I think a combined French and British offensive early in the war was not really feasible. Let's face it, the French military leadership was somewhere between incompetent and..well...worse than useless. Britain was not on enough of a war footing to wage offensive operations, they just had not prepared themselves for the coming storm adequately. The US would have been no help as we were sitting nice and snug across the vastness of the Atlantic.
The people and leadership of what eventually became known as the "Allies" were divided. A very few wanted war. A segment thought war was inevitable. About half wanted to do anything possible to avoid war including ignoring what Hitler was up to in Europe. To the latter group, the "crimes" Hitler was committing against other countries was not reason enough to shed blood.
The populaces did not unite until war came to their doorsteps.
There is a rumor that Roosevelt saw the need to get involved in the war and allowed Pearl Harbor to happen. This rumor is circumstantially validated by the fortuitous absence of US carriers when the attack occurred. Most of us don't think that is true, but it does show that some leaders (and people) saw the war as inevitable and that it was better to go sooner than later (we were already woefully late). What it took for many nations to get involved was a direct threat to their own country.
Splitter
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