“would have been the end of Hitler if the French Army under General Gamelin had resisted. They probably would have done so with the help of Britain. But Britain was unwilling to go further than acting as mediator. So Gamelin, whose forces far outnumbered the Germans, did not bar their way. Hitler himself said that ‘the forty-eight hours after the march into the Rhineland were the most nerve-racking of my life. If the French had then marched . . . we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs.’ The”