Phoney war, Britain and France, 1939
The Phoney War (spelled Phony in the United States) was the derisive term for the French and British failure to launch offensive operations while Poland was still resisting. It was the single greatest mistake made by the Allies throughout the Second World War. It was a failure which, had it been avoided, none of the other mistakes by the Allies would have been made, at least against Germany. This argument was presented at the time by several French generals, including Henri Giraud, and supported by Winston Churchill, who though not yet Prime Minister was nonetheless influential in the government as First Lord of the Admiralty. French commander Maurice Gamelin refused to consider offensive operations.
That Gamelin made the mistake of his career was confirmed following the war in testimony which was presented during the Nuremberg Trials, by German officers who were involved in the fighting in Poland and later in France. Alfred Jodl testified that Germany would have collapsed had the French invaded in 1939, and that they did not was “due only to the fact that during the Polish campaign the approximately 110 French and British divisions in the west were held completely inactive against the 23 German divisions”. Another German general, Siegfried Westphal, stated that had France attacked while the Germans were fighting in Poland, Germany would not have been able to defend itself for more than two weeks.