In 1918 British and Dominion forces played a crucial role in winning the war on the Western Front. The Royal Navy and the recently created Royal Air Force also ended the war in strong positions vis-à-vis present allies and future rivals. Lloyd George had enhanced his power base at the head of a coalition government by means of the ‘Khaki Election’ held in December 1918. In the prolonged peace negotiations at Versailles he secured virtually all Britain’s war aims both as regards security in Europe and also in the wider world. With the additions of Mandates in the Middle East and Africa the British Empire was enlarged, if not politically enhanced, and reached its greatest extent. Even allowing for the heavy debits of unprecedented casualties, loss of trade and indebtedness to the USA, this was a tremendous achievement, not just for the armed forces and the government, but for the nation as a whole. Yet the outcome of the war was soon to be regarded as, at best, a Pyrrhic victory or at worst as a futile enterprise that had neither put an end to wars nor created a ‘land fit for heroes’.

By contrast, in 1945 Britain’s war effort was flagging, particularly as regards the Army, which was desperately short of trained manpower. By 1944 Britain had clearly become the junior partner to the USA and this was made painfully evident in a series of political and military decisions. Moreover, between 1941 and 1945 there could be no illusions about the dominant role of the Soviet Union in first absorbing the shock of Nazi invasion and then remorselessly wearing down and defeating the Wehrmacht; in the process suffering horrendous losses that dwarfed those in other theatres.