As the War went into its second month, and the situation in Poland continued, the rest of Europe was preparing for a conflict no one was sure how or where it was going to start. Aside from referring to the current state as Sitzkrieg, it was also described by many as a “war in slow motion”.
While French troops had withdrawn from most of the German territory that they occupied during the early weeks of the struggle, the war in Europe presented the curious spectacle of belligerents reluctant to accept the fact of war and hesitant to begin the activity that would result in widespread death, carnage and destruction. The general idea seemed to be that the western front would present a quiet sector for some months, although it was possible that Germany would elect to test her defensive power against the French. It was more probable, however, that the Teutonic leaders would direct their activity against British shipping with the hope that combined aerial and submarine attacks would seriously threaten the continuance of British trade routes which were vitally necessary to the existence of that empire. Meanwhile, diplomatic activity continued with both sides making every effort to win support. Germany, it appeared, having won Russia to a degree, stood an excellent chance of losing Italy.
That was expected to become a certainty if Germany and Russia attempted to divide the Balkan area without giving Italy her share of the spoils.
The general supposition, before the war began, was that a declaration of war would be followed immediately by huge squadrons of bombing planes, raining death and destruction upon the populations of Great Britain and France. So far, there had been no raid upon defenseless cities and the airplane has been used strictly against military and naval objectives. That was surprising but explainable on the grounds that, with both sides about evenly balanced in air power, each hesitated to start a wave of destruction that would be mutually disastrous. No wonder Hugh Gibson, former ambassador to Belgium, said the European situation was “mostly a series of question marks for which nobody seemed to know the answers.” He said, “There never was a war in which there was so much uncertainty as to where and how and when.”
Here is a report on the current situation, as given by Mutual and relayed by the BBC for November 8, 1939.
