Lecture of Major General Thomas, Given on 24 May, 1939 at the Foreign Office.
The field of military economy has expanded into such a large field during the few years in which we have known this concept that in view of the short time at my disposal I can only give you today a few cross sections. I have chosen fields which touch on our common work and which will be of particular interest for your work here in the Foreign Office. We shall deal with the following three topics:
I. With the state of our own rearmament as compared
with that of the Western powers.
II. With the question : can the advantage of the German
rearmament over that of the Western powers be
maintained also in the future?
III. With the connections between the rearmament and
the present economic situation in Germany.
I hope that the treatment of these three points will give you a certain insight into the three main tasks which occupy the
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economic division with the High Command of the Wehrmacht most particularly for the time being and which would be of a certain importance for the judgment of our foreign political situation.
I.
I begin with the state of German rearmament. You have already been given a survey of the present organization of the Wehrmacht by the parts of the Wehrmacht so that I can be brief and only will have to cover the development of the rearmament. ;
, You know that the dictate of Versailles had limited the number of the German divisions to seven, that an air force was prohibited and that the Treaty completely forbid the navy to build ships of over 10,000 tons or submarines. The production of arms, ammunition and military equipment was limited to a few authorized plants. All other establishments had been systematically destroyed. Until the end of 1933, in spite of secret camouflaged attempts, no essential change occurred in the situation, so that we can state that the present rearmament represents the work of four years.
The 100,000 men Army of 7 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions compare today with a peacetime army of 18 corps headquarters (General kommandos), 39 infantry divisions, among them 4 fully motorized and 3 mountain divisions, 5 panzer divisions, 4 light divisions and 22 machine-gun battalions. In addition to this there is on the border a large number of permament border protection units. Since all large-scale procurement of new arms for the 100,000 men army was out of the question, but the development of new types was busily carried on in secret our present army could be equipped in all fields with the most modern weapons and it surely leads the world in its whole infantry armament and in the large number of it? types of guns. Completely new and developed only in the last 5 years are the 5 Panzer divisions, the modern battle cavalry and the light divisions, the light cavalry.
Conditions in the field of material are the same. Newly created was the entire equipment of the armored divisions and the light divisions. This accomplishment can be fully appreciated only by a person who knows what it means to produce—after these troops had been prohibited for 15 years—in a tank fit for combat which will satisfy the modern requirements of speed, cross country mobility and armor.
In addition an enormous number of special motor vehicles, sometimes of the most difficult construction, was developed and
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procured and the artillery partly motorized and provided with the most modern sound and light measuring equipment. The great increase of the technical troops makes special demands on the armament industry.
To this manifold rearmament is added the construction of border fortifications which were first begun in the East and which were started in the West as soon as the situation permitted. You all have seen the concentration of the development in the West during the last year. In this connection I want to mention that the construction of modern fortresses makes the highest demands on the armaments industry which are building turrets.
The pre-war peace time army was increased from 43 divisions to 50 divisions in the period from 1898 to 1914—i.e. in 16 years. Our rearmament from 7 infantry divisions to 51 divisions represents—-as I have already stated—the work of 4 years.
The navy, in 1933 had, in addition to a few obsolete pre-war line ships, one armored ship of 10,000 tons, 6 light cruisers and 12 torpedo boats. Since 1933 we have put into service, 2 battle ships of 26,000 tons each, 2 armored ships of 10,000 tons each, 17 destroyers and 47 submarines, a total tonnage of 125,000. Also launched were: 2 battle ships of 35,000 tons, 4 heavy cruisers of 10,000 tons, 1 aircraft carrier, 5 destroyers and 7 submarines totalling 106,000 tons. The launching of additional ships is impending.
The Luftwaffe has risen again and today has a strength of 260,000 men. Today already, the Luftwaffe possesses 21 squadrons consisting of 240 echelons. Its increase is in process. The antiaircraft arm, with its four types, is certainly the most modern in the world and already embraces almost 300 antiaircraft batteries. Antiaircraft guns of still larger calibers are being introduced.
The German armament industry has been developed to the same extent. Out of the few factories permitted by the Versailles Treaty has arisen the mightiest armament industry now existing the world. It has attained performances which in part equal the German wartime performances, and in part even surpass them. Germany's crude steel production is today the largest in the world after America's, the aluminum production exceeds that of America and of the other countries of the world very considerably. The output of our rifle, machine-gun and artillery factories is at present larger than that of any other state. Our powder and explosive production in the next year is again to reach the volume of the Hindenburg program.
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And, in spite of this extraordinary accomplishment of reconstruction—to which the Four Year Plan in particular has greatly contributed—there are still considerable deficiencies in the field of armament industry. I shall deal with these especially further on, since they are of decisive importance for the later appraisal of our capacity for endurance.
Added to this material armament preparation is the development of a personnel organization in the form of a military economic organization. The World War had made us sufficiently aware of the lack of an economic mobilization organization. Consequently soldiers already a few years after the War began to set up an organization which was to handle economic preparations for war. From this embryo has grown the present great military defense economy organization which has its center in the economic division with the High Command of the Wehrmacht and the branch agencies of which exist in the defense industry-inspectorates under the jurisdiction of each corps headquarters [Generalkommando].
It is natural that this organization has chiefly devoted itself to handling of the armament industry proper and in particular has carried through the mobilizational preparation of these plants. The preparation of the mobilization of the rest of industry, which was to be effected by the Economics Ministry, did not at first enjoy the support required for a modern war, because the Economics Ministry did not possess the machinery to prepare mobilization in an orderly fashion. In recent months joint efforts of the High Command of the Wehrmacht and the (machinery) Commissioner General for War Economy have made it possible to find a solution whereby the mobilizational preparation of all industry is insured. The Reich Economics Ministry, like the Wehrmacht, has set up, in the defense industry sections with the provincial presidents [Oberpraesidenten] and the chambers of commerce, organs which on their part too are now in a position to make economic preparations on a large scale. All the economic preparations for war are now being made in accordance with uniform directives, which are worked out jointly by the economic division of the army and the Commissioner General of the Wehrmacht. The economic division of the army and the Commissioner General for War Industry carry these out through their branch organizations and there is no longer, as formerly, a division of industry into two parts—armament and war plants and plants vital to existence—but a division of tasks, so that the faults of the former organization—the dualism of industry—is avoided.
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In conclusion we can state that the total German rearmament in the field of personnel as well as of material represents an accomplishment of the German people probably unique in the world and a testimony to a resolute leadership and to the energy and creativeness innate in the German people. The great financial and labor efforts of the German industry and of the German people have no doubt yielded the desired result and we can perceive today that German armament in its breadth and its state of preparedness has a considerable start over the armament of all other countries.