A week before the Germans invaded and attacked Poland, Britain and France promised to defend Poland against the attack. On September 3, two days after the German invasion, they didn’t declared war on Germany. It was difficult for Britain and France to defend Poland because Britain’s army and air force were both small but France has a big army but they are not yet ready to fight. Another reason is that Poland was 1000 Km away from them. Instead of defending Poland, they just let the Germans and the Soviet armies over-ran Poland while both countries prepared to fight Germany in Western Europe. The French army was placed along the frontier with Germany and Belgium and British Expeditionary Force was sent to France. Civilians in both countries prepared themselves against German bombing such as women and children evacuated from cities to countryside, air-raid shelters were built, sandbags were put around doorways, people have to carry gas ma sk everywhere, and there was a blackout policy. For the next nine months, nothing happened,life went on as normal (no fighting took place between France, Britain, and Germany). French people described the situation as the ‘Odd war’ and the British called it the ‘Phoney war’. 
The "phony' war was anything but phoney at sea. E,G Over 500 allied merchant ships sunk, as well as the battleship "Royal Oak", Destroyer "Blanche" etc.
ReplyDeletethat is true
ReplyDeleteMany died during this time
ReplyDeleteCalling this part of the war "phony" is an insult to their memories
ReplyDeleteIt's not meant to be taken as a literal descriptive term but as a short-cut way of describing the state of fear and trepidation with none of the adrenaline that helps us cope with actual threat. It doesn't mean phoney in the sense Holden Caulfield uses the term, as in false or pseud.
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