• Lester_Peterson [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    In February of 1940, while after ww2 in Europe had started, Britain and France approved a plan to send 135,000 troops to Finland to fight the Soviet Union in the Winter War. They were ultimately only stopped from doing so after Norway and Sweden denied their armies transit, and Germany invaded Denmark in April.

    If France and the UK were so desperate to fight the USSR that they were eager to send a substantial portion of their military strength to do so while they were at war with the Third Reich (!) you can be almost certain they would've been happy to help Hitler do so if possible.

    • femicrat [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Yeah, that's my favorite untold story, how they came just this close to declaring war on the USSR in February 1940. There would have been an expeditionary force and bombing of Soviet oilfields from French Syria. But then the Finns surrendered and we were shunted onto the timeline we're familiar with.