Rearmament – numbers of military and civilian aircraft built each year 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 France 600 785 890 743 1382 3163 Great Britain 633 740 1140 1877 2153 2827 7940 Germany 368 1968 3183 5112 5606 5235 8295

Hitler‘s secret order, 1936 I therefore lay down the following task: a) The German army must be ready for combat in four years b) The German economy must be capable of war in four years

This cartoon was published in Britain just after the Germans marched into the Rhineland – something they were forbidden to do by the Treaty of Versailles. It shows the attitude of the other major world powers to Hitler. The figure at the front of the group on the left is Eden, the British Foreign Secretary.