Hitler had wanted war on 1 October 1938, he could have had it. The French and British had reached the point at which they could make no further concessions.111 The armies of France and the Soviet Union had mobilized. The Royal Navy stood at full alert. On 29 September 1938 it was Hitler who stepped back not his opponents, and there is no better explanation for this abrupt change of course than the sheer weight of evidence, argument and pressure that had been brought to bear on him over the previous weeks.
