territories without going to war, in view of the very favourable gain-to-cost ratio that this method delivered. The method, however, couldn’t keep working indefinitely until he had conquered all of Europe without firing a shot; sooner or later, it would be realized that the only way to stop him was by putting up a fight. France and Britain finally (and reluctantly) came to that conclusion when Hitler abrogated the Munich Pact and absorbed the rest of Czechoslovakia. Even then, the response of France and Britain to the invasion of Poland was half-hearted at best: they declared war on Germany, but took little action on land (though the war at sea was another story). France mostly just sat behind the Maginot Line. Britain dropped leaflets on Germany rather than bombs. Both countries basically planned to just stay in place for a few years until they had built up enough strength to feel confident that they could attack, while at the same time hoping that Hitler would be overthrown by a coup and that everyone could go back home without bloodshed. Unfortunately for them, this left Hitler in the driver’s seat strategically, and he took full advantage of their apathy – which he had counted on, or at least hoped for.
If there’s any truth to the notion that Hitler was dismayed or shocked when France and Britain declared war on him, I’d guess that it would have been over the risk that France and Britain might actually take serious military action in the West while the bulk of Hitler’s forces were tied up in Poland. Some of his surviving officers have said that, if there had been a major Allied offensive in the West (where Germany had no armoured forces), the Wehrmacht could only have resisted a couple of weeks. Hitler hoped, however, that France and Britain would essentially do nothing while he dealt with Poland; this in fact turned out to be the case, so he won his gamble.
For reasons of ideology in the East, and of revenge for WWI and Versailles in the West, Hitler’s long-range plans did ultimately include war with the USSR and France – but in 1939, his attitude towards war with both countries was similar to St Augustine’s famous remark “Grant me chastity, but not yet.” He wanted to get his timing right so that he could deal with his enemies one at a time. He wanted the USSR and France and Britain to give him time to deal with Poland; he wanted the USSR to give him time to deal with France and Britain; and he wanted to deal with the USSR after he had cleared France and Britain from the chessboard. Britain, not being part of continental Europe, was a country with which he hoped he could avoid war altogether (amphibious operations not being to his liking), or which he at least hoped he could persuade to come to terms with him after he had knocked France out of the game.
