Tagzilla. The Big Setup. Past ctd.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I didn't think you would mind, given the amount of comments :>

I have been busy rpging in Deadlands. Feel free to read the Big Setup - perhaps you will understand the magic of this universe...

An interesting plugin for Mozilla: Tagline. Increases the email signatures functionality, but still lacks few options I'd love to see - like the ability to chose a random quote from the file instead of having to do it manualy. Still, a step in the right direction.

I have been collecting some more info about the 'Western Betrayal' menitoned in my last blog. I know it is a controversial and little known issue, so hopefully this article on 'Allied policy towards Central Europe' will clear the matter.

Here are some interesting quotes from it:

France promised to start minor land and air military operations at once, and to start a major offensive (with the majority of its forces) not later than 15 days after the declaration of war.

Both British and French governments had other plans than fulfilling the treaties with Poland. On 4 May 1939, a meeting was held in Paris, at which it was decided that the fate of Poland depends on the final outcome of the war, which will depend on our ability to defeat Germany rather than to aid Poland at the beginning. Needless to say, Poland's government was not notified of this decision.

On 12 September, the Anglo-French Supreme War Council meets for the first time at Abbeville. It is decided that all offensive actions are to be halted. French divisions have advanced approximately eight kilometres into Germany on a 24 kilometres long strip of the frontier in the Saarland area. Maurice Gamelin orders his troops to stop not closer than 1 kilometres from the German positions along the Siegfried Line. Poland is not notified of this decision. Instead, Gamelin informs marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły that half of his divisions are in contact with the enemy, and that French advances have forced the Wehrmacht to withdraw at least 6 divisions from Poland.

Secret talks were held in Moscow which resulted in signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Treaty on 22 August. The full text of the treaty, including the secret protocol assuming a partition of Poland and Soviet military help to Germany in case of war, was known to the British government thanks to Hans von Herwath, an American agent in the German ministry of foreign affairs. Yet, Poland's government was not informed of this fact either.

In 1945, Poland's borders were redrawn, following the decision taken at the Teheran Conference of 1943 at the insistence of the Soviet Union. Polish government was not invited to the talks and was to be notified of their outcome. The eastern territories which the Soviet Union had occupied in 1939 (with the exception of the Bialystok area) were permanently annexed, and most of their Polish inhabitants expelled: today these territories are part of Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. The factual basis of this decision was the result of a forged referendum from November 1939 in which the "huge majority" of voters accepted the incorporation of these lands into Western Belarus and Western Ukraine.

Till another blog...