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“Civilians in Uniform”: Class and Politics in the British Armed Forces, 1939–19451

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2011

Geoffrey Field
Geoffrey Field
Affiliation:
Purchase College, SUNY
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Abstract

The essay examines the British army's transformation from a small professional force into a mass conscript army between 1939 and 1945. Battlefield defeats and criticism of the nation's conduct of the war acted as a stimulus to reform in the early years. Examining such areas as officer selection, discipline, and the expansion of army education services (ABCA), the essay shows how the military adapted to the recruitment of millions of “civilians in uniform” and in some instances worked to contain or resist change. Special attention is given to class conflicts that arose between officers and “other ranks” and situations where perceived indifference to recruits' basic rights provoked protests and strikes, including protests over slow demobilization in 1946. A final section analyzes the role of ABCA and the forces press in creating a space for political discussion; the radical views prevalent among British servicemen; and the contradictions between the official ban on political debate in the forces, the rhetoric of “a people's war,” and the troops' growing focus on postwar reconstruction and the General Election of 1945.

Type
Special Feature: Labor and the Military
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , Fall 2011 , pp. 121 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2011

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References

NOTES

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21. PD (Commons), Feb. 19, 1942. The Times Jan. 24, Jan. 28, Jan 17, 1942.

22. For example, “Boomerang” (pseud.), Bless ‘Em All.

23. Research and Analysis Report 617, “Morale in the British Armed Forces,” March 21, 1942; National Archives (Washington) O.S.S; also, Anon., “The Creation of a Class,” Horizon Sept. 1941. The American analysis seems to have been influenced by “Socialist Subaltern,” New Statesman March 8, 1941Google Scholar.

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28. The most important were The Soldier's Welfare: Notes for Officers (1941) and Comrades in Arms (1942).

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34. Case of Gunner Blunden: PD (Commons) Sept. 21, Oct. 12, 1943.

35. Spector, R.J., Freedom for the Forces (London, 1947), 19–20Google Scholar. PD (Commons) Nov. 7, 27, 1945 (Military Detention Barracks). See also: V. Scannell, Argument of Kings for his sadistic treatment in a detention barracks in North Africa.

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41. The case was in India: M-O A FR 2283 “Forces Views on Demobilisation” (Sept. 1945).

42. TUC Annual Report 1945; J.H. Sparrow, Tour of India and S.E. Asia Command, quoted by Allport, A., Demobbed: Coming Home After the Second World War (New Haven, 2009)Google Scholar, 38. Also, Capt. Bellengen, “I accuse Mr. Amery,” letter to Sunday Pictorial Aug. 6, 1944, on low troop morale in Southeast Asia. In Cabinet Ernest Bevin (Foreign Secretary) and George Isaacs (Minister of Labour) did believe that the service troop estimates (especially the RAF) were inflated and tried to reduce the numbers, but the TUC vote was considered a “slap in the face” by many servicemen who had just voted Labour.

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45. L. James, Mutiny in the British and Commonwealth Forces, 175.

46. Kisch, R., The Days of the Good Soldiers (London, 1985)Google Scholar; James, Mutiny in the British Commonwealth Forces, 175; PD (Commons) Nov. 21, 1945, Nov. 27, 1948; Daily Herald Jan. 29, Jan. 30, 1946. In India five days of rioting involving 3,000 Indian troops broke out in Bombay; other troubles soon spread to Calcutta, Madras, and Karachi.

47. Duncan (one of the RAF Drigh Road group) points to Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, in charge of Southeast Asia Command as especially insistent upon punishment. Mutiny in the RAF, 66.

48. In addition to Duncan's account: Pritt, D.N., The Autobiography of D.N. Pritt vol. 2 Brasshats and Bureaucrats (London, 1966)Google Scholar; R.J. Spector, Freedom for the Forces; Saville, 'J., Memoirs from the Left (London, 2003)Google Scholar. The electrical and engineering unions and the London Trades Council were very active in Attwood's support, as was the National Council for Civil Liberties.

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52. King's Regulations #541 sanctioned political debate but not where a soldier identified with a political party or circulated party literature; more sweeping was #40, which subsumed politics under “acts, conduct . . . to the prejudice of good order and military discipline”; in addition, Army Council Instruction #1527 of 1944 dealt explicitly with servicemen allowing their names to be published for political purposes, signing public petitions, circulars, and appeals dealing with political matters.

53. Mass-Observer Denis Argent formed a Marxist discussion group in his bomb disposal unit and attended Communist party public meetings: Malcolmson, P. and Malcolmson, R. (eds.), A Soldier in Bedfordshire 1941–42: The Diary of Denis Argent (Bedforshire, 2009)Google Scholar.

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57. M-O A FR 963, “Report on Army Education, ABCA Scheme” (Nov. 16, 1941). Also, M-O A FR 948, “Report on ABCA” (Nov. 1941).

58. As Mackenzie shows, a survey of 5,000 soldiers in Britain in late 1943 found that sixty percent regarded ABCA as successful and ten percent as adequate, while of the 8,500 men and women who filled out another questionnaire, some seventy-eight percent found the discussions interesting. S.P. Mackenzie, Politics and Military Morale, 184–5.

59. IWM 80/5/1, H.A. Wilson War Diary, Aug 2, 1943.

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61. Among them General Alan Brooke, Commander of the Home Forces, and General Adam, the Adjutant-General.

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65. Warwick Charlton, who had previously worked for the Daily Sketch, began duplicating news sheets and in September 1941 a daily, the Eighth Army News, and then a year later Crusader, a weekly. He received strong backing from Montgomery. In Tunis in early 1943 Hugh Cudlipp, previously editor of the Sunday Pictorial, began producing Union Jack and recruited onto its staff William Connor (“Cassandra”) and Peter Wilson of the Daily Mirror. Cudlipp's protector was Harold MacMillan. Frank Owen of the Evening Standard was enlisted by Lord Mountbatten to edit S.E.A.C. for forces in the India and Burma theaters. These men had been among the most hard-hitting Fleet Street journalists.

66. The various Women's Parliaments, for example, and the People's Convention of Jan. 1941.

67. IWM: H.A. Wilson ms, April 23, 1942.

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71. NA: WO 32/15772 Aug.-Oct 1943; also report on Egypt Feb-April 1943; report on India Feb-April, 1943; M-OA FR 1617 “Some Opinion Trends Among the Forces” (March 1943). Also, IWM 96/35/1 A. S. Harris, Royal Artillery, correspondence. Oct 26, 1942; May 19, 1945.

72. NA: WO 32/15772 India, March-May 1944.

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76. Polling day in Britain was July 5, 1945; servicemen had until July 14 to vote, and the results of the election became known on July 29. PD (Commons) Nov. 22, 1945: Labour MP Tom Driberg spoke of the “widespread disfranchisement of servicemen in the General Election”; the official reply indicates the complexity of the registration process and the frequency of error.

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80. IWM: 92/29/1 B. Poole, May 29, 1945.

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