1936-7-26 Hitler to support Franco

1936-7-18: Hitler to support Franco in Spanish Civil War - HiPo > .

On 26 July 1936 Adolf Hitler informed General Francisco Franco that Germany would support his Nationalist rebellion in Spain.

The Spanish Civil War broke out on 17 July, when an army uprising against the Second Spanish Republic that began in Morocco spread to the mainland. In the face of early rebel gains, the Republican government sought assistance from France and the USSR. Meanwhile the Nationalists turned to the right-wing governments of Germany and Italy.

Benito Mussolini, the leader of Italy, agreed to intervene in the war on the Nationalist side after being encouraged to do so by Hitler. Although both countries later signed the Non-Intervention Agreement, they continued to send troops and equipment to support Franco’s forces.

Hitler in particular had a number of reasons for getting involved. As well as it giving him the opportunity to take action against what he called ‘communist barbarism’, assisting Franco would win Germany an important ally and preferential access to Spain’s natural resources. Militarily, German involvement also provided an opportunity to test the new equipment developed since the Nazi rearmament programme began in 1933.

Both Hitler and Mussolini were concerned about the risk of the Spanish Civil War escalating into a European-wide conflict, so at first their support for the Nationalists was small-scale and consisted mainly of transporting existing Spanish troops from Morocco to the mainland. As the war progressed their involvement grew. The German Condor Legion in particular began to take an active role in the aerial bombing of Republican areas, most notably the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937.

1936-3-7 Remilitarisation of the Rhineland

1936-3-7 Remilitarisation of Rhineland by German Army under Adolf Hitler - HiPo > .

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On 7 March 1936 the German Army under control of Adolf Hitler violated international agreements by remilitarising the Rhineland.

The Rhineland area of Germany, which lay on the border with France, had been banned from containing armed forces within a 50km-wide strip under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Germany was also unable to maintain any fortifications within the area.

This agreement had later been confirmed by Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann in the Locarno Treaties of 1925. However, by 1936 Hitler had come to power and had begun to break the terms of Versailles by increasing the number of German weapons beyond the agreed limits and reintroducing conscription.

The Western powers had failed to respond to these moves with anything more than diplomatic grumbling, so Hitler felt emboldened to further test the limits of the Versailles settlement. After France and Russia signed the 1935 Franco-Soviet Pact, Hitler chose to send three battalions, or approximately 22,000 German troops, into the Rhineland. They entered on the morning of Saturday 7 March in what he claimed was a defensive move against ‘encirclement’.

Hitler’s own generals were expecting retaliation from France, and had even been ordered to stage an immediate withdrawal if the French army made a move. Despite Hitler’s concerns, however, France refused to move against Germany without the support of Britain. Having been severely weakened by the impact of the Great Depression and distracted by the unfolding Abyssinia Crisis, Britain sympathised to an extent with the German desire to defend its own border and refused to intervene. Hitler therefore successfully remilitarised the area.

●τ 1937

1937-8-13 Battle of Shanghai 1937-11-26 ..

1937-8-13 Battle of Shanghai 1937-11-26

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Shanghai 1937-8-13: Where WW2 Began | The Battle Of Shanghai | Timeline > .

The Battle of Shanghai (淞滬會戰) was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. It lasted from August 13, 1937, to November 26, 1937, and was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the entire war, and even regarded by some historians as the first battle of World War 2. After over three months of extensive fighting on land, in the air and at sea, the battle concluded with a victory for Japan. Both sides accused each other of using chemical weapons during the battle, both without evidence.

●τ 1938

38-3-12 Austrian Crisis ..

38-10-30 War of the Worlds ..

38-11-9 Kristallnacht 38-11-10 ..