British re-armament before World War II
British re-armament was a period in British history, between 1934 and 1939, when a substantial programme of re-arming the United Kingdom was undertaken. Re-armament was deemed necessary, because defence spending had gone down from £766 million in 1919–20, to £189 million in 1921–22, to £102 million in 1932.[1]
Ten Year Rule
After
There are sources who describe the British re-armament immediately after the abrogation of the Ten Year Rule as uncertain, hovering between disarmament and re-armament.[4][5] Even after the collapse of the League of Nations in 1935, the re-armament policy had been tempered by appeasement.[4]
Collapse of international disarmament
In October 1933, when the failure of the Disarmament Conference was evident, a Defence Requirements Sub-Committee (DRC) of the Committee of Imperial Defence was appointed to examine the worst deficiencies of the armed forces. The group first considered the Far East, but soon looked at dangers nearer home.[6]
The DRC was created on 14 November 1933, as "the arena in which British strategic foreign policy was thrashed out among competing interests with competing views". Between November 1933 and July 1934 it set the UK's strategic priority as being to avoid conflict with Japan and concentrate on Germany as the main threat.[7]
The DRC's initial proposal was to spend £71m on rearmament over the next five years (1934-39) in order to re-equip the
Re-armament
Government-backed "
Royal Air Force
In 1918 the newly formed Royal Air Force had 290,000 personnel and around 23,000 aircraft.[8]
In the mid-1930s, the Royal Air Force's front-line fighters were
Re-armament also led to the Royal Navy acquiring five new battleships of the King George V class, and modernising existing battleships to varying extents. Whereas ships such as HMS Renown and HMS Warspite were completely modernised, others such as HMS Hood, the Nelson class, the Revenge class, HMS Barham, and HMS Repulse were largely unmodernised - lacking improvements to horizontal armour, large command towers and new machinery.
Equally importantly, aircraft carriers of the Illustrious class and a series of large cruiser classes were ordered and expedited. Britain also accelerated building programmes such as the Singapore Naval Base, which was completed within three and a half years instead of five.[3]
British Army
The British Army was supplied with modern tanks and weapons, for example howitzers, and the Royal Ordnance Factories were equipped to produce munitions on a large scale.
See also
- German re-armament
- Ten Year Rule
References
- ^ Paul Kennedy, The Realities behind Diplomacy. Fontana, 1981. p. 231.
- ^ ISBN 9781349290369.
- ^ ISBN 0275965961.
- ^ ISBN 9781317390213.
- ISBN 9780521425896.
- ISBN 978-0-297-17944-3.
- ^ a b Neilson, Keith (2003). "The Defence Requirements Sub-Committee, British Strategic Foreign Policy, Neville Chamberlain and the Path to Appeasement". The English Historical Review. 118 (477): 651–684 – via JSTOR.
- ^ https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/our-history/#:~:text=The%20'new'%20RAF%20was%20the,in%20support%20of%20ground%20forces.
Further reading
- Harris, John Paul (1983). The War Office and Rearmament 1935–39. kcl.ac.uk (Ph.D.). King's College London (University of London). EThOS uk.bl.ethos.289189. Retrieved 22 October 2016.