The Olympic Games gave Nazi Germany a chance to show the world that the Third Reich was a well-ordered, powerful society. For propaganda purposes measures against Jews were relaxed, and Berlin became the home of fraternal international friendship, albeit temporarily. However, away from the Olympics the Germans re-occupied the demilitarized Rhineland and began to channel military aid to the Franco’s Nationalists fighting a civil war in Spain. As they did so, Great Britain and France, the major powers of Europe, did nothing but watch idly.
The battlecruiser Gneisenau is launched. She is a small battleship, with smaller guns and armour on the battleship scale. Designed to allow replacement of triple 11in guns with dual 15in, she and her sister Scharnhorst is a reply to the French “Dunkerque” class.
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