Preparedness for War

Question 1

What is the first factor?

Answer 1

• Army

Question 2

What part of the military was least prepared?

Answer 2

• In the 1930s, Britain had given the army the lowest priority out of the armed forces, making it the weakest and least prepared.

Question 3

Why had the army been least prepared? (K)

Answer 3

• This is because Britain had drastically reduced funding for the army from £40m in the run up to the war to £19m, as they wanted limited liabilty with the army and wanted to focus on the Navy and the Airforce.

Question 4

disporportionate

What does the army’s lack of investment show? (A)

Answer 4

• This lack of investment into the army shows that Britain were unprepared for the upcoming war, as each sector was disproportionally invested into and prepared e.g navy more cared for than the land-army.

Question 5

What other problems did the British land-army have? (K)

Answer 5

• As well as this, the army had lack of well-made equipment to fight in the war.
• For example the tanks which Britain had were slow and too heavily armoured in comparison to the latest Panzer III and IV tanks.

Question 6

What is another example of unprepardness from the land-army? (K)

Answer 6

• Another example of ill-equipment was during the Norway Campaign when soliders did not have the right armour/clothing for the weather conditions, which led to many unessacery deaths.

Question 7

What does the equipment of the army show? (A)

Answer 7

• This clearly shows that Britain was unprepared for WWII, as their equipment was outdated, which shows a lack of care for the army, when in reality it was supposed to be one of the most prepared.

Question 8

How was the army again poorly invested into?

Answer 8

• Although conscription was announced in 1939, the army only expanded to 224,000.
• This was a serious problem because many of these soliders had only basic training (6 months) in comparison to the Wehrmacht which had 36 divisions by 1939.

Question 9

What does the poor conscription show? (A)

Answer 9

• This shows that the British Army had seriously underestimated the Wehrmacht, and were extremely unprepared with the British land-army to the point where it would be very risky to send them out to battle against them.

Question 10

What does Pugh argue?

Answer 10

• Pugh suggests that Britain was not prepared for war in regards to her army at the beginning of the 1930s.

Question 11

What does Pugh explain?

Answer 11

• Pugh explains that with the entire treatment of the British army, they were exceptionally unprepared compared with other sections such as the RAF, and this made them uneffective during the start of the war.

Question 12

What is the overall conclusion for the army?

Answer 12

• Overall, the unpreparation of the British land-army makes it clear that Britian was unprepared as a whole
• as the land-army is very significant, and having that unprepared makes them look more defeatable, and doesn’t provide a united front towards Germany.

Question 13

What is the second factor?

Answer 13

Civil Defence

Question 14

What is one area which made Civil Defence seem unprepared?

Answer 14

• Anti-aircraft defence was a strong issue which made Civil Defence seem unprepared.

Question 15

Why was anti-aircraft unprepared? (K)

Answer 15

• This is because there was a shortage of guns needed to defend the country, as there was only 100 guns avaliable nationally, when large cities like London needed double that amount (226).
• For example, small towns like Conventry had none.

Question 16

civil defence

What did the unpreparedness of the weapon amounts show? (A)

Answer 16

• This meant that large populated areas were not protected from German airforces, leaving the public vulnerable, making Civil Defence unprepared.

Question 17

What was also wrong with anti-aircraft weapons? (K)

Answer 17

• As well as this, many of the shots fired on these weapons were inaccurate as the target tracking needed to be very accurate in order for the gun to work properly.

Question 18

How did this problem with weapons make Britain look unprepared? (A)

Answer 18

• This meant that many anti-aircraft guns did not help defend Britain, and left them vulnerable to attacks, contributing to the unpreparedness state of Britain as a whole.

Question 19

What does Hylton argue?

Answer 19

• Hylton supports this argument and states that anti-aircraft defences were not in good shape at the outbreak of war.

Question 20

How does Hylton’s view make Civil Defence look bad?

Answer 20

• Hylton’s perspective shows that anti-aircraft defences were unprepared at the start of the war, making the Civil Defence unprepared as civillians could be harmed.

Question 21

What was another part of Civil Defence which made Britain look bad?

Answer 21

• The Home Guard

Question 22

What was the Home Guard about?

Answer 22

• It was hasilty organised in May 1940 by Local Defence as a backup to the army, consisting of volunteers to defend small villages.
• These volunteers were unqualified and had little military training.
• These volunteers had private weapons, and there wasn’t enough of these as only 1/3 had viable weapons, they had to use shotguns or golf clubs as weapons.

Question 23

What does the Home Guard’s equipment show?

Answer 23

• This suggests that the Home Guard was not ready to defend small towns as they did not have enough serious weapons and military training, which made Britain look very unprepared.

Question 24

What age were these volunteers?

Answer 24

• These volunteers were either too young or old and usually unable to fight due to medical conditions, which made them seem weak.
• They gained the name of ‘the army that never fought’, showing how not useful they were.

Question 25

What does the volunteers on the Homefront suggest?

Answer 25

• This suggests that Civil Defence procedures were not prepared as they should have been, as the Home Guard did not have enough consistent members to provide a united front for the nation.

Question 26

What is the counter-argument against Civil Defence?

Answer 26

• However, the view of Andrew Roberts clashes with Hylton as he maintains that civil defence was as effective as it could have been under the circumstances.

Question 27

What does Roberts suggest?

Answer 27

• Roberts suggests that due to the effect of appeasement, and less rearmament procedures, they did well to prepare and protect the public for war.

Question 28

What is the overall conclusion towards the Civil Defence Procedures?

Answer 28

• Overall, Hylton’s view stands out the most.
• This is because although there were extenutatinc circumstances, the lack of weapons for both anti-aircraft measures and the Home Guard is too prominent to ignore, making Britain unprepared.

Question 29

What is the final factor?

Answer 29

• The Economy

Question 30

What was the first reason why the economy was suffering?

Answer 30

• They hadn’t rearmed quick enough

Question 31

What did the UK Government realise?

Answer 31

• Due to the realisation of not having enough arms, the UK had a massive increase in expenditure to solve this problem.
• Demonstrated as the gov spent 21.4% of GNP on rearmament in 1939 compared to 8.1, year before.

Question 32

What was one reason why massive spending in rearmament so soon was bad?

Answer 32

• This was a massive problem for the British Government as they couldn’t afford this expenditure despite increasing taxation on popular items such tobacco and sugar.

Question 33

What does this first reason suggest about Britain’s preparedness?

Answer 33

• This suggests that Britain’s economy was suffering due to this lazy decision to not prepare earlier, emphasising that they unprepared for war.

Question 34

What did this massive spending in rearmament mean for the military? (K)

Answer 34

• As well as this, the rapid pace of rearmament meant the armed forces were buying equipment that would become outdated in wartime.
• For example, 406 fighter aircrafts that were available to the RAF on 1st October 1938, 238 were obsolete or dying out.

Question 35

Why was Britain unprepared for war by this decision to rearm late? (A)

Answer 35

• Britain was unprepared for war as they did not make a smart decision by preparing the country earlier,
• which led them to a disadvantage over the Wehrmacht which had prepared for years beforehand.

Question 36

What was another reason why Britain’s economy was suffering?

Answer 36

• Due to Chamberlain’s inability to coordinate with Trade Unions

Question 37

What had increased

Answer 37

• The unions were demanding increases to match the high costs of living, e.g price of clothes clothes had risen by 25%.
• This was because of the high spending of rearmament which increased very dramatically as Britain had not prepared enough during the 1930s.

Question 38

What did Chamberlain do with Trade Unions? (K)

Answer 38

• However, Chamberlain refused to work with Trade Unions to help stablise the economy

Question 39

What does Chamberlain’s refusal to work with Trade Unions show? (A)

Answer 39

• This highlights that he was narrow-minded by letting his desire for not working with Trade Unions take over instead of working to the benefit of the public, especially when they were suffering, shown as unemployment stood at 1 million by 1940.
• This also reflects his uneffective leading skills as the unprepared state of Britain not only affected the effectiveness of defeating Germany, but it also affected the economy and the public.

Question 40

What else did this lack of communication lead to? (K)

Answer 40

• This lack of communication between the trade unions and the government led to the faulty Control of Employment Act
• which was designed to direct workers to where there was the highest demand in the war effort such as shipbuilding or coal mining,
• however, some workers were being led to other companies due to bonuses and higher wages.

Question 41

What does this other act of lack of communcation led to? (A)

Answer 41

• This suggests that the economy was extremley unprepared due to Chamberlain’s refusal to work with Trade Unions.
• By refusing this help and not letting his ego be dragged, he dragged down the economy as he could not control a simple act, suggesting he was an ineffective leader to prepare Britain.

Question 42

What does Paul Addison argue?

Answer 42

• Paul Addison agrees with this point as he is ‘scathing’ about Chamberlain’s economic complacency and his deep-seated desire not to let the trade unions have any say in manpower distribution or production targets.

Question 43

What does Addison suggest?

Answer 43

• This suggests that Chamberlain was wrong to exclude Trade Unions from important decisions about the economy, and therefore led to the state of unpreparedness which is very known today.

Question 44

What is the overall statement about the final factor? (E)

Answer 44

• Overall, the state of the economy was very unprepared by 1939 for any conflcit that would arise in Europe, in comparison to another ally (the US) which was much more prepared, this was as a result of the poor handling of rearmament, and the ineffective handling of the economy by Chamberlain.