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[email protected] Volume 22 • Number 3 • $15 single copy price Winter 2016-17 ©2017, AFIO The Bleak Years: 1939 – Mid-1942 GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF INTELLIGENCE The Axis powers repeatedly surprised Poland, Britain, France, and others, who were often blinded by preconceptions and biases, in both a strategic and tactical sense. When war broke out on September 1, 1939, the Polish leadership, ignoring their own intelligence, lacked an appreciation of German mili- tary capabilities: their cavalry horses were no match From Axis Surprises to Allied for German Panzers. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain misread Hitler’s intentions, unwilling to Victories accept the evidence at hand. This was the consequence of the low priority given to British intelligence in the The Impact of Intelligence in World War II period between wars.3 Near the end of the “Phony War” (September 3, 1939 – May 10, 1940) in the West, the Germans engi- By Peter C. Oleson neered strategic, tactical, and technological surprises. The first came in Scandinavia in early April 1940. s governments declassify old files and schol- ars examine the details of World War II, it is Norway Aapparent that intelligence had an important The April 9 German invasion of Norway (and impact on many battles and the length and cost of this Denmark) was a strategic surprise for the Norwegians catastrophic conflict. As Nigel West noted, “[c]hanges and British.