Arms, Economics and British Strategy: From Dreadnoughts to Hydrogen Bombs (Cambridge Military Histories)

400 Pages·2007·2.72 MB·English

by  G. C. Peden

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Arms, Economics and British Strategy
Thisbookintegratesstrategy,technologyandeconomicsandpresents
anewwayoflookingattwentieth-centurymilitaryhistoryandBritain’s
decline as a great power. G.C. Peden explores how, from the
Edwardian era to the 1960s, warfare was transformed by a series of
innovations, including dreadnoughts, submarines, aircraft, tanks,
radar, nuclear weapons and guided missiles. He shows that the cost
ofthesenewweaponstendedtorisemorequicklythannationalincome
andarguesthatstrategyhadtobeadaptedtotakeaccountofboththe
increased potency of new weapons and the economy’s diminishing
abilitytosustainarmedforcesofagivensize.Priortothedevelopment
of nuclear weapons, British strategy was based on an ability to wear
down an enemy through blockade, attrition (in the First World War)
and strategic bombing (in the Second), and thereforepower rested as
much on economic strength ason armaments.
g. c. peden is Professor of History at the University of Stirling. His
publications include British Rearmament and the Treasury, 1932–1939
(1979),and The TreasuryandBritish PublicPolicy, 1906–1959 (2000).

Cambridge Military Histories
Editedby
HEW STRACHAN, Chichele Professor of theHistory of War,
University ofOxford andFellow of All Souls College, Oxford
GEOFFREYWAWRO, Major General Olinto MarkBasanti
Professorof Military History,and Director, Center forthe Studyof
MilitaryHistory, University of NorthTexas
Theaimofthisnewseriesistopublishoutstandingworksofresearchonwarfare
throughout the ages and throughout the world. Books in the series will take a
broad approach to military history, examining war in all its military, strategic,
politicalandeconomicaspects.TheseriesisintendedtocomplementStudiesin
the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare by focusing on the ‘hard’
military history of armies, tactics, strategy and warfare. Books inthe series will
consistmainlyofsingleauthorworks–academicallyvigorousandgroundbreak-
ing – which will be accessible to both academics and the interested general
reader.
Titles inthe series include:
E.BruceReynoldsThailand’sSecretWar:OSS,SOEandtheFreeThaiUnderground
DuringWorldWarII
Robert T. Foley German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn
andtheDevelopment ofAttrition, 1870–1916
ElizabethGreenhalghVictorythroughCoalition:BritainandFranceduringtheFirst
World War

Arms, Economics and
British Strategy
From Dreadnoughts to Hydrogen Bombs
G. C. Peden
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB28RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521867481
© G. C. Peden 2007
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2007
ISBN-13 978-0-511-29474-7 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-10 0-511-29474-3 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-86748-1 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-86748-7 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents
List of tables page viii
Acknowledgements x
List of abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 The dreadnought era, 1904–1914 17
2 The First World War 49
3 Retrenchment and rearmament, 1919–1939 98
4 The Second World War 164
5 The impacts of the atomic bomb and the Cold War,
1945–1954 229
6 The hydrogen bomb, the economy and decolonisation,
1954–1969 272
Conclusion 344
Select bibliography 352
Index 367
vii
Tables
1.1 Defence expenditure as percentage of GDP,
1904/5–1913/14 page 35
1.2 Distribution of defence expenditure by
departments, 1904/5–1913/14 38
1.3 Cumulative totals of dreadnought battleships
and battle-cruisers completed at end of
each year, 1906–16 39
2.1 Aircraft production, 1914–18 69
2.2 GDP and government and consumers’
shares of GDP, 1913–20 74
2.3 Balance of payments on current account, 1914–18 75
2.4 Balance of payments on capital account,
1914–18 76
3.1 Costs of aircraft, 1924–39 117
3.2 Defence departments’ expenditure as percentage
of GDP, 1919/20–1939/40 127
3.3 Indices of GDP for United Kingdom,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the
USA, 1913–37 129
3.4 Balance of payments, 1930–8 136
3.5 Military aircraft production in Britain,
France, Germany, Japan, the USA and
the USSR, 1933–40 138
3.6 Major warships launched (or conversions
to aircraft carriers begun), 1922–35 and
1936–40 141
3.7 Commonwealth navies in 1931 and 1939 149
3.8 Expenditure by the defence departments,
1924/5–1939/40 151
3.9 Distribution of expenditure by the defence
services, 1933/4–1938/9 152
viii