@SgtBlitz:
Hmmm, historically, Germany had just signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union in Aug 1939, in which they partitioned Poland. The West viewed this as a stab-in-the-back since Hitler’s Germany was supposed to be a bulwark of Western civilization against the Communists in Russia. A lot of Western politicians (Neville Chamberlain, specifically) had also been willing to back Hitler through his aggressive tactics in acquiring the Rhineland, Austria and Czechoslovakia from 1936-1938 since he had been such a loud and fierce opponent of the Communists. A lot of the decision to declare war by the Western Powers on Germany if it invaded Poland was based on the weariness of playing the back and forth both sides game between the East and West. Plus obviously Hitler could not be trusted.
Though, Germany DID backstab the Reds in Jun 1941, only 2 years after signing the non-aggression pact, so invading in 1940 probably wouldn’t be that much different… Wonder how Larry is going to put in the peace treaty between the Reds and Germany at game start? Or if its possible to reswitch alliances between the East to West again and be at peace with France and UK at beginning?
With the Soviet militarization and industrialization (begun in the late '20s), and Germany’s militarization (begun in the early '30s), many felt conflict between the two sides was inevitable. But it was far from clear that the Western democracies would take the German side. Motivated by some combination of pro-communism and anti-Germanism, the French government signed a defensive alliance with the Soviet Union in 1935. The Czech government did the same thing that same year. Many felt that if or when war came, it would be Germany on one side and the Western democracies plus the Soviets on the other. The Germans would stand no chance in such a war, which is why many nations chose pro-communist/democratic foreign policies in the late '30s.
The fact that things didn’t turn out that way was not due to any lack of eagerness on the Western democracies’ part. The plan failed because of Joseph Stalin, who regarded both the Nazis and the Western democracies as enemies. Knowing that Germany would be roughly equally matched in a war against Britain and France, Stalin hoped for a long, grinding, devastating war between the two sides; similar to WWI. A war which did not involve the Soviet Union. After the Nazis and the Western democracies had been bled white fighting each other, the Red Army would move into the heart of Europe to fill the resulting power vacuum.
In 1939, France and Britain made two specific promises to Poland:
1. If Poland was invaded by Germany, the British and French would declare war on Germany. This promise did not apply to a Soviet invasion.
2. France would launch a full-scale invasion of Germany within 15 days of the start of the war.
While the first promise was kept, the second was ignored. Poland, having relied on false promises from the French government, was put in a terrible position. The Polish government had opted against reconciliation with Germany (which would have required the return of Polish-occupied German territory) or a reconciliation with the Soviet Union (which would have required a significant westward adjustment of the Polish-Soviet border). The Polish foreign policy would have represented a serious calculated risk even if its Western democratic allies had kept their promises. The fact that they didn’t turned Poland’s foreign policy into sheer suicide.
The next question is why the French government chose to mislead the Polish government both before and during the invasion of Poland. While there are many possible explanations for that, I feel the below is the most likely.
1. The French government had decided it was time to go to war against Germany. By the spring of 1940, Allied military strength in France–in terms of men and tanks–was equivalent or superior to its German counterpart. Plus Britain and France, combined, had significantly more military production capacity than the Germans.
2. To persuade the French and British people to go along with that war, some trigger was needed. A German invasion of Poland was one potential trigger.
3. The French wanted a defensive war, especially after their experience in WWI. French military doctrine of 1939 was based on fighting on defense, a fact reflected in the French military’s construction of the Maginot Line.
The deliberate sacrifice of Poland would have represented a way for the French government to get the defensive war against Germany it thought it wanted. While other possible explanations of the French foreign policy of 1939 could perhaps be devised, the idea that the French government was somehow trying to help Poland is not supported by the evidence.