Word: easts
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Bismarck once said: "Whoever is master of Bohemia is master of Europe." What he meant to say was that so long as Germany controlled the Bohemian bastion it would be relatively easy to keep invaders from the east from carrying warfare into the South German Basin or out on to the north German reaches of the Baltic plain. Similarly, command of the heights on either side of the Rhine has a lot to do with whether a war between Germany and France is to be fought in front of Munich or in front of Paris...
Back to Napoleon? To force Germany to fight on two fronts, to cut her off from the oil and grain fields of East Europe is vital to England and France. To do so they must help their allies in the East. Once war begins, they will be practically cut off from sending aid to Poland, which aims to fight a delaying war, retreating bloodily to Warsaw and the Vistula. If they are also cut off from Turkey, Rumania and Greece, they will not be able to use any of their strength to squeeze Germany between pincers...
...first Duke of Marlborough, won his victories of Ramillies (1706) and Malplaquet (1709). There the French under the great Marshal Saxe defeated the British and the Dutch at Fontenoy in 1745. There Waterloo was fought and Napoleon finally defeated in 1815. The Flanders Plain is protected to the East by the Belgian hills and fortresses of Liege and Namur. It is protected to the northeast by Belgium's new Albert Canal, built as much for defense as for commerce, and beyond that by low-lying Dutch country that can be flooded if necessary. But even with fortresses and canals...
...Baltic Plain is glacial country. When the ice cap was inching out over Europe, drainage toward the north was blocked; hence the plain is now crisscrossed-by old river beds that run from east to west, by rivers that now flow into the North and Baltic Seas. The new river beds and the old connecting valleys make it relatively easy for soldiers to roll across the Baltic Plain in any direction. Germany's soldiers rolled against Russia in 1914 on railroad lines built especially to serve strategic purposes. On the Russian side of the border railroafls were...
Before they retreat from the main German border, the Poles may attempt an offensive into East Prussia where Hitler has soldiers who will "take" Danzig unless kept busy fighting off the Poles from their rear. The Poles are not likely in any case to' attack Danzig via the corridor for that would expose their rear to the main German attack. On a long neck of land called Hel, stretching into the sea near Danzig, the Poles have heavy guns and troops ready to be massacred by the Germans, but only after the guns of Hel have made a shambles...