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An account of the Allied defeat in Norway
The document is an account of the Allied defeat in Norway, owing to what is known as the Phony War phase of World War II (WWII) wherein Britain and France went on the defense instead of engaging the Germans on the Western front. The document also outlines the now-reviled outcome of the European policy of German appeasement in the skirmishes leading up to the war. It details the failure of the infamous British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in curbing German aggression, especially after the Allied loss of Scandinavia in the 1940s. The voice of the document's author is one that was far too muted in the onset of the war; it laments Europe and Britain's underestimation of German capabilities and the situation on the ground.
Following the invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939, most of the Allied forces were slow to react. Britain and France were the only two nations in Western Europe to attack Germany right away; the Soviets had actually gone as far as to sign a treaty of non-aggression with the Nazis, welcomed by Hitler as a means of consolidating the war into a single European front. European general appeasement of Germany was shocking; even the Scandinavians who would later fall under the flag of the swastika did not venture to defend themselves. With the exception of what would become the dominated Norwegian armies, Scandinavia fell despite British and French aide. European inaction and failure to mobilize cost the Allies dearly, with Germany easily able to repel the French and send the Allied forces reeling. The reluctance of Europeans to answer the call to war was lamented by scholars throughout the continent, but was accentuated by the fact that none of the countries attempted to stop Germany until the Nazis came within striking distance. The British were especially awed by German military prowess as most of the German conquests were by land and air, avoiding the powerful British navy.
The document's speaker is harshly critical of what it perceived as European self-obstruction, pointing towards the British Prime Minister's attempts to control the damage done to his reputation. Defending the outcome of the German sacking of Scandinavia, the British Prime Minister gave a reasoned argumentative case for failure, citing heavy German losses as a sort of ironic victory in defeat. The speaker first chides the Prime Minister as wars are not won by explanation of an event but rather decisive and swift action. Lamenting the talks in which Europe took part, the speaker's voice is harshly critical of the Prime Minister's touting of a victory that was not, in his/her eyes, significant in the least. The Scandinavian front was the last in which Britain could effectively make significant use of its Navy, its most powerful military branch. The document continues to call for a swift change in government as wartime leaders are not good in peace and vice versa. The speaker claims that the duty of the government is to exhibit the kind of leadership necessary to win a war rather than simply deconstruct why it failed. While the speaker is assured that procrastination is a virtue in politics, he argues that peacetime lawmakers do not understand its damning effect in war.
The document is a remarkably reliable historical source as it goes into the foreign policy aspect of WWII, which is largely ignored in most historical accounts of the war that involve significant military victories or successful rebellions. The disgust the speaker has for the appeasement policies of his own government, in addition to the inability exhibited by the Prime Minister once he actually assumed a military state was an insurmountable affront to the war effort and the desire of peace throughout the land. Document A is also important is it predicates the ascension of Churchill to a combination of both military and political failures.
The document is perhaps the more important to the student of history than the other two, for the specific reason that it touches on so many different dimensions of history, from the military to that of the political and the greater good. Not only does document deconstruct the military inefficacies in the first part of the war, but it also shows the pivotal point of British victory to the instatement of a more hawkish administration than that of the appeasement-endorsing Chamberlain leadership.
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