At 5:40AM, 9/1/39, Hitler announced his invasion of Poland. During the next 72 hours, while French & British civilian & military leaders (Poland's sworn allies) equivocated & while the USA maintained neutrality, armored columns & the Luftwaffe gained the momentum which enabled them to conclusively roll over the antiquated Polish cavalry & infantry while driving its planes from the sky. By 9/28 Poland was theirs--abetted by Russian invasion on 9/17. This was the phony war, when no bombs were dropped on German soil (private property, a British Secretary of State for Air protested), when French troops took only defensive positions on the Maginot Line, when Mussolini & the Swedish businessman Birger Dahlerus moved between Berlin & the Allies as self-appointed saviors. Bethell's account of those weeks follows the opening of the British State Papers for the period & shows from inside how the political decisions were made, how opportunities were lost & allegiances broken, & how the necessity of war with Hitler gradually became reality. It describes behind-the-scenes maneuvers in Moscow & Berlin of Hitler, Ribbentrop, Stalin & Molotov; Roosevelt's attempt to awaken Americans to the danger; the distrustful bargaining between Paris & London; the vacillation of Daladier, Bonnet & Chamberlain; the bitter conflict, between the French & British politicians who favored peace at any price & those who realized the Nazi threat; & the heroic, terrible story of the Poles themselves, outflanked & outmachined in a new type of warfare. The War Hitler Won presents a fascinating picture of the crucial political & military events of WWII's opening days.PrefaceThe First DayAn Uneasy LullA Tentative BeginningThe Fall of PolandExchanges of Harsh WordsThe Empire in PerilNeutral--but on Whose Side?Russia the Great EnigmaThe Peace OffensiveChronological List of Major EventsNotesSource MaterialsSelect BibliographyIndexMaps