Some interesting comments on this subject.....however there was no hypocrisy on the part of France and Britain declaring war on Germany...there was a pact (a treaty the sort of thing the US Government made with Indian territories to prevent them being invaded), that if Germany invaded Poland, there would be no option than to declare war....Neville Chamberlain made that famous speech....Germany had been given the option to pull back, but having taken over other territories, without opposition, it was probably thought it was another empty threat from Britain and France.
There was sufficient military force to counter the German army, prior to the expansionist ideals, but bad decisions were made.
It is a matter of history, but as the saying goes.."those who ignore those lessons are doomed to repeat them".
So to answer the initial question, yes Germany could have been defeated early on, but could a war have been avoided, I very much doubt it.
As for WW1
Without doubt, the injection of a million fresh troops were a threat to Germany, hence their Operation Michael in 1918, a lot of hard won territory was lost. The fact remains that by that time the calibre of the German army was quite low, but the blockade of Germany made things things worse, that eventually the leaders had lost the will to continue. Britain had the will to continue, France was in a bad shape, but still fought to expel the invaders, but those German operations were running out of steam.
As the German forces were still on foreign soil at the end, it was thought they had not been defeated militarily. This was the main drive for circumstances that arose in the 30's.
Pershing wanted to continue on into Germany, but the armistice made that impossible.
Here again is a case of history repeating.....IF the coalition had continued into Iraq in Gulf war 1, and deposed Saddam at that time....would Gulf War 2 have happened??
George.
