Europe by Tom Masters

Author:Tom Masters
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Travel.Travel Guides
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Published: 2009-10-14T10:00:00+00:00

In March 1935, Hitler announced the introduction of conscription, and the replacement of the old 100,000-man Reichswehr by a Wehrmacht of more than half a million men. The existence of a growing air force, the Luftwaffe, was made public. This was the most serious Nazi breach of the Versailles settlement so far. The complete rearmament of Germany, and thus the transformation of the whole European balance of power, was now on the cards. This time, the powers reacted quickly. In mid-April, the British, French and Italians formed the ‘Stresa Front’ to uphold the Locarno Treaty, defend what was left of Versailles, and resist any further German encroachments. In early May, France and the Soviet Union concluded a treaty of mutual assistance albeit without any meaningful military protocols. Germany was now much more effectively surrounded than at any point since 1917. Hitler would have to act quickly before the ring drew tighter around the Reich and strangled in its infancy the domestic transformation he had inaugurated. He would have to prise open the encircling coalition and throw this first sustained attempt to contain a resurgent Germany off-balance.

In late June 1935, Hitler made a significant breach in the hostile front. He persuaded the British to conclude a Naval Agreement in which he renounced the return of German colonies, explicitly acknowledged British maritime superiority by agreeing to limit German construction to one third of that of the Royal Navy, and undertook not to engage in unrestricted submarine warfare. In Britain, locking Hitler into an arms control agreement while she still held the advantage was reckoned a great success. It was also seen as a way of escaping a continental commitment and concentrating on imperial defence. In return, Hitler had subverted British commitment to the Stresa Front. All the same, Germany’s position remained extraordinarily precarious until October 1935. That month, Mussolini – misunderstanding the spirit of Stresa – sought to draw on his credit in Paris and London by invading Ethiopia, thus underlining Italy’s claim to great-power status. Much to his surprise, the British and French governments – under pressure from outraged public opinion – strongly opposed the move. They did not, however, press the League of Nations to impose effective sanctions – especially a crucial oil embargo – on Mussolini. Hitler, on the other hand, expressed not only public sympathy for Italian ambitions in Africa, but also signalled his willingness to resolve the thorny question of the South Tyrol by accepting Italian sovereignty there. The Stresa Front, and with it the prospect of a pan-European coalition to contain a resurgent Germany, disintegrated.

Hitler now moved quickly to exploit the opening by occupying the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland in late March 1936. This was another hammer blow to the Versailles system, and a direct challenge to the Stresa powers. Hitler later pronounced the subsequent forty-eight hours as ‘the most nerve-wracking my life. If the French had then marched into the Rhineland we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs, for

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