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These medium-sized cruiser tanks were the mainstay of British armoured units during the war. Weighing 10-35 tonnes, they were fast and mobile, and were designed to operate independently of the slow-moving infantry and their more heavily armoured infantry tank support. They were built specifically to fight a mobile war against other tanks.
The Army recognised that German armoured success during the fighting had come about as a result of the concentration of tanks in divisions. The Army intended to raise another seven armoured divisions by mid 1941. [18] This resulted in the 6th, the 8th, and the 9th Armoured Divisions being formed over the final months of 1940. [19]
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of British Armed Forces. Since the end of the Cold War, the British Army has been deployed to a number of conflict zones, often as part of an expeditionary force, a coalition force or part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation. [1]
The following is a list of British military equipment of World War II which includes artillery, vehicles and vessels. This also would largely apply to Commonwealth of Nations countries in World War II like Australia, India and South Africa as the majority of their equipment would have been British as they were at that time part of the British Empire.
The Infantry of the British Army comprises 49 infantry battalions, from 19 regiments. Of these, 33 battalions are part of the Regular army and the remaining 16 a part of the Army Reserve. The British Army's Infantry takes on a variety of roles, including armoured, mechanised, air assault and light.
The size of the British Army peaked in June 1945, at 2.9 million men. By the end of the Second World War some three million people had served. [13] [7] In 1944, the United Kingdom was facing severe manpower shortages. By May 1944, it was estimated that the British Army's strength in December 1944 would be 100,000 less than it was at the end of ...
British tank design focused on pre-war requirements for light, cruiser, and infantry tanks created experimentally by J.F.C. Fuller, Percy Hobart and B.H. Liddell-Hart. Their experiments and doctrine led the way in the development of armoured warfare after the first world war, and also had a major influence on Axis development under Heinz ...
In September 1939, the British Army was in process of expanding their anti-aircraft and mobile (including armoured) assets. Among these new changes was the formation of Anti-Aircraft Command which was formed on 1 April 1939, and the 1st Armoured Division formed in 1937.