What did the allies do in 1933?

Answer 1

1933 and the 'Allies'It's not strictly accurate to refer to 'the Allies' at that time, as they was no alliance between Britain, France, the U.S. and certainly not with the Stalinist Soviet Union. At the time the U.S. was isolationist and keen to avoid involvement in Europe.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Britain, France, the U.S. and Germany, along with many other countries, were involved in talks aimed at reducing armaments. It took a while for politicians to grasp what was happening in Germany and, of course, longer to act on it.

• From the summer of 1933 onwards, Germany started to rearm on a substantial scale and in October 1933 suddenly pulled out of the talks and also left the League of Nations.

• The British government first made sure that there was really no prospect of reviving the talks, then embarked on rearmament, starting with a significant build-up of the RAF. The British rearmament programme was based on a number of assumptions. These included the calculation that the earliest likely date for Germany going to war was 1942, which was actually the same date year as that used by German planners at the time. What the British failed to grasp was the speed and 'dynamism' of developments in Germany.

• France was deeply divided, and early in 1934 there were very serious disturbances instigated by French fascists hostile to democracy. French military planners believed that France's defenses were good.

• All countries (except the Soviet Union) were severely affected by the Great Depression and most governments were preoccupied with domestic politics and rather inward looking.

• It is very easy, with the benefit of hinsight, to moralize. However, as any stockbroker can confirm, hindsight is one of man's greatest gifts!

• A very small number of people did in fact issue public warnings about Germany. As far as I know, the first British politician to do so was (Alfred) Duff Cooper, who was a junior minister at the War Office at the time. He had the great advantage of a very good knowledge of German. In September 1933 he devoted a public speech to the subject of developments in Germany; he warned about German rearmament and also talked about the concentration camps - but most of the media boggled and described him as a 'warmonger'.

Joncey