16 - Soldiers and Social Change

Summary

The story of the British and Commonwealth Armies in the Second World War is undoubtedly a compelling one; from the depths of defeat and despair, the armies of the Empire rose, as one historian has put it, like a ‘phoenix from the ashes’. The British and Commonwealth Armies demonstrated a remarkable ability to reform and adapt doctrine, training regimes and the management of manpower to the unexpected situations that unfolded between 1939 and 1945. Nevertheless, in spite of these many improvements, it was only in the last year of the conflict that the British and Commonwealth Armies began to consistently outwit, outmanoeuvre, outfight and ultimately annihilate German and Japanese forces on the battlefield. This dramatic, and at times, painful journey took longer than anyone had expected; too long perhaps.