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Though the British had agreed to staff talks with the French as the price of French "restraint", many British ministers were unhappy with these talks. Home Secretary John Simon wrote to Eden and Baldwin that staff talks to be held with the French after the Rhineland remilitarization would lead the French to perceive that:
The Rhineland was demilitarised, as was an area stretching fifty kilometres east of the Rhine, and put under the control of the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission, which was led by a French commissioner and had one member each from Belgium, Great Britain and the United States (the latter in an observer role only).
The Remilitarization of the Rhineland took place when German forces entered the Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In the Reichstag, Hitler announced the renunciation of the Locarno Treaties and then called for new elections on March 29 which he intended to prove that the German people were behind him. [11]
Hitler justified the remilitarization of the Rhineland and the breaking of both the Treaty of Versailles and of Locarno by citing Germany's right to self-determination and the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance of 2 May 1935, which he called a breach of the Locarno Treaties. There was no reaction from the signatories of the Locarno ...
Remilitarization of the Rhineland (1936) Anschluss with Austria (1938) Munich Agreement (1938) Seizure of Czechoslovakia (1939) Treaty of the Cession of the Memel Territory to Germany (1939) Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (1939)
According to Churchill, the British government's failure in March 1936 to pledge any support to France in countering Germany's remilitarization of the Rhineland dealt a mortal blow to Wigram. He went home and told his wife: "War is now inevitable, and it will be the most terrible war there has ever been.
[6]: 68 After the Germans reacquired the Rhineland and control of the bridge, in 1938 they attached 60 zinc-lined boxes to the bridge girders, each capable of containing 3.66 kilograms (8.1 lb) of explosives. The system was designed to detonate all 60 charges at once, though by 7 March 1945, the charges had been removed and were stored nearby.
Hitler originally set a time frame of 10 years for remilitarization, but soon shortened it to four years. [41] With the remilitarization of the Rhineland and the Anschluss, the German Reich's territory increased significantly, providing a larger population pool for conscription. [42]