ABSTRACT
The Wehrmacht, with a war-fighting doctrine that stressed aggressive movement and encirclement, exploited its numerical advantages in numbers of men, tanks and aircraft to break through the Polish defences. A foreign policy designed to remove the sources of conflict in international affairs through negotiation. Since the outbreak of the Second World War, the word has taken on the pejorative meaning of the spineless and fruitless pursuit of peace through concessions to aggressors. The Americans opposed British imperialism and protectionism. The British resented American economic dominance and anti-imperialism. The Allied war effort was not free of the barbarities of modern warfare, especially city bombing, and the Alliance included some with dubious ethical credentials. Millions staggered as refugees over the gutted remains of European civilization. The old European game of Great Power competition was now over, and the continent was set to become one battlefield in a wider Cold War world, with a divided Germany as its epicentre.
