The Netherlands. During the s, the British government had planned to deter war by abolishing the Ten Year Rule and rearming from the very low level of readiness of the early s. The bulk of the extra money went to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force but plans were made to re-equip a small number of Army and Territorial Army divisions for service overseas.
Saar Force, the 51st Highland Infantry Division and reinforcements, had taken over part of the Maginot Line for training. The Navy rescued , people, including , British troops but the BEF lost 66, men of whom 11, were killed or died of wounds, 14, wounded and 41, men missing or captured. About tanks, 20, motor bikes, 45, cars and lorries, field guns and larger equipments, about anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, 6, anti-tank rifles and 11, machine-guns were abandoned.
After , the prospect of war seemed so remote, that Government expenditure on the armed forces was determined by the assumption that no great war was likely. Until the early s, the War Office intended to maintain a small, mobile and professional army and a start was made on motorising the cavalry and the artillery.
By , the Royal Army Service Corps RASC had been mechanised, some of the artillery could be moved by tractors, and a few engineer, signals and cavalry units had received lorries. From —, the Territorial Army TA artillery, engineer, signals units were equipped with lorries and in the regular army gained its establishment of wheeled vehicles and half of its tracked vehicles, except for tanks.
From to , 5, motor vehicles were ordered at a rate of about a year, just under half being six-wheeler lorries. By , the army had tanks, of which were light tanks and were mediums; were considered obsolete; 69 of the light tanks were modern but did not begin to reach the army until The British army had fewer men than in , no organisation or equipment for a war in Europe, and it would have taken the War Office three weeks to mobilise only an infantry division and a cavalry brigade.
