Had WW2 become inevitable by mid1939/ was September 1939 ideal timing for Britain?

[jamesrl]

A new book Britain at War 1939 to 1945 What was life like during the war? (Arthur House) argues that if war had been declared any earlier, Britain would have had too few fighters to defend itself; any later and German rearmament and expansion would have made it too strong to stand against. Do you agree?

[Gibbo]

I think that if the Battle of Britain had been fought a year earlier then Britain would probably have lost it as we then had too few Spitfires & Hurricanes. The counter to this, however, is that the Germans may not have been able to get into a position to fight it a year earlier. The Czechoslovakian Army was considerably better equipped than the Polish one & its frontiers with Germany were more defensible than those of Poland. Also, a substantial number of the German tanks that over-ran Western Europe in 1940 came from the Czech Skoda works.

My understanding of the relative paces of British & German rearmament meant that a later start to the war was to the disadvantage of the Germans.