British Army

The article reviews the activities of Secretaries of State for War of Great Britain, Alfred Duff Cooper and Leslie Hore-Belisha on specific issues of modernization of British land forces during the period of 1936–1939. The work is based mainly on archival material: memoranda and conclusions of the British Cabinet, which are available on the official site of the National Archives of Great Britain.

Traditional views on the role of the army and difficult situation in the country in the 1920s and early 1930s largely contributed to stagnation of the British army. As a result, land forces did not meet the requirements of modern warfare. In response to changes in the European context, the Army General Staff developed a plan for “limited modernization,” but military issues remained in the shadow of Air Force and Navy.

The article shows the Anglo-French confrontation on the Iberian Peninsula as an important stage of the Second Hundred years’ War. The example of remote action of the British expeditionary force demonstrates the «English style» of war: the operation of army troops with the active support of the Royal Navy. The author comes to the conclusion that the Pyrenean wars of the beginning of the XIX century have a certain significance in the system of Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.