Early records of UK preparation for WWII

[ThomasP]

Ran across this website the other day. It has records and minutes of the UK parliament meetings.

"https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commo...-2e6e-43de-9a5f-7f7b732b68bd/AirEstimates1936"

I stumbled across this Air Estimates meeting minutes of particular interest.

from Sir Philip Sassoon's Statement 17 March 1936

". . . This is, indeed, a melancholy reaction from the high aspirations with which the Disarmament Conference opened at Geneva four years ago. As the House well knows, the inexorable logic of events has left His Majesty's Government no option in the matter. We were compelled to set in hand last year an urgent programme for the rapid and extensive development of the Royal Air Force. . . . As a result, the metropolitan squadrons will ultimately be increased to 129, with a first-line strength of approximately 1,750 [aircraft]. The actual defensive and offensive power of the Home Defence Force will, however, have been augmented far in excess of this numerical increase. In addition, a further 12 squadrons are to be formed by 1939 for duties overseas. That will make a total of 37 squadrons outside these islands. All these figures exclude the Fleet Air Arm which is to be increased by 27 first-line machines in 1936 and on a much larger scale in 1937 and 1938. By the end of the financial year 1936 the first-line strength of the Force will have been doubled in the short space of two years. . ."

I have not had a chance to go through the files there to any degree, but presumably there are other records that would be of interest to the members of this forum.

 

[EwenS]

For those not familiar with Hansard, it represents the official record of all UK Parliamentary debates. It represents a substantially close to verbatim record of who said what. Buried in those records will be the records of the debates on every set of Defence Estimates. It also contains the written responses of Ministers to questions submitted by Members of the two Houses (Lords and Commons)

Background

Hansard - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Historic Hansard records 1803-2005

HANSARD 1803–2005

HANSARD 1803–2005

api.parliament.uk

You can happily lose yourself for hours following the twists and turns if some of the debates on defence related matters. Not only real big picture stuff like the Estimates, but also reactions to individual events.

 

[pinehilljoe]

Michael Korda wrote in With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain, perhaps history is too harsh on Stanley Baldwin and Chamberlain. They funded Radar, the development of the Spitfire and Hurricane, and Air Marshal Dowding's Integrated Command, Information and Control that made a modern integrated weapons system. At least when the War started the tools to expand were there.

 

[yulzari]

Michael Korda wrote in With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain, perhaps history is to harsh on Stanley Baldwin and Chamberlain. They funded Radar, the development of the Spitfire and Hurricane, and Air Marshal Dowding's Integrated Command, Information and Control that made a modern integrated weapons system. At least when the War started the tools to expand were there.

And one is equally reminded that the 10 Year Rule emanated from Winston Churchill.