British industrial expansion was planned around an expectation that war might come in 1942, not 1939. Hitler appears less as the executor of an unchanging master plan than as a political gambler who repeatedly raised the stakes. Poland became the gamble that finally produced general war even though it was especially difficult for Britain and France to support directly. Britain and France also bear responsibility for failing to resist earlier, particularly around the Sudetenland, when the escalation might have been stopped at lower cost.
Notable Point · 1:44:25-1:46:40
Industrial timetables, Hitler's gambles, and the early war
Britain's rearmament schedule expected a later crisis, while Hitler repeatedly gambled that opponents would not resist his next escalation.