Armed Forces, British

Fuze, Service. A fuze standardized for use in British Armed Forces... 

Geligoites, although originally industrial expls, were used during WWII by the British and American Armed Forces mostly for demolition charges, but also in some A/T mines and in Stickey Grenades. They were used under the names of Saxonite or Nobel"s 803(808, 223 or 853). A typical compn was NG (gelatinized with 2—7% Collod Cotton)... 

The starting point for this study of British defence policy between 1904 and 1969 is the tendency for the costs of new weapons systems to rise more rapidly than the national income/ Three main insights are offered. First, British defence policy was based upon technological innovation. Second, reductions in the size of the armed forces to accommodate new weapons systems in defence budgets were not evidence of a decline in power. Third, British grand strategy, incorporating economic as well as military responses to external threats, was much more ambitious than is commonly believed. 

Healey, Time of My Life, pp. 193-4, 198-9, 224-48, 252 Broadbent, Military and Government, p. 30. Broadbent was Healey s private secretary. For the development of the Ministry of Defence, see Peter Nailor, The Ministry of Defence, 1959-70 , in P. Smith (ed.). Government and the Armed Forces, pp. 9-248, and Adrian Smith, Command and control in postwar Britain defence decision-making in the United Kingdom, 1945—1984 , Twentieth Century British History, 2 (1991), 291-327. 

The biggest break in the British way of warfare in the first half of the twentieth century related to the balance between loans or subsidies, and supplies, for allies on the one hand, and the size of the army on the other. In the First World War Britain not only adopted her traditional role of paymaster of the Allied coalition but she also put an army of unprecedented size into the field. The attempt to do both was beyond her economic power, and the role of paymaster had to be ceded to the United States in 1917. The loss of wealth left Britain in no position to be a major source of subsidies if she was also to maintain substantial armed forces of her own again. 

Any distinction between cordite and ballistite which is based upon the methods by which the materials are manufactured is now no longer valid. Certain cordites are made without the use of a volatile solvent. Ballistites are made from soluble and from insoluble nitrocellulose, with and without the use of acetone, ethyl acetate, or other volatile solvent. Cordite is the name of the propellant which is used by the British armed forces. Ballistite, generally in flakes, sometimes in cords and in single-perforated tubes, is the preferred military powder of Italy, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. 

Dextroamphetamine has a long history of use by the military. After distribution of the drug in the fields and foxholes of World War II, the American Armed Forces started zealously testing the drug on their pilots and other personnel. One study of amphetamine use in the military reported that between 1966 and 1969, the U.S. military consumed more amphetamines than the British and American armed forces combined during World War II. 

There were probably no better-equipped forces in respect of anti-gas defence than those of the United Kingdom in the late 1930s. Britain had emerged from the First World War with a primitive respirator and basic techniques for gas-proofing dugouts, and little else. At the end of the 1930s, superior-quality anti-gas equipment was available to the armed forces to cater for all known hazards and a cheap, but efficient, respirator had also been developed for the civilian population.48 However, as far as offensive capabilities were concerned, investment had been limited and production had been minimal in terms of agents and weapons due to political unease and uncertainties. By 1938 the international situation was such that offensive research and development and the production of war reserve stocks of mustard gas were authorised by the British Cabinet, albeit that it was realised that a useful production output could not be obtained for at least 12-18 months. 

Protective helmets like these are being used not only by the British military but also by other armed forces overseas, as well as for police riot-protection duties in Britain and other countries in Europe. 

In the meantime, Parliament began hearing reports that Sepoys, native Indian soldiers serving in the British army, were using ganja and, as a result, the efficiency of Her Majesty s armed forces was being undermined. 

The results showed that post-conflict syndromes which show considerable similarities to Gulf War illness have been reported after all of the major conflicts involving the British Armed Forces. The names have changed but there has also been some shift in the symptom patterns recorded, from the debility/weakness picture of Victorian neurasthenia to the more neuropsychiatric (including cognitive and depressive symptoms) of modern times. 

The following year the government issued a momentous Defence White Paper entitled Defence Outline of Future Policy which detailed the most far-reaching changes to the British armed forces since the 1930s. Britain s policy was defined as ... 

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