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How realistic were Churchill's defence proposals in the 1930's…
How realistic were Churchill's defence proposals in the 1930's
Realistic
He was willing to give uncomfortable truths about the situation and oppose a policy which few were keen to criticise
Hitler reintroduced conscription in 1935
With hindsight realistic as once Britain began rearmament Germany rearmed at an incredible speed
Views on rearmament
Saw Nazi regime as dangerous so wanted to defend against Nazi's rearmament
Voiced concerns about Nazi rearmament in 1934
Churchill argues that the government did not support the League of Nations well enough, that Baldwin hid the need to rearm before the election in 1935, that Germany should not have been allowed to remilitarise the Rhineland, that Chamberlain should have formed an alliance against Hitler not pandered to his demands and that the Czech crisis was solved without asking the Czechs
Overall, he blames British policy for undermining any attempt to stand up to Hitler
Churchill wanted to begin rearmament to defend against Nazis
From 1935 Churchill advocated the advance in air defences to counter the advances made by the Germans in this area
Churchill seems to have thought that with greater air strength, more could have been done politically to stop Hitler in his aims
Unrealistic
People didn't want to rearm as they didn't want to provoke war - Churchill seen as a Warmonger
Looked like Churchill was trying to begin an arms race
People liked Chamberlains "Peace of our time" from the Munich agreement - 30th Sept 1938
wider situation at the time
, particularly in the East
Britain was far more concerned about Japan than Germany as the Japanese directly threatened British interests in Asia
The armed forces knew that they couldn’t take on all of these threats at once so wanted to limit the possible conflict
With the economy being in such a bad state, the potential for rearmament was also quite limited
As a result of the 1929 depression
Britain quite simply couldn’t afford the rearmament policy which Churchill suggested
there were the dominions to consider (New Zealand, Canada, Australia, South Africa) who made it clear that they were not sympathetic towards war
Most of the Conservative party and the royal family were also advocates of continued peace
One of Churchill’s major suggestions was to form a Grand Alliance to stand up to Germany
This would have echoed back to the First World War where Britain, France and Russia opposed the Central Powers
Stalin was particularly worried about being left to fight the war on his own if Hitler made peace with the western powers which partly explains the
Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939
Churchill claimed that had the USSR been firmly on the allied side in 1938-9 then Hitler would not have gone to war over Poland or Czechoslovakia
Problems with this
France was seen as very unreliable both politically and militarily. Russia had its own internal politics with the purges in full swing in the 1930s
The USA was also in the depths of isolationist policy and even during the war Churchill struggled to get Roosevelt to join the conflict until the Pearl Harbour attacks
Over optimistic