In the Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919, in order to ensure that the defeated Germany could never turn over, France single-handedly concocted all kinds of severe restraints on Germany. In addition to reducing the total number of troops to less than 100,000 and prohibiting the possession of tanks, heavy artillery and other weapons, the French occupation of the west bank of the Rhine for ten years and the permanent prohibition of German defenses for 50 km east of the Rhine were also the firm cornerstones of French continental hegemony.

With the mountainous Alsace-Lorraine region retaken by France, Germany's natural barrier against Western attacks was the Rhine River, which runs through Central Europe. The 50 km east of the river is now a demilitarized zone, which is tantamount to opening Germany's western door to the ravages of violent bandits. In 1923, the combined forces of France and Belgium crossed the undefended rushing river and launched an unprecedented ransack of the Ruhr industrial region in Germany. Millions of civilians were brutally devastated by the aggressors' whips and gallows, and the Deutsche Mark depreciated more than a trillion times in 11 months, making it the darkest page in the history of the entire nation.

Although Hitler had given the German Army permission to rearm, the existence of the Rhine Demilitarized Zone was always in his throat, and the sword of Damocles hanging over Germany's head could only be eliminated by reoccupying the area. However, this is not an easy task. You must know that in the Locarno Convention signed by Germany in 1925, it voluntarily recognized the legitimacy of the Rhine Demilitarized Zone; Moreover, if France intervenes by force, then with this German army, which has just begun to expand its armaments and is far from being restored, it is impossible to have any room for resistance in front of the French!

But this is where Hitler's strangeness lies. For quite some time, his knowledge of foreign adversaries was as high as his knowledge of domestic political adversaries in the past. Throughout the winter of 1935~1936, Britain and France were busy sanctioning the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. But judging from the former's retreat, it is difficult for them to sanction an aggressor who has made up their minds. Hitler immediately concluded that Britain and France would not react too much to the Rhine question, and that he could completely take this territory under German sovereignty into his own hands by a surprise action that would cut off and then play.

On February 27, 1936, after a long and noisy French Chamber of Deputies, the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Cooperation, signed in May of last year, was finally ratified by a vote of 353 to 164. Hitler then found an excuse for the recovery of the Rhine: the Soviet Union was not included in the Locarno Convention. The entry into force of the Franco-Soviet Cooperation Treaty will certainly bring about tremendous changes in the situation in Europe and thus pose a serious threat to Germany's security. Two days later, on March 1, Hitler made his decision that the German Army would suddenly enter the Rhine area with three battalions.

This decision was a great shock to the army generals. Most of them believed that the French would completely annihilate the small number of German forces that had been assembled to occupy the Rhineland. Even Blomburg, the most obedient Minister of Defense to Hitler, could not help but persuade his master not to take such a risk; Even if it really wants to recover the Rhine, it should wait until the army is fully fledged before steadily implementing it. Hitler, however, was determined, and he insisted on the fact that the Franco-Soviet cooperation treaty had just entered into force. It was the perfect time for Germany to enter the Rhine politically.

In the early morning of March 7, before the dawn of the eastern sky had dispelled the heavy night, the people living on the banks of the Rhine were awakened by the roar of a motorcade. The terrified inhabitants thought it was a French invasion as they had done 13 years earlier, but when they saw the sturdy uniforms of the troops coming from the east, with the iron cross and swastika emblazoned on the flags of their vehicles, they were shocked to see it. After a few moments, tears of joy flowed down the faces of the residents, and the old men who had participated in the world war were even more excited to speak; After a full 17 years of waiting. They finally saw the armament of the Motherland again!

Two hours later, Hitler delivered a speech to the Reichstag. He claimed. As a result of the agreement between France and the Soviet Union, the Locarno Convention has lapsed. For the sake of the fundamental right of the German people to maintain the security of their borders and to guarantee their defence, the German Government has, as of today, re-established Germany's absolute sovereignty in the demilitarized zone without any restrictions. Of course, in order to appease the West, express one's own "peaceful" will. Hitler proposed a 25-year non-aggression pact with Belgium and France, guaranteed by Britain and Italy.

Once again, Hitler's gamble was victorious. At this time, France was paralyzed by internal affairs, and both the government and the army were unusually slow to react to this: the chief of the French General Staff, Gammerin, stated that a combat operation, however limited, should be. may lead to unpredictable surprises; Unless a general mobilization order is issued, confrontational behavior cannot be hastily pursued. At this time, it is simply impossible for the French government to issue a general mobilization order. What the French military was willing and able to do was to concentrate 13 divisions on the German-French border, and its intention was only to strengthen the Maginot Line, and it had no intention of taking the initiative at all.

However, Rao was like this, and the abnormal movements of these 13 divisions also frightened the German High Command. Blomburg, with the support of most of the most senior officers, was to withdraw the 3 battalions that had crossed the Rhine; The Chief of the General Staff, Beck, demanded that Hitler at least publicly declare that he would not build fortifications in the Rhine area in order to soften the blow. Convinced that France would not advance, Hitler categorically rejected all proposals of the General Command to retreat from the wavering attitude. The situation developed exactly as he expected, and the French army was stagnant when they reached the border, and did not contain the situation in the Rhine area. The Germans regained this strategically important land without bloodshed.

In contrast to the hesitation of France was the British government's reluctance to risk war, even if the Allies had an overwhelming advantage over Germany. Rather than the "little thing" that "the Germans were just going into their own backyard," Britain was now more concerned with the new round of naval arms limitation agreements being held in London: the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930, both of which had deadlines of December 31, 1936. And in order to maintain its position as the world's number one navy, the economically depressed Britain was even more eager than in 1930 to achieve its intentions by holding a conference!

For Hitler, the consequences of his successful adventure in Rhineland were far more astonishing and important than could have been imagined at the time. The German people cheered with ecstasy that Hitler had won one diplomatic victory after another, tearing to shreds one after another the cruel shackles imposed on Germany by the Allies 17 years earlier; His prestige was unprecedented, reaching heights that no German ruler had ever reached before. Moreover, this victory established Hitler above the Wehrmacht's generals: he remained steadfast at a critical moment of success or failure. This victory told the generals that Hitler's judgment was more accurate and clever than they were in foreign political and even military matters: they had feared that France would fight, but Hitler, with his insightful sagacity, asserted that the paper tiger of France was nothing to worry about!

Most importantly, the occupation of the Rhineland, although it was only a small military operation, fundamentally changed the strategic landscape of Germany and even the whole of Europe because of the re-locking of the western gate of Germany.

For France, this was the beginning of the end times. Its allies in the East, Poland and Czechoslovakia, and its quasi-allies, the Soviet Union, Romania, and Yugoslavia, were suddenly confronted with the fact that France was unwilling to fight against German expansion in order to preserve the continental security system that the French government had taken the lead in building with great difficulty. But the problem doesn't stop there. As Germany began to desperately build a defensive line east of the Rhine, France would soon not be able to provide much assistance to these countries: now that France had 50 divisions and did not dare to repel three battalions of German troops, how could it be expected that France would sacrifice its young men to attack the German defense line on the western wall that Germany had already built when it launched an attack in the east? Even if France did do so, the effect would be very limited; With the Rhine moat and fortifications, France could only pin down a small part of the German army on the Western Front, while the rest of the growing German army could free up and launch a prickly attack on its eastern neighbor!

Hitler, as the initiator, was completely aware of this strategic significance. He soon instructed Foreign Minister Newright that the German Government would do everything possible to prevent, rather than encourage, the Austrian National Socialist uprising until the German fortifications on the French-Belgian border were completed, and that it would pursue a calm policy towards Czechoslovakia. "As soon as our fortifications are completed and the countries of Central Europe realize that France cannot enter Germany at will, all these countries will begin to think very differently about their foreign policy, and a new constellation will be formed."

In the UK, it seems, only Winston? Churchill alone understood the significance of Germany's reoccupation of the Rhine. However, at this time, he has long been excluded from the center of power, and he is just an ordinary Conservative MP, who is powerless to stop the advancement of this general trend. His loud outcry in the House of Commons was also seen as a sign of "insanity" and was booed, and no one wanted to listen to his bad advice. However, even Churchill could not have predicted that just four years later, Britain would be hit by a catastrophic blow far worse than that of the last World War. (To be continued.) )

PS: The number of recent collections can't bear to look at directly.,The author's heart is cold and cold.,For the sake of the author who is still working the construction site today.,Let's give some free collection to comfort the author.