What if Czechoslovakia didn't give in?

The French did indeed send in troops into Germany in fact a total of 9 Infantry Divisions and support staff equalling something like 130,000 troops were sent into the Saarland mainly around Saarbruken but it was an occupational force and not an offensive force. Hitler had said had the French launched an invasion Germany would be in no position to repulse it.

 

The Cezch defenses were intact during the 'Munich Crisis'. The Gemans did not get to occupy the Sudentland until a few days later after the Cezch government gave in to British pressure to accept the agreement. The Cezchslovak army withdrew during the following weeks. The Cezchs knew the Geman soldiers in their army would be unreliable in a fight with Germany, so they had removed those soldiers & battalions from the combat units. The defenses were manned by Cezchs, Slovaks, Ruthenians, ect...

"With the technology Hitler had in equipment,and in the Blitz. From all I have read and seen most action that would could have been taken would have been delaying tactics."

The Wehrmacht & Luftwaffe were far from able to reproduce the battles of 1940. Even against the Poles in 1939 there were some tactical failures. As I mentioned earlier there was a large lag in preperation of the artillery and questions about artillery ammo supply. The panzer divsions had a much larger ratio of light to medium tanks than in 1939 & 1940, and there were only four complete panzer divsions.

With the best of the Wehrmacht concentrated against Cezchkoslovakia it would be more of a stand up battle for a couple weeks with heavier casualties on the German side than seen in 1939 or 1940. When France starts offensive action the Germans are faced with a choice; of withdrawing good units from Bohemia to reinforce the Rhineland, or a high risk of a French army disrupting the Ruhr. looking over the German OB for Case Green it does not seem thay have enough combat ready corps to defend both fronts, let alone continue offensive action into Bohemia.

The bottom line is when the French army attacks into the Rhineland Hitler is toast. If they dont then Hitler gets bohemia ect... But, the Cezch army equipment is wrecked and cant be used to equip ten Wehrmacht infantry divsions against Poland and France. The tanks for two panzer divsions are likely lost as well. A lot less Cezch industrial production would be available due to sabatoge and other disruption. Finally the funds in the Cezch banks and govermnment treasury would be quickly placed out of reach of Germany. Those funds were critical for leveraging the later phases of Hitlers rearmament. The economic loss of a full blown war in 1938 would be as fatal to Hitlers plans as French heavy artillery pounding Essen.

So evn if the Wehrmacht stuggles through to Prague it will be a fatal victory.

 

The Germans would have done what they always do (and did) and make an end run around the Maginot Line and go through Belgium. England would have declared War to protect Belgium. And I bet we'd have the Invasion of France early. Now how would that affect the Eastern War? The Czechoslovakians would have been able to hold out. The Sudaten was as fortified as the Maginot line without the weakness of the Belgian frontier. And the largest arms factory in Europe was in Czechoslovakia. Poland's invasion wouldn't have occurred until the Germans controlled at least two sides, namely Czechoslovakia. And I doubt Stalin would sign a treaty with Hitler after France and England joined the war. On the positive side while the Nazis were making their end run for Paris. The French would have been devastating the Rhine valley and may made it to Berlin before the Germans made it to Paris. Especially since, if memory serves me the German military in 1938 was an order of magnitude smaller than the French military.

 

Well it not as favorable situation as he French had in the earlier Rhineland Occupation by the Wehrmacht, but it looks better in hindsight than the historical choice. A pity the French military did not have better intellegence analysis of the German capabilities. Had they not misled themselves the French marshalls may have urged war in 1938 instead of discouraging it.

And just in case anyone has not read the same discussion here:

http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/10518-czechoslovakia.html

 

The way is was explained to me was that Chamberlain when he flew to Munich had his first plane trip with awful weather so was already feeling ill and then Hitler showed him a military review where the troops marched passed Chamberlain and Hitler kept on till the rounded a corner came back around on the next street over and turned a corner to complete the loop. Thus making Chamberlain convinced that the German military was endless. Chamberlain was so terrified he backed down and the French didn't want to go to war alone and eventually conceded to Chamberlain's fears.

 

Chamberlain was also quite aware how poorly prepared the British Army & the RAF were for war in 1938. He had read and listened to dozens of reports from his Ministers, Marshalls, and Admirals describing the inadaquate weapons and inferior numbers.

Goering pulled the same sort of trick with aircraft. He would delay delivery of new aircraft so they filled the factory parking areas when forigen visitors visited. As soon as the tour deoarted the aircraft would rushed to their destination, where a few days later the same VIPs would see & count them again. Operational squadrons were circled from one airfield to another chasing after these visitors.