10 February 1936 The Gestapo was moved outside normal civil law, answering only
to Adolf Hitler
via Heinrich
Himmler.
10 February 1936 Ernst
Udet was appointed the Inspector of Fighters and Dive Bombers of the German
Luftwaffe.
Adolf
Hitler met with Konstantin
von Neurath and his Ambassador Joachim
von Ribbentrop on 12 February 1936 to ask their opinion of the likely foreign
response to remilitarisation Konstantin
von Neurath endorsed remilitarisation, but contended that Germany should negotiate
more before doing so while Joachim
von Ribbentrop argued for unilateral remilitarisation at once. Joachim
von Ribbentrop told Adolf
Hitler that if France went to war in reaction to German remilitarisation,
then United Kingdom would take arms with France, an assessment of the situation
that Konstantin
von Neurath did not agree with, but one that encouraged Adolf
Hitler to go ahead with remilitarisation.
Adolf
Hitler informed his War Minister on 12 February 1936, Field Marshal Werner
von Blomberg, of his intentions and asked the head of the Army, General Werner
von Fritsch, how long it would take to transport a few infantry battalions
and an artillery battery into the Rhineland. Werner
von Fritsch answered that it would take three days organisation but he was
in favour of negotiation as he believed that the Wehrmacht was in no state for
armed combat with the French Army.
On 13 February 1936, During a meeting
with Prince Bismarck of the German Embassy in London, Ralph Wigram, the head of
the Central Department of the British Foreign Office stated that the British government
wanted a working agreement for air pact that would outlaw bombing, and that United
Kingdom would consider revising Versailles and Locarno in Germany's favour for
an air pact. Prince Bismarck reported to Berlin that Ralph Wigram had hinted quite
strongly that the things that United Kingdom were willing to consider revising
included remilitarisation.
On 22 February 1936, Benito Mussolini who
was still angry about the League of Nations sanctions enforced against his country
for aggression against Ethiopia told Ulrich von Hassell that Italy would dishonour
Locarno if Germany were to remilitarise the Rhineland. Even if Benito Mussolini
had wanted to honour Locarno, practical problems would have arisen as the bulk
of the Italian Army was at that time engaged in the conquest of Abyssinia, and
as there is no common Italian German frontier.
Adolf
Hitler on 26 February 1936 spoke publicly about wanting everybody to be able
to afford the People's car, Volkswagen.
F2
Escort
Commissioned 27 February 1936
Go To: March
Articles:
The Second
Great War.
Edited by Sir John Hamilton
The War Illustrated.
Edited
by Sir John Hamilton
2194 Days Of War.
ISBN-10: 086136614X
For a complete list of
sources
