Versailles to the Battle of Britain : Hitler's misreading of British appeasement / by Daniel Scafani

This thesis asserts that Hitler ultimately lost the Second World War because he failed to understand Britain's inter-war policy of appeasement and its practitioners. Hitler's twin foreign policy goals were the dismantling of the Versailles Treaty and the acquisition of Lebensraum in the east. The fulfillment of both of these required the acquiescence of the leading power in Europe, England and its empire. Hitler failed to obtain their acquiescence and on September 3, 1939 was faced with a war for which he had not prepared. Hitler failed to produce a navy or air force capable of defeating Britain before it could marshal its potential resources--in particular, a practical alliance with the United States. Hitler revealed, through his writings and conversations with intimates, a persistent misapprehension of Britain's leadership and its appeasement policy. The consequences of that failure was a second world war which Germany was doomed to lose.