Allan Mallinson

Why was the British army so ill-prepared to fight the second world war?

After 1918, the general staff ceased to focus on who they might have to fight next and how, leading to the abysmal performance of the army in Norway and France in 1940

A detachment of a Highland Regiment digging trenches in France in the second world war. [Getty Images]
  • Comments

  • Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine

    David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts

    William Collins, pp. 540, £26

  • Victory to Defeat: The British Army 1918-1940

    Richard Dannatt and Robert Lyman

    Osprey, pp. 350, £25

Already a subscriber? Log in

This article is for subscribers only

Get a free bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label when you subscribe to The Spectator for just £12 in our Black Friday sale

  • Free bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky, worth £30
  • Unlimited access to our website and app
  • Enjoy Spectator newsletters and podcasts
  • Explore our online archive, going back to 1828

Read next

Trending

Ian Williams

The paper mills helping China commit scientific fraud

Few people embody the ideal of scientific excellence as much as Albert Einstein. Each year a Berlin-based foundation bearing his name hands out awards for the sort of research that might have made him proud. This week, the individual prize went to Elisabeth Bik, not a conventional boffin, but a sleuth – a dogged Dutch

More on dunkirk

Also by Allan Mallinson

Latest

Comments

Black Friday sale: Get 10 weeks for just $1

Unlimited access to the The Spectator, online and via the app

Already a subscriber? Log in