The Road to War - March 1939

3 – Mohandas Ghandi fasts against the British rule of India

13 – In Slovakia, Hitler advises his “puppet” Josef Tizlo to declare the independence of Slovakia from Czechoslovakia. Slovakia becomes independent the next day, breaking in pieces the debilitated Czech state.

15 – German troops, “in rescue of German peoples”, occupy Bohemia and Moravia and Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.

17 – Neville Chamberlain states that Britain will oppose any attempt by Germany to achieve World dominance.

18 – After 2days of military operations, Hungary annexes Carpatho-Ukraine, a region from Czechoslovakia that had declared independence a few days earlier.

20 – The Romanian War Scare urges after rumors that Germany is on the verge of invading Romania.

22 – Germany takes Memelland, a former German region, from Lithuania after an ultimatum was launched a couple of days earlier. This increases the territory contiguous to Prussia further more to East.

23 – Slovakia and Hungary begin to wage war over the region of Ruthenia. After a few days of operations, Hungary wins their territorial pretentions.

28 – Franco takes office in Madrid

31 – In a speech in the House of Commons, Neville Chamberlain states that Poland’s independence and borders are guaranteed by Great Britain.

The month sees the end of Czechoslovakia in a clear violation of the Munich Agreements. Little doubt remains that War is inevitable. From now on the patience of France and, specially, Great Britain is close to zero. There will be further attempts of appeasement but as Hitler puts pressure on the Polish, weeks go by approaching the inevitability of War...

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