The European Air Arms Race 1935 - 1939 part 1 of 2

This is by no means a complete history but does provide some perspective of the events in European military aviation from 1935 - 1939.

When Nazi Germany openly started re-armament in 1935, few should have been surprised as Hitler had made it very clear both in his speeches and in "Mein Kampf" that he would break the "unjust" terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

For two years, the German military expanded in secret. By March 1935, Hitler felt strong enough to go public on Nazi Germany's military expansion - which broke the terms of the Versailles Treaty. Europe learned that the Nazis had 2,500 war planes in its Luftwaffe and an army of 300,000 men in its Wehrmacht. Hitler felt confident enough to publicly announce that there would be compulsory military conscription in Nazi Germany and that the army would be increased to 550,000 men.

How did Europe react to this flagrant violation of Versailles?

Essentially, the French and British did nothing. Britain was still recovering from the Depression which had devastated her economy. She could not afford a conflict. The French preferred a defensive policy against a potential German threat and she spent time and money building the vast Maginot Line - a series of vast forts on the French and German border. The most Britain, France and Italy did (at this time, Italy did not view German as a potential ally as the above was pre-Abyssinia) was to form the Stresa Front which issued a protest against Hitler's rearmament policy but did nothing else.

It seemed that Britain was even supporting Germany's breaking of the Treaty of Versailles. This treaty had clearly stated what Germany's navy should be - no submarines and only six warships over 10,000 tons. In June 1935 the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was signed. This allowed Germany to have one third of the tonnage of the British navy's surface fleet (probably the largest in the world at this time) and an equal tonnage of submarines. Why did Britain agree that Nazi Germany could break the terms of Versailles?

This event saw the start of what was to be called appeasement. It was believed that Nazi Germany would develop her navy regardless and that an official agreement between Nazi Germany and Britain would do much to foster relations between both countries. There was also a feeling in some quarters in Britain, that the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh on Germany and that the time was right to loosen the terms as time had moved on and Europe had to live together. It was felt that this approach would satisfy Hitler and that Europe would benefit from this approach as Nazi Germany would have no reason to be angered or feel cornered by the old terms of Versailles. Such an approach would do much to stabilise Europe and end the anger felt by Germans at the terms of Versailles. Above all else, if Nazi Germany kept the1935 Agreement, Britain would have a very good idea of the size of Germany's navy as she would know how big her navy was and could work on a third of that figure equalling the German's navy.

However, if this agreement served any purpose it was to confuse the British public. Only two months earlier, Britain had signed the Stresa Front which had condemned Germany's military build up. Now, Britain was agreeing that Germany could do exactly what Britain had condemned !! It also showed Hitler that he could push Britain and get away with it. Were there other aspects of Versailles he could challenge ?

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• ww2
• aviation
• history

[driverfilms]

exellent vid, Do you have anymore footage on the Boulton Paul Overstrand?

[Bomberguy]

Sorry, no

[Bullettube]

Fascinating! I never realized a film like this existed!

[A20havoc]

wow B.G....awesome!!! Truely you must work for the film industries and you're sneaking out the old films from the Studio's Library! Well HATS OFF TO YOU! Your shows are much more entertaining than Military History Channel to some extent. They ought to hire you!

[Evilfisher]

arg i must find this without watermark. i hate when people do that.

[datzfast]

nice place 360 aircraft together easy to destroy that way.

[jeremyshaw1]

Also, Britain didn't wan't an overpowerful France, with nothing to counter it.

[IanHunedoara8]

The designers of the Spitfire had to literally wrestle the Brit Air Ministry to push for development of what proved to be a war-winning aircraft.

[luridplanet]

One reason why Britain could do little against Hitler in the mid-to-late 30s: inadequate airpower, just like everyone else. What could they do aside from expressing outrage?

[ionutgv]

ce avioane de cacat are musolini

[SmiertSpionem]

'Civilian but perhaps convertible', if only they knew. All the prototype bombers and fighters of the late 30's (inc me109 and Heinkel) were called 'fast mail planes' and 'airliners' etc.

[ale1022]

Wonderful stuff - thank you very much.