British rearmament was a period in British history, between 1934 and 1939, when a substantial programme of rearming theUnited Kingdom was undertaken. Rearmament 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]
AfterWorld War I, dubbed "The War To End All Wars” and “The Great War”, Britain (along with many other nations) had wound down its military capability. TheTen Year Rule said that a "great war" was not expected in the next ten years with the belief in its impossibility and the folly of preparing for it. Britain, therefore, made almost no investment at all in the development of new armament.[2] TheBritish Admiralty, however, requested the suspension of this rule when Japaninvaded Manchuria in 1931.[2] The policy was officially abandoned on 23 March 1932 by theCabinet,[3] four months beforeAdolf Hitler'sNazis became the largest party in theGerman Reichstag. A statement released cautioned that the decision was not an endorsement of increased armament spending, citing the grave economic situation in Britain and also indicating the British commitment to the arms limitations being promoted by theWorld Disarmament Conference, an event coinciding with the announcement.[3]
There are sources who describe the British rearmament immediately after the abrogation of the Ten Year Rule as uncertain, hovering between disarmament and rearmament.[4][5] Even after the collapse of theLeague of Nations in 1935, the rearmament policy had been tempered byappeasement.[4]
Germany was not considered a threat during the 1920s, but the situation changed radically when Hitler came to power in 1933 and withdrewGermany from the League of Nations and theGeneva Disarmament conference.
In October 1933, when the failure of the Disarmament Conference was evident, a Defence Requirements Sub-Committee (DRC) of theCommittee of Imperial Defence was appointed to examine the worst deficiencies of the armed forces. The group first considered theFar 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 withJapan 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 theBritish Army for combat in Europe. However theTreasury forced the plan's reduction to £50m, halving the Army's expansion budget and doubling that of theRoyal Air Force. Its primary aim was to deter German aggression by building a modernised air force. The DRC set the focus of UK strategy throughout the early years of rearmament, leading to continuous tension between the three armed services, the Treasury and theForeign Office.[7]
Government-backed "Shadow Factories", generally privately owned but subsidised by the government, were established to increase the capacity of private industry; some were also built by the government.
In 1918 the newRoyal Air Force had 290,000 personnel and around 23,000 aircraft.[8] In the mid-1930s, the Royal Air Force's front-line fighters werebiplanes, little different from those employed in World War I. The rearmament program enabled the RAF to acquire modernmonoplanes, like theHawker Hurricane andSupermarine Spitfire, such that sufficient numbers were available to defend the UK in theBattle of Britain in 1940, during the early stages ofWorld War II.
Rearmament also led to theRoyal Navy acquiring five newbattleships of theKing George V class, and modernising existing battleships to varying extents. Whereas ships such asHMS Renown andHMS Warspite were completely modernised, others such asHMS Hood, theNelson class, theRevenge class,HMSBarham, andHMSRepulse were largely unmodernised – lacking improvements to horizontal armour, large command towers and new machinery.
Equally importantly,aircraft carriers of theIllustrious class and a series of large cruiser classes were ordered and expedited. Britain also accelerated building programmes such as theSingapore Naval Base, which was completed within three and a half years instead of five.[3]
TheBritish Army was supplied with modern tanks and weapons, for examplehowitzers, and theRoyal Ordnance Factories were equipped to mass-produce munitions.