Europe Misread Lesson of Appeasement
As historian Richard Overy noted in his 2021 book Blood and Ruins: The Great Imperial War 1931-1945
https://www.amazon.se/-/en/Richard-Overy/dp/0713995629
the modern use of “appeasement” as a pejorative term to describe any failure to act firmly against threats to Western security is misleading as a description of British and French strategy in the 1930s.
It is more useful, he argues, to describe this strategy in terms made familiar during the Cold War: “containment and deterrence.”
A vital part of the British and French strategy in the 1930s was what, even then, was called deterrence. Both moved from limited military spending to large-scale and expensive military preparation.
“Rearmament was not a sudden reaction to German moves against Czechoslovakia and Poland,” Overy writes, “but a policy that had been pursued, often with considerable domestic protest, since at least 1934
In his 2017 historical novel Munich
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Robert-Harris/author/B000APBPA4
Robert Harris attempted to rehabilitate Chamberlain’s reputation by presenting the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia, as a necessary move that bought Britain and France time to continue rearming.
So far, fine words are not yet translating into sufficient action. With the exception of Germany, the pace of rearmament across the continent is slow.
Simon Nixon Bloomberg January 23, 2026
The first production Spitfire (Mk I) entered service with No. 19 Squadron at RAF Duxford on August 4, 1938. Deliveries were initially slow. By the time World War II broke out on September 1, 1939, the RAF had nine squadrons equipped with Spitfires, with a total of 306 aircraft in service and 71 in reserve.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/when-was-the-spitfires-ready-f-TmHW15yjR7.ih5EXjJKMRA#0
Biggles should certainly have a Home Page
Läs här en underbar introduktion till Biggles värld ur Stefan Mählqvist: Biggles i Sverige:
Stridsflygaren Bigglesworth kom att konkretisera en ödeskamp där vi själva aldrig deltog, men ändå gladde oss över att rätt sida vann.
För många vuxna i efterkrigsårens Sverige tedde sig nog Biggles-böckerna som uppbygglig lektyr, det var ungefär som att i frikyrkliga barnahänder sätta fromma berättelser om hednamissionens framgångar i mörkaste Afrika.
Biggles bidrog till att inlemma oss i en västlig gemenskap, politiskt och kulturellt. Att läsa om de engelska piloternas bedrifter gav en känsla av lättnad i efterhand, att retrospektiv rättvisa råder. Det är de duktigaste och modigaste pojkarna som vinner till slut, så var det under andra världskriget och analogt bör det vara så i alla historiska konflikter.
Förr eller senare blir det rätt. Caligula mördas, Rickard Lejonhjärta kommer hem från fångenskapen, Richelieu dör - om inte förr så på dödsbädden.
https://internetional.se/Biggles.html
Som sig bör fanns det också en kvinnlig variant - Worrals
Kommentarer