ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with events up to the early 1960s which were fought by an Army largely composed of conscript soldiers, led by officers of whom some were Regular and the juniors mostly from two-year National Service, a number of whom found military life enjoyable and later transferred to either better paid short-service or full Regular commissions. The first forty-five years after the ending of the Second World War found the British Army in the unusual situation of being the lead Service in peacetime, overtaking the Royal Navy, with a still substantial Army strength of 440,000 seven years after the end of the war. Post-war commitments in Europe included minor roles in Trieste, Greece and Austria with a major and growing role in Germany. Battalions and regiments until 1961 retained the same basic paper establishment, infantry battalions having four rifle companies, a support company with machine-gun, mortar and anti-tank platoons and a headquarters company.
