From the looks of it, the whole situation was a concerted effort to let loose the German war machine on the USSR in an attempt to quell communism. Chamberlain also offered Czechoslovakia to Germany. They would rather have fascism run rampant than have to deal the mere threat of communism. Fuck them
This is a big part of it, but imo it’s also important to remember that politicians like Chamberlain wanted to keep up the “peace in our time” talking points, and seemed entirely prepared to ignore clear acts of aggression in western Europe to keep English voters from voting him out. Churchill was at the forefront of the English push for war against Germany to prevent the spread of German rule in Europe, and there’s a lot of speculation over whether or not England would have accepted this proposal if he was at the helm. So, not only did the Chamberlain government want the USSR to suffer, but they weren’t willing to publically accept that war would be inevitable because it would inspire voters to switch to Churchill.
So to say that differently, Chamberlain was willing to let Germany invade France and Poland if it meant keeping himself in power. And would further rather bend the knee to the Germans if it meant peaceful transition of Europe could be a possibility.
I don’t know enough about French politics at the time to make comments on them, but I’m aware some dominant French politicians had the same “peace in our time” mindset. So perhaps they had a similar situation going, idk.
