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The history of the British Army spans three centuries and numerous Europe an, Colonial and world wars. From the early 1800s until 1914 , the United Kingdom was the greatest economic and imperial power in the world, and although this dominance was principally achieved through the strength of the British Royal Navy , the British Army played a significant role. In peacetime, Britain has generally maintained only a small professional volunteer Army , expanding this as required in time of war, due to Britain's traditional role as a Sea Power . Since 1745 , the army has played little or no role in British domestic politics, and, other than in Ireland , has seldom been deployed against internal threats. The Army has been involved in many international conflicts, including the Napoleonic Wars , the Crimean War and the two World War s. Historically, it contributed to the expansion and retention of the British Empire . Whilst in the latter part of the 20th Century , it oversaw a generally orderly dismantling of that empire. The 1990s saw the Army become increasing involved in multi-national Peacekeeping work and this has continued into the 21st Century . Recently, it has also been deployed in combat operations in Iraq . The British Army has long been at the forefront of new military developments. It was the first to develop and deploy the Tank , and what is now the Royal Air Force had its origins within the British army. Origins (1661-1774) Prior to the English Civil War in 1642 , there was no standing army in England or Scotland . Men were raised by the King when required, a development of the feudal concept of Fief (in which a lord was required to raise a certain quota of Knight s, Men-at-arms and Yeomanry under greater control of the King). After the Civil War and establishment of a Republic, parliament assumed control of the Army, and standing companies based on Cromwell's New Model Army formed the concept of the first regiments. The Restoration of Charles II saw the Model Army kept as a standing force, and the King raised further regiments loyal to the Crown. On 26 January , 1661 Charles II issued the warrant that is acknowledged as the official beginning of the British Army. The British Army as it is now, came into existence upon the Union of England and Scotland in 1707 , forming the Kingdom Of Great Britain . In an effort to control the powers of the monarch, Parliament passed the Bill Of Rights 1689 to prevent a standing army in peacetime without the consent of Parliament. To this day, annual continuation notices are required for the British Army to remain legal. However, now the Army was under the control of the Government, and the last King to lead his troops into battle was George II at the Battle Of Dettingen in 1743 . Units had originally been known by the names of their colonels, such as Sir John Mordaunt's Regiment of Foot, but in 1751 a numeral system was adopted, with each regiment gaining a number in accordance with their rank in the Order Of Precedence , so John Mordaunt's Regiment became the 47th Regiment Of Foot . During the period of 1661-1774, the British Empire expanded during the many wars it took part in against its European rivals and the Army actively participated in all the conflicts, including the Seven Years' War ( 1755 - 63 ), deemed to be one of the first 'world wars', and saw one of the most important conquests by the Army; the taking of Quebec . American Revolution, Napoleonic Wars and the Long Peace (1774-1854) The American War of Independence began in 1775 when the Thirteen Colonies rose up against British rule. Many Americans, however, sought to remain with the British Empire and duly fought for the British, and were known as Loyalists. Five American units were placed on the regular establishment, known as the American Establishment (formed in 1779 ) though there were many other Loyalist units. Upon the independence of America and the end of the war in 1783 , many of the Loyalist forces fled north to Canada, where many subsequently served with the British Army. The Army itself had established many units during the war, to serve in North America or provide replacements for garrisons; all but three -- the 23rd Dragoons , 71st and 78th Foot -- were disbanded in the immediate aftermath of the war. ]] and 95th Regiments of Foot.]] By the turn of the 19th Century , the Army was beginning to embrace new technology and new tactics, some of the most important being the Rifle and creation of entire regiments of Light Infantry and riflemen; these skirmishers gave the Army the capability of acting in a fluid manner (rather than constricted by formations, which was still the predominant method of fighting during that period). The first light infantry regiments were the 43rd and 53rd Foot in 1803 , though were still armed with muskets. An Experimental Corps Of Riflemen was formed in 1800 , armed with the Baker Rifle . It was brought into the line as the 95th Regiment of Foot in 1802 (The Rifle Brigade from 1816 ). The 95th Rifles saw extensive service, most prominently in the Peninsular War where the mountainous terrain saw them in their element. The French Revolutionary Wars saw the Army take part in many campaigns against the French (as-well as countries conquered by them) in the Caribbean; the Indian sub-continent (including the capture of Ceylon ); Europe and in North Africa, which including a successful campaign in 1801 to expel invading French troops in Egypt. In 1803 , with Napoleon as leader of France, the Napoleonic Wars began. As in the previous war with France, the Army saw service in many campaigns, including the capture of the Cape Of Good Hope in Southern Africa; an abortive (initially unauthorised) invasion of Spanish- South America along with further wars and campaigns in the Indian sub-continent and Caribbean. The Army also saw service in the War Of 1812 against America (unrelated to the Napoleonic Wars) though it was initially Canadian forces that fought the Americans back into the USA after their invasion of Canada failed. The most important campaign the Army fought during the conflict was the Peninsular War in Portugal and Spain. After the French had invaded Portugal and Spain, the British landed in Portugal to help them in their uprising against the French in 1808 . The British were commanded by Lieutenant-General Arthur Wellesley (later 1st Duke of Wellington) and he achieved a number of important victories over the French but was, in spite of this, replaced as commander. After Sir John Moore was killed at the Battle Of Corunna in January 1809 , Wellesley returned as Commander-in-Chief. With the help of the Portuguese and Spanish (including Guerrillas ), the British fought many bloody battles against the French who had invaded Portugal twice, being pushed out both times, and the British also having to retreat from Spain a number of times until, in May 1813 , a renewed offensive saw the French pushed back in Spain, and the British successfully entered France itself in October 1813. With the British now firmly in France and the French experiencing defeats elsewhere, Napoleon was forced into exile in April 1814 . He returned to France and regained power but was defeated at Battle Of Waterloo on 18 June 1815 by a British, Belgian, Dutch, and Prussian force under the command of the Duke of Wellington. Due to the war, the British Empire had increased in size and was continuing to do so after the end of the war. The Government, however, implemented heavy cuts on the Armed Forces, with many units being disbanded, including the émigre units that had fled to Britain from countries occupied by France such as the King's German Legion and Royal Corsican Rangers . The cuts proved too severe and a number of new regiments were raised. Though the Royal Navy played an extremely prominent part in the expansion and maintenance of the Empire, the Army's contribution was vital. One of the most important contributions was its participation in the many wars during the expansion of British power in the Indian sub-continent, eventually culminating in the establishment of most what is modern-day India by the 1850s . The Army also saw increasing service in Africa and in the Far East, including the First China War between 1839 - 42 , a war ostensibly provoked for trade reason. Crimea, Mutiny, Colonial Wars & the Cardwell-Childers reforms (1854-1914) Organisation Due to the Indian Mutiny ( 1857 - 58 ), the Army was extremely overstretched, to such an extent that Canadian volunteers raised a regiment for the British Army, titled the 100th (or Prince Of Wales's Royal Canadians) Regiment Of Foot , for service in India; it did not, however, see service there. In the aftermath of the Mutiny, control of India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown. The so-called 'European' regiments of the East India Company, consisting of three cavalry and nine infantry regiments, were transferred to the British Army. There were also many troops and batteries of artillery that became incorporated into the Royal Regiment Of Artillery . At the peak of the British Empire, the Middle and Upper Class es were often 'militaristic', usually seeking to join the armed forces to increase their social standing, especially the Yeomanry regiments. In 1859 , there was an assassination attempt on Napoleon III , ruler of France, by Felice Orsini which was linked to Britain. In spite of the fact Britain had only just been in a war against Russia with France as its ally, there was now an increased fear of war breaking out. This saw a surge in interest in the more affluent communities in creating volunteer units, known as ' Volunteer Rifle Corps '. There were many such corps formed all over the United Kingdom, one of the most prominent was the Artists' Rifles (originally known as the 38th Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps) established in 1860 by the art student Edward Starling . In the early 1870s , the Cardwell Reforms , named after the Secretary of State of War Edward Cardwell , saw radical reforms of the armed forces implemented in the aftermath of the inadequacies found in the Crimean War . Some of the reforms included the abolition of the Purchase Of Commission s, replacing it with advancement by seniority and merit; the end of Flogging and the pairing of single-battalion regiments via administrative Depot s on a county-based system. The Childers Reforms , which came into effect on 1 July 1881 , continued the reforms which strengthened regiments' county affiliations by discarding the numeral system and combining most of the single-battalion regiments into two-battalion regiments with, for the most part, county names in their titles. This created a force of 69 Line Infantry regiments, consisting of 48 English, 10 Scottish, 8 Irish, and 3 Welsh regiments. Another aspect of the reforms included the further integration of the militia into the regular regimental system, becoming additional numbered battalions of the regiments, and the establishment of a reserve force. These changes, and the others that were implemented, bore the Army in good stead for the two World Wars it would experience in the 20th Century . For a list of the regiments that were established on 1 July , see List Of British Army Regiments (1881) . The Second Boer War (1899-1902) provided further impetus for the expansion of the Army -- which had already been expanding in size during the last years of the 19th Century -- including the creation of the Irish Guards in 1900 in honour of the distinguished service of Irish regiments during that conflict, and the Royal Garrison Regiment , created to fill the void of units departing for South Africa. After the end of the war and the Army's inadequacies during it, further reforms took place, known as the Haldane Reforms after Richard Burdon Haldane . Some of the reforms included the establishment of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in anticipation of a war on the European continent; and a part-time volunteer organisation, known as the Territorial Force , was also created, encompassing the reserve units of the Army with Militia units being transferred to the newly created Special Reserve . An Air Battalion was formed in the Royal Engineers in 1911 , becoming the Royal Flying Corps the following year. The RFC remained part of the Army until 1918 when it was separated to form the Royal Air Force . Operations Britain's first major war in Europe since Waterloo, the Crimean War, began in 1854 after Britain and France declared war on Russia, fearing Russian domination of the Mediterranean a year after it had invaded Turkish territory. The first signs of inadequacy in the Army was experienced during the Army's landings at Calamity Bay where the Army experienced great difficulty in its logistics. Further inadequacies were found throughout the war in British Army organisation and much incompetence was also discovered in the higher echelons of command, noticed most prominently in the Charge Of The Light Brigade during the Battle Of Balaklava . The war ended in 1856 . The Army had suffered killed, most of which was due to disease. In the immediate aftermath of the war the Victoria Cross , which became the highest award for bravery in the face of the enemy, was created. The following year the Indian Mutiny began and the Army was overstretched, having to bring in garrison units from all over the Empire. The Mutiny was quelled with the help of loyal Indian and Gurkha forces in 1858 . After this, the Army increasingly concentrated on policing the Empire in its many distant outposts while also helping to expand it. The Army was used to intervene in other nations, mostly for British interests such as trade. In Canada, Irish-American ex- Union Army soldiers launched a number of encroachments into Canadian territory in 1866 and 1870 , known as the Fenian Raids . These actions saw an increasing assertiveness in Canada, with Canadian units being the primary defenders. In 1878 , the Second Afghan War took place between 1878-80 due to fears of Russian influence in Afghanistan, Russia being Britain's rival in the region. Elsewhere, in Africa, the Anglo-Zulu War began, in 1879 , signifying further British expansion in southern Africa. The Zulu War saw disaster at Isandlwana , and heroic legend at Rorke's Drift . The performance of the Martini-Henry rifle (introduced in 1871 ) duly became a symbol of the Empire's colonial wars. There were many more campaigns in Africa before the end of the 19th Century, during a period of time known as the " Scramble For Africa ". The Boer War began in 1899 after tension between the British and the two Dutch Boer republics culminated in the Boers declaring war against the British. Though it was a relatively minor war in comparison to what awaited the British in 1914, many tactics, technology and equipment used during the war helped the British gain experience for the forthcoming World War. However, future inadequacies had been discovered in the Army during the war, and like the Crimean War, most of the Army's deaths was due to disease. The war also saw the present and future Dominion s -- Australia , Canada, Newfoundland , New Zealand and South Africa -- become increasingly independent and assertive, all having had troops fight the Boers. The British eventually withdrew from all of these countries and the Dominions forces took over its duties. The Great War (1914-18) Organisation At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 , the British Army was a small, professional force of 247,000 soldiers, over half of which were posted overseas in garrisons throughout the British Empire. The regular Army was supported by 224,000 reservists and 269,000 soldiers of the Territorial Force . The size of the Army was in stark contrast to the Royal Navy which was the largest navy in the world, while many of the Army's continental counterparts, such as the French and German Armies (both of whom employed Conscription ) numbered nearly 1 million troops and were part of highly militarised societies. Under the '' Entente Cordiale '', the British Army's role in a European war was to embark the 120,000 soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), arranged in six infantry and one cavalry Division s, to cooperate with the French Army. Kaiser Wilhelm was famously dismissive of the BEF, on 19 August issuing his order to "exterminate... the treacherous English and walk over General French's contemptible little army." — in later years the survivors of the regular army dubbed themselves "The Old Contemptibles". By the end of 1914, after the battles of Mons , Le Cateau , The Aisne and Ypres , the old regular British Army had been effectively wiped out. volunteers await their pay at St. Martin-in-the-Fields ]] As the regular Army declined, the numbers were made up, first by the Territorials, followed by the volunteers of Lord Kitchener's New Army, known as Kitchener's Army . By the end of August 1914, he had raised six new divisions, rising to 29 divisions by March 1915 . The Territorial Force also expanded, raising second- and third-line battalions and forming eight additional divisions on top of its peacetime strength of 14 divisions. By January 1916 when conscription was introduced, 2.6 million men had volunteered for service and a further 2.3 million were conscripted before the end of the war. camp near Basingstoke , 1915.]] A prominent feature of the early months of volunteering was the formation of Pals Battalion s, whole units recruited from the same town or workplace, such as the Grimsby Chums . Many of these pals who had lived and worked together, now joined up and trained together, only to die together on the First Day On The Somme , leaving entire communities shattered. During the war, most new infantry battalions were raised within existing regiments; the Northumberland Fusiliers were most prolific, fielding 51 battalions. However, some new regiments were created, such as the fifth regiment of the Foot Guards, the Welsh Guards , created in 1915 to honour the distinguished actions of the Welsh regiments in the war. The war also saw the British having an increasing reliance upon the Dominion and Empire troops, many of whom volunteered to serve in the British Army out of a perception that Britain was the 'Motherland'. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment and British West Indies Regiment were both formed in 1915, the latter of which was made up of volunteers from the Caribbean who had arrived in Britain. Both regiments were disbanded in 1919. There were also existing regiments like the West India Regiment and West Africa Regiment (both disbanded by the end of the 1920s ). At various times on the Western Front , Australia , Canada and India provided Corps , New Zealand a division and South Africa a brigade, all of which were attached to British Armies . In August 1914, the Army's Royal Flying Corps dispatched 63 aircraft to France in support of the BEF. The aggressive doctrine of RFC commander, General Hugh Trenchard , and periods of technical inferiority such as the Fokker Scourge of 1916 and Bloody April in 1917 resulted in high casualty rates amongst aircrews. At the start of 1918, the RFC numbered nearly 4,000 aircraft, including capable Fighters such as the Sopwith Camel and S.E.5a . On 1 April 1918 , the RFC merged with the Royal Naval Air Service , forming the independent Royal Air Force . Equipment crew, Western Front.]] The British Army were pioneers in some aspects of Military Technology , having adopted the first Machine Gun , the Maxim , in 1889 and by 1912 it possessed the Vickers Machine Gun . Both infantry and cavalry were equipped with the Lee-Enfield rifle (first introduced in 1895 ) with which the professionals of the regular Army could fire 15 aimed rounds per minute. However, in 1914 the Army was ill-prepared for large-scale continental warfare and ill-equipped for the environment of Trench Warfare , in particular short of Grenade s and Mortar s. Artillery suffered from a shortage of shells and initially supply only improved at the expense of quality. The Army adopted Chemical Weapon s, usually in response to German innovations, and often lagged markedly, taking over a year to deploy their own Mustard Gas agent. showing off their new Brodie Helmet s. Until 1916, British soldiers wore a soft peaked cap which gave no protection from Shrapnel .]] The British Army reacted to these shortcomings, introducing the Mills Bomb as the standard grenade, producing over 70 million in the final three years of the war, and the versatile Stokes Mortar , the predecessor the modern mortar. The role of the machine gun expanded throughout the war, dramatically increasing the firepower to the infantry. Platoon s were equipped with the light Lewis Gun while the independent machine gun companies of the Machine Gun Corps , established on 22 October 1915 , operated the heavy Vickers. As the war progressed, the artillery grew in sophistication, employing the Creeping Barrage for protection of advancing infantry, developing sound-ranging and flash-detection techniques for Counter-battery Fire , and learning how to predict the fall of shells without needing to register the guns on their target. tank in reserve prior to the Battle Of Thiepval Ridge , September 1916.]] The Army pioneered the use of the Tank ; operated by the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps, the Mark I tank first saw service on The Somme in September 1916. In July 1917, the Tank Corps was formed from the Heavy Branch and was the only corps created in the war to survive past the 1920s, becoming the Royal Tank Corps in 1922 , then Royal Tank Regiment in 1939 . Operations The most important Theatre was the Western Front but the British Army fought in almost every theatre of the First World War. In the four years of the war, the British Army had suffered nearly 2.5 million casualties; 662,000 men killed, 140,000 missing and 1.65 million wounded. Western Front Under the command of Field Marshall Sir John French , the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) began to deploy to France within days of the Declaration Of War . The first encounter with the Germans came at Mons on 23 August 1914 after which the Allies began the Great Retreat , not stopping until at the outskirts of Paris . The BEF had small role in halting the German advance at The Marne before participating in the Aisne Counter-offensive which was followed by a period known as the " Race To The Sea " during which the BEF redeployed to Flanders . For the BEF, 1914 ended with " First Ypres " which marked the beginning of a long struggle for the Ypres Salient . In four months, the BEF had suffered nearly 90,000 casualties and of the 64 original 1,000-strong battalions that had travelled to France in August, on average only one officer and 30 Other Ranks remained. On Christmas Day, the steadily expanding BEF was reorganised into two armies; the First Army under General Sir Douglas Haig and the Second Army under General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien . , 25 September 1915 .]] Trench Warfare prevailed in 1915 and the BEF, as the junior partner on the Western Front, fought a series of small battles, at times coordinated with the larger French offensives; at Neuve Chapelle in March, Aubers Ridge and Festubert in May and at Givenchy in June. On 22 April 1915 , the Germans launched the Second Battle Of Ypres , employing Poison Gas for the first time on the Western Front and capturing much of the high ground that ringed the salient. By September 1915 the British Army had grown in strength, with the first New Army divisions entering the line, and as part of the Third Battle Of Artois , the Army launched a major attack at Loos utilising their own newly developed chemical weapons for the first time. The result was another costly and disappointing failure and marked the end for Field Marshall French; on 19 December 1915 , General Sir Douglas Haig became Commander-in-Chief of the BEF. advancing on the First Day Of The Somme ( 1 July 1916 )]] For the British Army, 1916 was dominated by the Battle Of The Somme which started disastrously on 1 July . The First Day On The Somme remains the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army when over 19,000 soldiers were killed and a nearly 40,000 were wounded, all for little or no gain. There followed nearly five months of Attrition during which the Fourth Army of General Henry Rawlinson and the Fifth Army of General Hubert Gough advanced about five miles for a cost of 420,000 casualties. Despite the losses, the British Army under Haig had grown in size and experience such that it was now an equal partner with the French Army on the Western Front. , July 1916.]] In February 1917 the German Army began to withdraw to the Hindenburg Line and it was these formidable defences that elements of the British Army assaulted in the Battle Of Arras in April. For this battle, the British Prime Minister , David Lloyd George , had placed Haig and the BEF under the orders of new French Commander-in-Chief, Robert Nivelle who planned a major French Army Offensive in Champagne . Arras failed to deliver a breakthrough and Haig, freed from the restraints of the French command, now embarked on his favoured plan to launch an offensive in Flanders . In a successful preliminary operation, General Herbert Plumer's Second Army seized the Messines Ridge south of Ypres. The Third Battle Of Ypres , which began on 31 July 1917 , was one of the worst ordeals endured by British and Dominion forces during the war, with the battlefield reduced to a quagmire. It was not until 6 November that the Passchendaele ridge was captured, by which time the British Army had sustained 310,000 casualties. For the British Army, 1917 ended with faint promise in the Battle Of Cambrai which demonstrated the potential of Tank s operating ''en masse''. Third Army commander, General Julian Byng , planned an ambitious breakthrough and achieved an unprecedented advanced of six Kilometre s on the first day but lacked the reserves to either continue or consolidate. A German counter-offensive succeeded in recapturing most of the lost ground. The year 1918 started with disaster and ended in triumph for the British Army. On 21 March 1918 , German commander, General Erich Ludendorff , launched the Spring Offensive and the main weight of the first blow, Operation ''Michael'' , fell on the British Fifth Army of General Gough which was forced into retreat, finally halting the German advance east of Amiens . The next German attack came south of Ypres along The Lys river and here too the British Army fell back. Haig issued his famous Order of the Day, "With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end." In response to the crisis facing the Allies, French general Ferdinand Foch was made Supreme Commander for Allied forces on the Western Front, placing the BEF under his strategic direction. On 8 August 1918 , General Rawlinson's Fourth Army launched the Battle Of Amiens which marked the start of the Hundred Days Offensive , the final Allied offensive on the Western Front. Over the following weeks, all five armies of the BEF went on the offensive from the Somme to Flanders. A few American divisions remained attached to British armies and participated in the British operations. Fighting continued right up until the Armistice With Germany came into effect at 11.00 am on 11 November 1918 . Other theatres The British Army was involved in some comparatively obscure theatres of the war such as the symbolic contribution of the South Wales Borderers in support of Japan ese forces in the capture of the German port of Tsingtao in China in 1914. A few British Army battalions also participated in the campaign in East Africa against Von Lettow-Vorbeck 's elusive German and colonial Askari forces however most British operations in Africa were carried out by native colonial or Indian Army units under British command. bound for Cape Helles , Gallipoli in May 1915.]] The British Army was heavily engaged in the Mediterranean , Middle East and Mesopotamia throughout the war, mainly against the Ottoman Empire . In April 1915, following the failure of the Royal Navy's attempt capture the Dardanelles , the Army Landed At Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula. In August another landing was made at Suvla Bay but the deadlock remained and by January 1916, the British, Anzac and French forces had withdrawn. A new front was opened in Salonika at the request of the Greek government, intending to support Serbia n forces and oppose Bulgaria , but this too remained static, tying up troops who suffered severely from Malaria and other illnesses; it gained a reputation as "Germany's biggest Internment Camp ." on foot out of respect for the Holy City, 31 December 1917 ]] In the Sinai And Palestine , the British Army, along with Australian and New Zealand light Cavalry , made steady progress against Ottoman opposition until the First Battle Of Gaza in March 1917. The appointment of General Edmund Allenby reinvigorated the campaign, leading to the Capture Of Jerusalem in December 1917 and the decisive Meggido Offensive in September 1918 which precipitated an armistice with the Ottoman Empire. In Mesopotamia , the Army was highly dependent upon Indian Army forces and initially experienced success until defeat at Kut-al-Amara in April 1916 halted progress. The British eventually regained momentum upon General Frederick Stanley Maude becoming commander and Baghdad was captured in 1917. Inter-War Period (1919-1939) In the immediate aftermath of the First World War, Britain faced serious economic woes and heavy defence cuts were consequently imposed by the British Government in the early 1920s as part of a reduction in public expenditure known as the " Geddes Axe " after Sir Eric Geddes . The Government introduced the Ten Year Rule , stating its belief that Britain would not be involved in another major war for 10-years, and was abandoned in 1932 . The Royal Tank Corps was the only corps formed in WWI that survived the cuts; the cavalry had sixteen regiments amalgamated into eight and there was a substantial reduction in infantry battalions and the size of the TF (now retitled as the Territorial Army). The Army was effectively being reduced to the role of imperial policeman, concentrated on responding to the small imperial conflicts that rose up across the Empire. On 31 July 1922 , the Army also lost six Irish regiments (5 infantry and 1 cavalry) that were based and recruited from the south of Ireland, largely in part due to the creation of the Irish Free State . In spite of this, Irishmen from the south were still able to join the British Army, and many did indeed do so. One of the first post-war campaigns that the Army took part in was the Allied intervention in Russia in 1919 to assist the " White Army " against the Communist Bolshevik s during their Civil War . The British Army was also maintaining occupation forces in the defeated powers of WWI. In Germany, a British Army Of The Rhine (BAOR) was established. The BAOR would remain in existence until 1929 when British forces were withdrawn. Another British occupation force was based in Constantinople in Turkey , and a number of British units fought against Turkish rebels during the Turkish War Of Independence . A small British Military Mission was also advising the Polish Army during the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921). The Army, throughout the inter-war period, also had to deal with quelling paramilitary organisations seeking the removal of the British. In British Somaliland , Mohammed Bin Abdullah (known to the British Army as 'The Mad Mullah') resumed his campaign against the British, a campaign he had first begun in 1900. The operations against him were prominent due to the newly-formed RAF being instrumental in his defeat. The Army also took part in operations in Ireland against the IRA during the Anglo-Irish War . Both sides committed atrocities, some units becoming infamous, such as the paramilitary Black And Tans that were recruited from veterans of WWI. The British Army was also supporting British Indian Army operations in the North-West Frontier of India against numerous tribes (known collectively as the Pashtun ) hostile to the British. The Army had been operating in the volatile North-West area since the 1800s . The last major uprising that the Army had to deal with before the start of the Second World War , was the Uprising In Palestine that began in 1936 . By the 1930s , another war with Germany was about to occur, now controlled by Hitler's Nazi Party who wee becoming increasingly aggressive and expansionist. The Army was, however, not prepared for war, lagging behind the technologically advanced and much larger Heer of the German Wehrmacht . The mechanisation of the cavalry, converting too Cruiser , Light , and Infantry tanks, as-well as Carrier s and Armoured Car s, had begun in 1929 though was going at an extremely slow pace due to it having little priority brought on by the severe economical restrictions imposed on the Armed Forces. With each Service vying for a share of the defence budget, the Army came last behind the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force in allocation of funds. In contrast to Germany's embrace of tank warfare and individuals such as Heinz Guderian , many individuals in the higher echelons in Britain had little enthusiasm for armour and the ideas of Basil Liddell Hart and J.F.C. Fuller were largely ignored; ironically, many of their ideas were employed by the Germans for their Blitzkrieg. By the mid-1930s, mechanisation in the British Army was gaining momentum and on 4 April 1939 , with the mechanisation process nearing completion, the Royal Armoured Corps was formed to administer the cavalry regiments and Royal Tank Regiment (with the exception of the Household Cavalry ). The mechanisation process was finally completed in 1941 with the Royal Scots Greys . After the Munich Crisis in 1938 , a serious effort was undertaken to expand the Army, including the doubling in size of the Territorial Army, helped by the reintroduction of conscription in April 1939; by mid-1939 the Army consisted of just about 225,000 Regulars and 300,000 understrength and poorly-equipped Territorials and Reservists, all of which was dwarfed, yet again, by its continental counterparts. By the end of the year though, over 1 million had been conscripted into the Army while some occupations, such as Docker s and Miner s, were exempt from being called up as part of Reserved Occupation s. Just before the war, a new British Expeditionary Force was formed. Between 1938-39, with the a substantial expansion in the Army, a number of new organisations were formed, including the Auxiliary Territorial Service for women in September 1938; its duties were vast, and helped release men for front-line service. World War II (1939-1945) Organisation By the time the British Empire, France and their allies declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 , two days after its invasion of Poland , the Army was still unprepared. For example, only a very small number of Matilda Tank s (later to gain fame in North Africa) were in service when war broke out, and nearly 100,000 soldiers were based abroad, more than half of which were located in India and the East Of Suez garrisons, such as Singapore . Others were based in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa, while the smallest was the West Indies with just a single battalion -- the 2nd Battalion, The King's Shropshire Light Infantry -- garrisoning the region, supported by indigenous units. The British infantry at the beginning of the war were still equipped with the venerable Lee-Enfield Rifle , the No. 4 variant being gradually phased in, and Webley Revolver ; they had gained a new reliable machine gun to accompany the Vickers, the Bren , and their principal anti-tank weapon was the Boys Anti-tank Rifle . They acquired many new technologies and equipment during the war, many of which were utilised to great effect by the new élite and special forces units, intended to strike against enemy-occupied territory. Among these élite forces, the most prominent were the Army Commandos , Long Range Desert Group , the Special Air Service Regiment (formed to administer existing SAS units in 1944) and The Parachute Regiment ; the latter was administered by the Army Air Corps from 1942 , along with The Glider Pilot Regiment and the Air Observation Post Squadron, RA, being joined by the SAS upon its formation. Some of the new infantry equipment produced in the war included the PIAT anti-gun launcher and Sten Gun . A number of infantry battalions, such as the 2nd Ox & Bucks , 1st Royal Ulsters and 2nd Battalion The South Staffordshire Regiment converted to the " Airlanding " role, landing via Glider . By the end of the war, much of the infantry itself had become mechanised, enabling it to better co-operate with armoured units. The regular forces also experienced a substantial expansion, not just including the many battalions created in existing regiments. Six cavalry regiments were formed from the cadres of existing regiments, along with two new infantry regiments. All of these regiments would be disbanded during demobilisation in the aftermath of the war. The requirement for infantry was much less than in the previous world war, and many infantry battalions were duly converted into artillery in the Royal Artillery (such as anti-air, taking part in, among others, the Blitz ) and armoured regiments in the Royal Armoured Corps and Royal Tank Regiment. For example, the 7th Battalion, The King's Regiment (Liverpool) became the 40th (The King's) Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment. A Reconnaissance Corps of over 20 regiments was also formed (absorbed by the RAC in 1944). By the end of the war, the tactics used for armoured regiments had become very sophisticated, including better combined operations with the other arms. The armoured regiments possessed an arsenal of capable tanks by the end of the war, including specialist vehicles known as " Hobart's Funnies ", while some of the main combat tanks included the Sherman and Churchill . In the immediate aftermath of the war, the WWII-designed Centurion became the Army's first Main Battle Tank . As in WWI with the Bantam units created for people under regulation height, the Local Defence Volunteers was created for individuals too old or too young to be assigned to front-line units, or people in Reserved Occupation s. The organisation was eventually re-titled to the Home Guard and was to be part of the defence of Britain in the advent of a German invasion of Britain. They were usually improvised and poorly equipped but were passionate and dedicated to their duties. They were popularised in the T.V. show " Dad's Army ". Operations Norway The Army's first encounter with the Germans came in Norway . The Germans had Invaded Norway on 9 April 1940 . After naval operations by the Royal Navy, Norway was counter-invaded a few days later, with troops being deployed to the centre at Åndalsnes and Namsos , and north at Narvik ; the south had been taken by the Germans. The Germans superiority in the air was evident and the British forces in the centre eventually had to evacuate, having undertaken a fighting withdrawal, from 1 May to 3 May . In the north, Narvik had been taken by the British who, with reasonable air-cover, had a more successful period. However, with the beginning of the campaign in France, the British Government's attention was diverted and the Germans eventually pushed further north. The British force was evacuated on 8 June . The British Army's lack of training and equipment for winter conditions and its inadequate numbers -- just three brigades strong -- had told throughout the campaign. Maginot, Arras and Dunkirk As in WWI, the Army deployed a British Expeditionary Force to the continent, consisting initially of four divisions under the command of General Lord Gort . Over the many months that followed, in a period known as the Phony War , the British soldiers trained for war and built up their forces and garrisoned the Maginot Line . By the time the Germans invaded the Low Countries on 8 May 1940 , the BEF consisted of 10 divisions, a tank brigade and a detachment of 500 aircraft from the RAF. The BEF was directly in the path of the German diversionary attack through Belgium (the main attack being through the Ardennes forest). The speed of the German advance pushed the Allies back and Belgium and the Netherlands were conquered. After a brief armoured counter-attack at Arras on 20 May , most of the BEF withdrew to a small area around the French port of Dunkirk . The evacuation of British and French forces ( Operation Dynamo ) began on 26 May with air cover provided by the RAF at heavy cost; over 330,000 British and French were evacuated back to Britain by the operations end on 4 June , and about 220,000 were evacuated from other ports. The British Army had been saved to fight another day but it had to leave much of its equipment behind. East Africa Elsewhere, the British were experiencing mixed success against the Italians, who had entered the war on Germany's side in June 1940. In East Africa , the British initially experienced defeat when 175,000 Italian troops invaded British Somaliland in August 1940, conquering the territory in a brief campaign against the small garrison. The British and Commonwealth forces gradually gained the upper hand, helped by the invaluable contribution of Irregular s known as Gideon Force under the command of Charles Orde Wingate , and by early 1941, the British had invaded Italian Somaliland and on 16 May , the Duke of Aosta surrendered all Italian forces in East Africa. The East African campaign was a more obscure one, just as it had been in WWI but it was, nonetheless, a campaign that gave the Army invaluable experience. North Africa In North Africa , Italian forces had attempted an invasion of Egypt in September 1940 but were repulsed in a successful counter-attack in December by Commonwealth forces in Operation Compass , ending with about 25,000 Italian troops captured and the Allies in Italian Libya . The Germans responded by sending a force known as the Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel . The Germans launched an offensive in 1941, pushing the Allies back and besieging Tobruk . The British Eighth Army was created in the aftermath. The Commonwealth forces began an offensive in November and pushed the enemy forces back but the Germans launched an offensive in 1942 , culminating in the capture of Tobruk . Shortly afterwards, General Bernard Law Montgomery took command and under his leadership, the Allies launched a highly successful offensive known as the Second Battle Of El Alamein in November 1942. The Axis forces were removed from Libya and the Torch Landings in November by the British and Americans signified the end of the Axis threat in North Africa. The desert war saw tanks in its element, yet they were equally vulnerable to air power. The 7th Armoured Division became one of the most well-known units of the war, nicknamed the 'Desert Rats'. The Mediterranean To do: Italian campaign <---> In the Mediterranean, the Army garrison in the British territory of Malta performed Anti-air operations in conjunction with the RAF during the Bombing Of Malta (1940-42) by German and Italian forces. Malta went on to receive the collective award of the George Cross for its bravery. In Greece, the Army contributed a small force to a mostly Australian and New Zealand operation. After an Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940 was successfully repulsed, the Germans invaded in April 1941. A Commonwealth force came to Greece's assistance but they eventually had to be evacuated, many being moved to the island of Crete , commanded by General Bernard Freyberg . The Germans subsequently launched a combined air and sea invasion of Crete in May. The German paratroopers suffered severe casualties but they gradually gained the upper-hand and the Commonwealth defenders, having put up a stubborn defence, had to be evacuated. The Royal Navy suffered heavily in the process but in spite of the casualties they persisted in the evacuation. Over 16,000 were successfully evacuated but 12,254 Commonwealth soldiers were taken prisoner. The Far East The Army in the Far East, as it was in Europe in 1939, was unprepared for war breaking out in the Far East, inadequate in both numbers and equipment. The Government had relied upon the now reduced power of the Royal Navy for the defence of the territories East of Suez, known as the " Singapore Strategy ", during the inter-war period. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese launched their surprise Attack On Pearl Harbor , bringing war to the Americans and the Far East. The Japanese swiftly launched invasions of British and other countries territories shortly afterwards. The Japanese invasion of Malaya from Indochina and China, was swift and successful and they quickly gained air and naval superiority. The Army gave a stubborn defence but were gradually pushed back, most units withdrawing to Singapore. Hong Kong was taken on 25 December and Singapore Fell on 15 February 1942, becoming the most disastrous day in the Army's history. In Burma, coming under ferocious attack by the Japanese, the British and Indian defenders retreated to India, making it in May 1942 just before the monsoons cut them off. Two Chindit operations behind Japanese lines took place between 1943-44. In February 1944, the Allied launched an offensive in the South, while the Japanese attacked north India in March. After a successful defence of Imphal and Kohima , the Japanese were defeated there in June. An offensive to retake Burma began in late 1944, culminating in the capture of Rangoon in May 1945 . Normandy In June 1944, the invasion of Normandy took place: the Americans would land at Omaha and Utah ; the British at Gold and Sword ; and the Canadians, with some British units, at Juno . The 6th Airborne Division was one of three Allied airborne divisions that landed just before the landings. The 6th Airborne landed behind Sword in the early hours of 6 June , performing a number of operations that included the taking of the Pegasus And Horsa Bridges and destruction of the Merville Gun Battery . On the morning of 6 June , with allied air and naval superiority, the amphibious invasion of Normandy began. The main British forces were tasked with Taking Caen but this had been one of Montgomery's -- commander of the Allied land forces -- deliberately tasking objectives, and the town was not taken until the following month. On 18 July , the Allies launched Operation Goodwood -- the largest armoured offensive Western Europe had seen at that time -- to attempt a breakout of Normandy and draw German forces from the Americans section; however, the operation saw British armoured units suffer heavily. After the almost entire destruction of a German Army at the Falaise Pocket in August, the Allies advanced east, entering Belgium in early September; its capital, Brussels , was liberated by the Guards Armoured Division on 3 September . The important port of Antwerp was liberated by 11th Armoured Division the following day. Netherlands The invasion of the Netherlands ( Operation Market Garden ) began on 17 September . The British XXX Corps , which included Canadian units, provided the ground forces and 1st Airborne Division was part of a 3-division Allied airborne assault. The plan was for the three airborne divisions to take the bridges at Eindhoven , Nijmegan , and Arnhem and for XXX Corps to use them to cross the Rhine and into Germany. XXX Corps was constantly delayed by German opposition while travelling up just one single road, managing to reach all but 1st Airborne at Arnhem who had been prevented from advancing to Arnhem, only one battalion managing to make it to Arnhem bridge, holding out for four days. The 1st Airborne Division was effectively destroyed, just 2,000 out of 10,000 making it back. In an effort to use the port of Antwerp, the Canadians and Polish cleared the southern bank of the Scheldt , and British and Canadian forces took the island of Walcheren after an amphibious assault. In December, the Germans launched a last-gasp offensive against the Allies at The Bulge . It was ostensibly an American battle, XXX Corps providing Britain's contribution, and the Germans were defeated by January. Germany The Offensive Towards The Rhine began in February, the British 21st Army Group had the British Second Army pin the Germans facing them, while the Canadian First Army in the north and the U.S. Ninth Army in the south made a pincer movement against the Germans, piercing their part of the Siegfried Line . On 23 March , First and Second Armies crossed the Rhine, the largest airborne assault in history ( Operat |