On borrowed time : how World War II began 9780297178156

Table of contents :
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
PART ONE
Aide-memoire
i Incident at Eger 3
11 Prophets of Armageddon 21
hi The Antipathetic Alliance 43
PART TWO
The Road to Prague
iv “How Long Will This Burlesque Last?” 75
v “Don’t You See? . . . It’s the German Insurance
Companies That Will Have to Pay!” 105
vi Hitler over Bohemia 129
PART THREE
Warsaw or Moscow?
vii The Fiihrer Is Sick 175
VIII
The Panic Pact
195
IX
Hitler Briefs His Generals
213
X
The Conspirators Are Worried
249
XI
“You Must Think We Are Nitwits
and Nincompoops!”
267
XII
Slow Boat to Leningrad
291
PART FOUR
Moment of Truth
XIII
The Walrus
3ll
XIV
Stalin Makes Up His Mind
323
XV
Hitler Takes a Hand
339
XVI
Ribbentrop’s Hour of Triumph
359
PART FIVE
The Sands Run Out
XVII
Mussolini Reneges
39i
XVIII
The Indefatigable Swede
399
XIX
Operation “Canned Goods”
417
PART SIX
World War II
XX
Common Action—or Another Conference?
443
XXI
At Last
453
Epilogue
465
Sources
469
Notes
477
Index
497
Maps Endpapers
Czechoslovakia
74

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From the obscure “incident at Eger” which opens this book, to the savage provocation on the Polish border which was the immediate excuse for the opening shots of World War II, On Borrowed Time is the fascinating story of how Europe drifted slowly but inexorably into war in the portentous days between the Munich Agreement in September 1938 and the invasion of Poland in September 1939. This highly dramatic and detailed narrative of the diplomatic, political and military maneuvers during that climactic year is a study in the vanity and tragic folly of Europe’s Allied leadership; indeed, this handful of men seemed to have a genius for giving in to Hitler and standing up to him at precisely the wrong moments. It is Mr. Mosley’s thesis that if the appeasement of Germany had ceased earlier, a world war might have been averted; weakness and hypocrisy on the part of the British and French, and the arrogance and stubbornness of the Poles tipped the scales. The evidence the author has marshaled—from libraries, archives and indi¬ viduals in Berlin, Paris, London, Prague, Warsaw, Vienna, Barbados, Washington, D.C., and Cali¬ fornia—not only thoroughly documents his argu¬ ment, but is a shattering indictment of the naivete and stupidity of a few willful men. The chief dramatis personae of On Borrowed Time are: Neville Chamberlain, Churchill, Eden and Sir Horace Wilson of England; Edo.uard Daladier and Georges Bonnet of France; Mussolini and Ciano of Italy; FDR, Lindbergh and Ambassador Kennedy of the United States; Hitler, Goring, Ribbentrop and the General Staff of Germany; Benes and Masaryk of Czechoslovakia; Colonel Beck of Poland; and Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov of the U.S.S.R. As chief European correspondent of the Sunday Times of London and other Kemsley news¬ papers during these crucial months, the author knew many of these men personally, some of them very well; thus, his descriptions of the behind(continued on back flap)

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