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How did British authorities manage to secure the commitment of large dominion and Indian armies that could plan, fight, shoot, communicate, and sustain themselves, in concert with the British Army and with each other, during the era of the two world wars? What did the British want from the dominion and Indian armies and how did they go about trying to get it? Douglas E Delaney seeks to answer these questions to understand whether the imperial army project was successful.
Answering these questions requires a long-term perspective -- one that begins with efforts to fix the armies of the British Empire in the aftermath of their desultory performance in South Africa (1899-1903) and follows through to the high point of imperial military cooperation during the Second World War. Based on multi-archival research conducted in six different countries, on four continents, Delaney argues that the military compatibility of the British Empire armies was the product of a deliberate and enduring imperial army project, one that aimed at standardizing and piecing together the armies of the empire, while, at the same time, accommodating the burgeoning autonomy of the dominions and even India. At its core, this book is really about how a military coalition worked.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: Frameworks: Elgin, Esher, Haldane and the Idea of an Imperial Army, 1902-1909
- 2: The Imperial General Staff, Military Education, Army Apostles, and the Land Forces of the Dominions and India, 1904-1914
- 3: Growing, Controlling, and Fighting Imperial Armies, 1914-1918
- 4: The Strands of Cooperation, 1919-1933
- 5: Imperial Armies in the Period of Rearmament and Appeasement, 1933-1939
- 6: The Last Great Imperial War Effort, 1939-1945
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
About the author
Douglas E. Delaney holds the Canada Research Chair in War Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada. He is the author of The Soldiers' General: Bert Hoffmeister at War (2005), which won the 2007 C.P. Stacey Prize for Canadian Military History, and Corps Commanders: Five British and Canadian Generals at War, 1939-1945 (2011). He is also co-editor of Capturing Hill 70: Canada's Forgotten Battle of the First World War (2016) and Turning Point 1917: The British Empire at War (2017). Professor Delaney is a retired lieutenant-colonel who served with the First and Third Battalions, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and the Canadian Airborne Regiment.
Summary
This book reveals the method by which the British army organized their land forces throughout the empire to make an army of standardized pieces that could be multiplied, expanded, and joined together in time of war; a military coalition that worked throughout the early twentieth century, even as the dominions and India became more autonomous.
Additional text
Douglas Delaney's masterly book shows that the creation of a series of interoperable armies across the British Empire was no accident. Rather it was the result of a highly successful imperial project which contributed significantly to the victories won in 1918 and 1945. This book is an important contribution to both military and imperial history.
Report
This work is valuable to academics and graduate students alike who study the British Empire's military effort in the twentieth century. Brad St. Croix, Canadian Military History
