A while back I posted about the interrogation files on Hermann Goering I came across while working in the archives. These are not new or unknown, but it was cool to read through the actual records. Here is another interesting bit from his interrogation.

Goering stated that when Germany marched into the Rhineland in 1936, a direct violation of the Versailles Treaty, the Army did not have orders to withdraw in the event of military intervention by the French. Hitler was determined to carry it through. Most of the senior Generals were extremely concerned about the prospect of war because of this action. Goering was not impressed. He said "In the event of war these generals should be left at home."

This was a significant step on Hitler's path to control of the military. He obviously had political control, but the Generals still had a great deal of influence over strategy. When the German Army was not confronted and the Rhineland was de facto retaken by Germany, Hitler looked like a genius and the credibility of the Generals was weakened. You can guess where this might lead. None of the senior Army leadership from the early years of the regime were around by the time the war kicked off.

Could the French Army beat the Germans back? Probably, the Germans were still pretty weak and France had a bigger army. Would that have changed the course of Nazi Germany? Possibly. One of the major failures of the Treaty of Versailles was that it wasn't really backed by force.