05-05-2025
In an increasingly volatile world, Britain must be prepared for war
SIR – Your Leading Article (May 5) warns that Britain should be better prepared for war now than it was in 1939. Then, our defences included the world's largest navy, a rapidly expanding air force, and a standing army of more than a million troops.
Today, we have relatively weak and under-resourced primary defences, supported by a highly effective nuclear deterrent of Vanguard submarines, equipped with Trident missiles, on permanent patrol. The Vanguards are being replaced by new Dreadnought-class submarines, in a programme likely to cost more than £40 billion.
In 1939, defeat would have lead to possible occupation by a German army, until, as Churchill famously said, 'the New World, with all its power and might', came to the rescue. Our current situation is rather different and more dangerous, given our low primary defence expenditure and no certainty of overwhelming support from America.
It is to be hoped that the Strategic Defence Review, due to be published imminently, addresses this danger, and recommends substantially increased primary defence expenditure forthwith.
Robert Hickman
Andover, Hampshire
SIR – As we celebrate VE Day, I am minded to remember a young trooper, James Audsley of Sussex, who served in 44th Royal Tank Regiment. He was the last member of his regiment to be killed in action on April 26 1945, as the tanks fired their final rounds capturing the German port of Bremen.
His battle casualty card simply records his death as 'killed in action'.Poignantly, it also notes that his young wife, Audrey, and his parents, William and Nellie, were only informed of his death on May 7, three days after Field Marshal Montgomery had signed the first surrender document on Lüneburg Heath, and one day before Churchill's famous VE Day announcement. I can't begin to imagine the intense heights and depths of emotion that this family must have experienced in those days of tragedy for them, but relief and joy for the nation.
Trooper Audsley's name is recorded alongside 11,500 others displayed in the Royal Armoured Corps Memorial Room in The Tank Museum at Bovington, Dorset. These men were all husbands or brothers, fathers or sons. At this distance, it is difficult to comprehend the sheer scale of sacrifice made by so many in the service of their country.
Perhaps, at this moment of celebration, in a world again riven with geopolitical uncertainty, we should reflect on the words of Pericles, written in about 430 BC: 'Take these men as your example. Like them, remember that prosperity can be only for the free, that freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.'
John Colton
Chairman, Royal Armoured Corps Memorial Trust
Bovington, Dorset
