Howdy all, Does anyone have, or can point me in the right direction, to what the British Army's OOB looked like after the demobbing ended and before the army's commitment to the Korean War (so around 1950, say)? I was looking mostly at the brigade and division level. It seems that around this period, prior to decolonization and the later focusing of the British Army in Germany (or based in the UK ready to move to Europe), things are a bit unclear when compared to being able to readily find the BA/BAOR's changing nature a few years afterwards. An MOD FOI document I found online stated that in 1950, the army had shrunk to 364,000 men before increasing again during the Korean War. A parliamentary debate from that year stated the regulars were 185,000 strong, so presumably the higher figure from the MOD includes the TA and national service conscripts? Browsing the net and some sources on the BAOR, I have the below although I do not think it is complete. UK: 3rd Infantry Division (19th, 32nd, 39th Bde) 3rd Commando Brigade 29th Brigade (formed for Korean War) 107th (Ulster) Brigade Various infantry training depots, which were later given brigade names although are not actually field units? TA: 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 49th, 50th, 51st/52nd, 53rd, and 56th Divisions; 65th AA Brigade; either the 16th Airborne Division or the 16th Airborne Brigade, the former then downgraded into the later? BAOR (~77,000): 2nd Infantry Division (4th, 5th, 6th Bdes) 6th Armoured Division (20th and 61st Bdes - later became 11th Brigade around this time?) - disbanded by the end of the decade, and it would seem replaced by the 3rd Division. 7th Armoured Divison (7th and 31st Bdes) - later became the 5th Division, then the 1st at the end of the decade. 11th Armoured Division (33rd and 91st Bdes - later became 12th brigade in the middle of the decade) - later became 4th Division. Austria: I read that British Troops Austria peaked at 55,000 men, but the 46th and 78th Divisions had been disbanded by 1950 so I get the impression the British garrison had dwindled to almost nothing (maybe a few battalions, not organised into brigades?) by 1950? Free Territory of Trieste: 24th Brigade Gibraltar: Small garrison from the Gibraltar Defence Force? Malta: Small garrison from the Malta Regiment? Cyprus: Small garrison? Maybe elements of the 1st Infantry Division? 16th Airborne Brigade during the mid 50s due to the Cyprus and Suez Emergencies? Egypt (~80,000): 1st Brigade (not sure if this was part of the 1st Division or not during this period) 1st Infantry Division (at the least, the 2nd and 3rd Bdes) Was the majority of post-war Middle East Command not organized in brigades or divisions? Hong Kong: 40th Division (26th, 27th, 28th Bdes), used to form the 1st Commonwealth Division? Maybe the 51st Bde? Malayan (40,000 troops?): Main force being the 17th Gurkha Division (26th, 48th, 63rd, and 99th Bdes?) formed in 1952? Three battalions from the King's African Rifles (unsure if they were grouped with the above or not) Kenya (10,000 troops?): At least two battalions of the King's African Rifles? The 10,000 figure could include the 24th Brigade, after it moved there in the mid-50s?
Charley Fortnum will be able to help; his special interests include 3rd Infantry Division (1951-53). he is busy, so if doe snot appear drop him a PM. Are there War Office / Defence White Papers for the period, which might contain what you seek? Parliamentary Q&A about specific garrisons, especially when Korea happened? On my bookshelves are several books you may find in a local library: Britain's Army in the 20th Century by Michael Carver; Withdrawal from Empire by William Jackson; Defending The Realm by Aaron Edwards; and The Korean War by Max Hastings on where the soldiers came from. The RUSI Journal might help; back copies are in their Whitehall Library: www.rusi.org I would expect both Gibraltar and Malta had a "regular" Army battalion garrison at that time. How about any garrisons in the Persian Gulf, notably Aden, Bahrain and Kuwait? There are academics whose focus has been defence / military manpower and the associated issues. Their books may now have disappeared from bookshelves and in their reserve stock (though indexed).
Too much to say and too little time. Let's go with 1950. With great apologies to whoever it was, but my memory (especially after a bottle and a half of chestnut makgeolli) is refusing to reveal who kindly forwarded these to me, but I have a hunch that it was dml34 Index: OOB (the forum software has reduced these in size--message me for the whole folder)
As to our commitments in the middle-east, there is information pertaining to 3rd and 1st Division (in Cyprus and the Canal Zone) here: 3rd Infantry Division In the Middle-East (1951-52) See here for the defence estimates for 1950-51 (free download) Record Type: Memorandum Former Reference: CP (49) 245 Title: Defence... | The National Archives If you wanted a published title, the best on the immediate post-war army is: The Regiments Depart by Gregory Blaxland.
I know next to nothing about BAOR. Historic Steve is the expert here. See thread posted above--message me for more specifics. 1st Inf Division were reinforced by 3rd Infantry Division (the strategic reserve that should have been at home). Most of the division arrived and took over 'Canal Zone North' in November 1951. 1st Division then took responsibility for 'Canal Zone South', and the remainder of 3rd Infantry Division (that had waited in Cyprus) moved to 'Canal Zone North' in the third week of February 1952 in response to 'Black Saturday': Cairo fire - Wikipedia I have almost all the 40 Infantry Division paperwork--message me about specifics. As a general overview, the whole division was assembled by this time: (Extracted from: WO 268-272: HQ RASC Oct-Dec 1949) 51 Bde do not feature in the time-frame I have studied (1947-1951) 26th (Gurkha) Division moved to Malaya in 1950 and 27th moved to Korea as the core of a Brigade Group. 28th (Originally: Kowloon) Brigade remained in Hong Kong. See above--one battery from 25 Field Regiment R.A. joined 26 Field in Malaya (Negri Sembilan) in October 1950 and so are not shown on the OOB. They do appear on this later version from 1950-51 (towards the end of this period the battery changed from 54-bty to 93-bty, but there was still only one): 40th Division: 3rd Royal Tank Regt & 3 Commando Brigade
There is also tons of material on specific garrisons and commitments buried in the Cabinet Defence Committee Minutes and Papers here (all free to download): Browse records of other archives | The National Archives
This from one of the best books I've read in recent years has the headline figures you want: The British Army, the Gurkhas and Cold War Strategy in the Far East, 1947-1954 by Raffi Gregorian Moving onto 1950:
Thanks Charlie, at the moment my BAOR research is limited to post VE Day to 1 May 49, BAOR was run down to Hannover and Hamburg Districts only one infantry division (2), one armoured brigade (7) and one army group Royal Artillery (4), then 1 Mar 49 the 7th Armoured Division reformed the start of the build up of BAOR for the Cold War. 21st Army Group later British Army of the Rhine (under construction)
I don't have start and end dates, but part of 1st Division was posted to Libya. At least 4th/7th Dragoon Guards (which was the Divisional Regiment RAC of 1st Div) was in Sabratha in 1951. 14th/20th Hussars took their place in late 1952.
Thank you everyone, for all of the above. I have started to work through the MELF and CAB documents, as well as the book extracts. They paint a very detailed picture of the establishment's view of the Cold War and provide valuable context to my initial question. They also made me realize while I am looking for divisions and brigades, I had not factored in the tail (as the various above point out, it had increased to 60 per cent of the army's strength) and the MELF OOB docs highlight small garrisons dotted around (although I am still working through those documents, so hopefully have not presented out of context). Additionally, the surprising factor of National Service (until restructuring) requiring about a division and a half of the army's manpower, in order to build up the ideal large civilian trained reserve. They have also answered a question I had, but had not considered as part of this: why was decolonization such a prolonged progress and why were wars being fought rather than just ceding the colonies. The above highlight a deliberate policy of opposing communism within the British sphere of influence, as part of combating the Soviet Union in the Cold War to prevent it going hot thus the need for such garrisons and conflicts; and, what appears to the modern eye as an outright stated policy to exploit the colonies (the cabinet report describes developing them) in order to increase the quality of living at home (seems a little like wishful thinking all things considered).
Thanks to the documents provided Charley, I have been able to obtain a much more detailed picture for those outside of Europe. Still working my way through the other documents and whatnot to get a more complete picture. But for those who are interested, I went with the early 1950 MELF OOB and the FARELF doc is dated mid-1951 (Edit to add, just saw in the above documents I have not yet had a chance to work through that the 1950 OOB is there that outlines the 40th Div, so the below is already in need of work), to try and get a decent idea of that 1950ish date: Middle East Land Forces * 1st Infantry Division (Tripoli) - 1st Guards Brigade (3 battalions) - Divisional troops * Aden (1 artillery regiment) * British Troops Egypt & Mediterranean Command - 3rd Infantry Brigade (2 battalions, and 1 artillery regiment) - 17th Infantry Brigade (2 armoured regiments) - "O" Force (1 battalion, one tank troop, and one artillery battery) - 2 AGRA (3 artillery regiments) * Cyprus District (2 battalions) * Cyrenaica District - 1 armoured and 1 artillery regiment * East Africa Command (including sub areas) - Somaliland Area (2 British and 3 African battalions; one African armoured car squadron and an additional African infantry company) - Northern Area (2 African battalions, one artillery regiment, and one armoured car troop) - Southern Area (4 African battalions and 2 artillery batteries) * Eritrea (2 battalions) * Greece - 2nd Infantry Brigade (1 battalion) - During 1950, the battalion returned to the UK, while the 2nd Brigade ended up in Cyprus taking command of the two battalions there) * Malta Garrison - 4 artillery regiments * Sudan (1 battalion) * UK Troops Ceylon (1 artillery regiment) Gibraltar (at least one battalion) Far East Land Forces (FARELF) * Singapore Base District (1 arty and 1 eng regt) * HQ Malaya - 1st Malay Infantry Brigade (3 battalions: one Gurkha, two Malayan) - 3rd Commando Brigade - 18th Infantry Brigade (2 battalions) - 26th Gurkha Infantry Brigade (2 British, 3 Gurkha, 1 Malayan) - 48th Gurkha Infantry Brigade (1 Gurkha, 2 British) - 63rd Gurkha Infantry Brigade (1 British, 2 Gurkha, 1 Malayan) - Malayan Scouts - 1 Infantry Battalion - 1 artillery battery - 1 armoured regiment, spread over the various brigades and with one squadron in Hong Kong * Land Forces Hong Kong - 27th Infantry Brigade (3 battalions) - X Infnatry Brigade (2 battalions) - various unbrigaded entities (1 sqn, 4H; 3RTR; 6 artillery regiments of various roles; 2 mortar batteries; 1 engineer regiment; 2 engineer field squadrons)
Hi all, There is another good book, "Army, Empire and Cold War" from David French. In this book there is stated that the BA in 1956 has 196.000 NSM and 193.000 regulars but 87.000 of these regulars are NSM of three years. So no TA are in the original numbers. It is strange for me why not the BA has in that times units of 100% regulars and mix NSM and regulars in all the units.
Another interesting book is "Images of War - The Royal Armoured Corps in the Cold War 1946-1990" with the details of the training regiments of the RAC, the affiliations with the TA and many other details.
