Hi all, I know that the British army (well, the whole military I suppose) went through a dramatic contraction after the end of the war (even if it sometimes took a long while for troops to get demobbed). I was wondering if anyone had figures about the number of people or the budget from, say, 45 to 47 or 48? Chris
Chris a bit of light reading The House will have seen from the White Paper that we planned the strength of the Armed Forces on 30th June, 1946, to be 1,900,000 trained men, to which must be added 100,000 under training. Let me make the point for mathematicians that the figures will not work out exactly, if they add together those in the Service Estimates and try to make them come to this figure. The reason is, of course, that the figures in the Service Estimates relate to the financial year. That is the strength which we propose to have on 30th June, 1946. Defence Policy - Hansard Army Estimates, 1949–50, And Army Supplementary Estimate, 1948–49 - Hansard
I'm not sure of the dates, but I know for a fact that the CAB papers and Chiefs of Staff minutes that cover Army Estimates are online for free via Discovery. They give the figures in terms of raw manpower and total budget for all three forces and include the haggling entered into. I'm working all day, but if I have time I will search for the files when I get home. I have a sneaking suspicion that they start in 1946, but that could be eroneous. Edit: if you have the time, you'll find a copy of the following (outstanding) book online for free. It covers some of the numbers at the start. Raffi Gregorian. The British Army, the Gurkhas and Cold War Strategy in the Far East, 1947–1954.
The files I have here are. There are likely earlier years. [18/1/47] Defence Estimates 1947-48 by A V Alexander [CAB 129/16/33]: Record Type: Memorandum Former Reference: CP (47) 33 Title: Defence... | The National Archives [2/1/48] Defence Estimates 1948-49 by A V Alexander [CAB 129/23/2] Record Type: Memorandum Former Reference: CP (48) 2 Title: Defence... | The National Archives [9/12/49] Defence Estimates, 1950-51 by Clement R Attlee [CAB 129/37/45] Record Type: Memorandum Former Reference: CP (49) 245 Title: Defence... | The National Archives
I strongly recommend this book. It's brilliant. There is also much on the politics and philosophy behind the decisions, but the meat of the matter is here:
