Scary to think what might have happened to England and the world if Mitchell had not reacted the way he did when he saw Germany's aerial abilities!
The isolationists in the US were not going to change their minds, thinking that Britain could never hold out because France couldn't, etc. If Britain hadn't had the Spitfire and her valiant pilots, they wouldn't have been able to resist even with Churchill's determination.
God Bless the Brits, their pilots, and their people!
I assure you it was never that simple.
shareI agree with JD, especially on the US not entering the war in 1939. Great Britain had a treaty with Poland, that's also why France entered the war. If Poland was attacked they were obligated by treaty to defend them. The US had no such treaty with any country in Europe, at that time, to go to one's defense.
-Nam
I am on the road less traveled...
France had a treaty with Poland in order to recreate the conundrum of war on two fronts and thus avoid another war with Germany. Their problem was that they placed too much stock in the back channel deals they did in Europe between the wars. It was also confused by the emergence of the alliances in the Spanish Civil War (everyone supported Franco except Stalin and nobody wanted to deal with him). In many ways, Hitler was looked upon as a sideshow in comparison because the vast bulk of European leaders were actually fixated on communism as the biggest threat. France also had considerable trouble at home with left wing politicians mostly backing war and right wing politicians mostly wanting to stay peaceful (there were exceptions on both sides). There was also the trouble of short term governments, few of which lived long enough to see their first anniversary.
So while everyone looks at the Munich Pact as betrayal, it was really the byproduct of a lot of unsuccessful and contradictory policies which had plagued French administration for 10 years. In the end, their reasons for believing that Hitler would not invade Czechoslovakia were based on an inflated view of the success of their own treaties, particularly the one with Poland.
The United States (who had lent considerable materiel support to Franco which put them, like everyone else, on the same side as the Nazis) had no interest in attacking Germany until Germany attacked them (Operation Drumbeat).
As for The Battle of Britain, which cemented the Spitfire's fame despite it accounting for only about a third of the German aircraft shot down by fighters, it was inevitable but it was also inevitable that the Germans could not successfully invade. We have the Hurricane to thank for much of that. Without in any way discrediting the airman who went up many times a day against overwhelmingly superior forces, any invasion of the UK would have pitted everything against the vastly superior force of the Royal Navy. An invasion force could never have got through and Britain, though it seemed otherwise, was too well prepared.