STRATEGY: If...

When Neville Chamberlain flew to Berchtesgaden to placate Adolf Hitler in September 1938, he upset the plans of top-ranking German officers. They were getting ready to arrest Hitler.

This astounding statement was made in London last week during the interrogation of stocky, taciturn Colonel General Franz Halder. Chief of the German General Staff from 1938 to 1942, Halder planned the campaigns against Poland, Norway, the Lowlands, France, the opening attack on Russia.

He told his interrogators that in 1938 the Wehrmacht had only 21 divisions, including two Panzer divisions. The Czechs had 45 well-trained divisions behind a fortified belt newer and...

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