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How Britain Planned to Defend Against the Soviets - 1957 White Paper - YouTube
Channel: The Cold War
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the 1956 suez crisis is widely
[2]
recognized as a watershed moment in
[5]
britain the humiliation suffered by the
[7]
british forced a review in britain of
[10]
what role it could play on the
[12]
international stage and in fact what
[14]
role it could afford to play british
[16]
forces largely domestically equipped
[18]
were a key but expensive part of the
[21]
nato force in europe not to mention its
[23]
garrisons stretched around the world
[26]
combined with this was the changed
[28]
expectation of the nature of warfare
[30]
itself with the advent of thermonuclear
[32]
weapons a review of british defense
[34]
policy and spending was necessary and
[37]
what resulted was a fundamental shift in
[40]
british military deportment throughout
[42]
the rest of the cold war i'm your host
[44]
david and today we're going to be
[45]
looking at the 1957 defense white paper
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this is the cold war
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it must be frankly recognized that there
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is at present no means of providing
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adequate protection for the whole
[149]
country against the consequences of an
[151]
attack with nuclear weapons
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though in the event of war the hunters
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and javelins of the royal air force
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would unquestionably be able to take a
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heavy toll of enemy bombers our
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proportion would inevitably get through
[164]
even if it were only a dozen they could
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with hydrogen bombs inflict widespread
[169]
devastation
[171]
this is paragraph 11 of the 1957 british
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defense white paper and it showcases one
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of the major factors that led duncan
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sandes the minister of defense to
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produce the paper
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the threat of nuclear war escalated in
[185]
late 1955 when the soviet union tested
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rds-37 its first two-stage thermonuclear
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device capable of megaton yields
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the threat rose even higher when a year
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later during the suez crisis the ussr
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threatened both france and britain with
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nuclear attacks
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not that britain needed soviet threats
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to realize the precarious position she
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was in british chiefs of staff had
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concluded long before that any future
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conflict between the western allies and
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the soviet union would escalate into a
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global thermonuclear war and britain
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would be a high priority target due to
[219]
her role in position
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britain was often considered by the
[223]
americans and the western allies as a
[225]
so-called unsinkable aircraft carrier
[228]
and acted as a major supply base for
[230]
allied forces in europe as well as a
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staging base for american and british
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nuclear weapons
[236]
the vulnerability of the home island
[238]
against a nuclear attack had worried
[240]
british authorities in the past in march
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1955 a secret report by the strath
[245]
committee drawing on a combination of
[247]
information from both the joint
[248]
intelligence committee and american
[250]
sources had concluded that unless civil
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defense countermeasures were taken
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only 10 10 megaton bombs would be enough
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to [聽__聽] the entire country causing up
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to 12 million deaths
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the further 4 million casualties would
[264]
lead to the collapse of the existing
[266]
health system
[267]
the report also anticipated the
[269]
destruction of half of the island's
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industrial base the breakdown of the
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distribution system and the
[274]
contamination of food and water
[277]
the strath committee suggested the
[278]
formation of an evacuation plan for
[280]
those living in cities likely to be
[282]
targeted as well as the construction of
[284]
shelters
[286]
however the home office's plan for civil
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defense required the astronomical sum of
[291]
1.2 billion pounds and was subsequently
[294]
met with resistance from the chiefs of
[296]
staff who argued that the money would be
[299]
better spent on nuclear deterrence
[301]
from a cost-benefit analysis the
[303]
investment of so much money into a
[305]
system that still wouldn't protect most
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britons didn't make sense when the money
[309]
could be used to develop systems that
[310]
would prevent a war from ever breaking
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out
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deterrence through mutually assured
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destruction seem to be the only logical
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and viable option
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okay so traditionally the delivery of
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strategic nuclear payloads to this point
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was done by bomber aircraft these
[326]
aircraft theoretically could be detected
[329]
early by radar stations and then be
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intercepted by fighter aircraft which
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would have had a fairly high chance of
[335]
successfully bringing the bombers down
[337]
before they could reach their targets
[340]
but some advancements in technology
[342]
still gave bombers the ability to
[343]
counter some of these attacks and some
[345]
bombers would still reach their target
[348]
however new technology was being
[350]
introduced that would eclipse the role
[352]
of the strategic bomber advancements in
[355]
missile technology meant that the
[356]
nuclear payloads could be delivered with
[358]
the defender having zero chance of well
[361]
defending since fighters could not
[364]
intercept a ballistic missile
[366]
this inability to prevent a nuclear
[368]
attack coupled with a need to
[370]
restructure the armed forces driven by a
[372]
weakened economy put fighter command
[374]
into many gun sites
[376]
the global strategy paper of 1952 had
[379]
placed air defense as a high priority
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and an emphasis had been given to the
[383]
design and production of jet fighters
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but only two years later american tests
[389]
made clear that the hydrogen bomb was so
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devastating that only a handful of
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soviet bombers needed to get past any
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air defense systems to completely
[398]
incapacitate britain
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this didn't even take into account that
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fighters would be completely useless
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against a missile attack
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so with that in mind the very existence
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of fighter command and even fighter
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aircraft themselves was being questioned
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with duncan sandes siding against
[416]
fighter planes as well as prime minister
[418]
harold mcmillan
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the latter had a year earlier while
[422]
still chancellor of the ex-checker
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argued that britain could no longer
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spend enormous amounts of money for the
[428]
defense of middle eastern oil and
[430]
malayan rubber and since fighter command
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could not provide adequate protection
[434]
against enemy bombers he advocated for
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its complete abolition
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the main thought at the time was that
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surface-to-air missiles such as the
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bristol bloodhound which was about to
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enter service would do the job of
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protecting the raf's deterrent bomber
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force the famous v bombers just as
[452]
effectively and more economically
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this was despite the air ministry's
[457]
expectations that these weapons would
[459]
not be able to contribute significantly
[461]
to air defense until 1965.
[464]
in his 1957 white paper sandes didn't
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call for the immediate disbandment of
[469]
raf's fighter command stating that a
[471]
manned fighter force would still be
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maintained for the purpose of protecting
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the bomber bases as well as the rocket
[477]
launching sites and those aircraft would
[480]
be armed with air-to-air missiles
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but the paper also outlined that
[484]
fighters would gradually be replaced by
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ground to air guided missile systems
[489]
according to the defense paper the
[491]
bomber planes were to have a similar
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fate and would at first be gradually
[495]
supplemented but then replaced by
[498]
american-made medium-range ballistic
[500]
missiles
[501]
yet the debate about the existence and
[503]
the role that fighters had to play in
[505]
the raf wasn't over just because sandy's
[508]
had issued those guidelines
[510]
for their part the air staff stressed
[512]
the limited capabilities of the
[513]
bloodhound system and pointed out that
[515]
even more advanced sams could be beaten
[518]
by standoff aircraft that would launch
[520]
their weapons outside of the sam's
[522]
operational range or by using
[524]
technologies that could jam the radars
[526]
and avoid detection
[528]
the chief of air staff sir dermot boyle
[531]
proposed a fighter force of 280
[534]
airplanes for protection against
[536]
pre-emptive strikes standoff bombers and
[538]
as a strategic reserve for overseas
[541]
operations
[542]
on the other hand frederick brundreth
[544]
the chief scientist in the ministry of
[546]
defense was vehemently opposed to
[549]
fighter airplanes he had estimated that
[551]
the soviets would not be able to launch
[553]
a simultaneous attack against both
[555]
britain and the united states before
[557]
1962 and argued that by that time
[560]
surface-to-air missile systems would far
[562]
outclass any fighter so there was little
[565]
need in maintaining fighter command
[568]
the proposed budget savings from
[569]
eliminating fighter command would have
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been around 80 million pound per year
[573]
but that did not include the costs of
[575]
researching and developing new projects
[578]
ultimately the final decision laid with
[580]
sandys and mcmillan who were very much
[582]
in favor of disbanding every fighter
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squadron that wasn't used for
[586]
operational training
[587]
but on the 31st of december 1957 and
[590]
amidst resignation threats from the
[592]
secretary of state of air and george
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ward and the cas
[596]
the defense committee decided that
[598]
manned fighters would for the time being
[600]
remain in the united kingdom for
[602]
defensive purposes
[604]
so while fighter command had a stay of
[606]
execution the same couldn't be said for
[609]
various other domestic projects being
[611]
pursued like aircraft engines and
[613]
missile systems that ended up being
[615]
cancelled because the 1957 white paper
[618]
the next generation of supersonic
[620]
interceptors were the first casualty as
[623]
the future was all about the
[624]
surface-to-air missile
[626]
the plan was that the raf would make do
[628]
with existing aircraft until the sams
[631]
took over
[632]
as such projects that had been in
[634]
development for quite some time and were
[636]
expected to replace older inventory were
[638]
axed
[639]
this included aircraft like the saunders
[641]
row sr53 and
[643]
sr-177 the sr-177 in particular was a
[647]
significant program as both the raf and
[650]
the royal navy were expecting to get the
[652]
plane there had even been interest from
[654]
the air force and navy of west germany
[656]
in the form of a technical mission to
[658]
the uk to inspect the aircraft
[660]
in april the defense white paper
[662]
essentially forced the raf to drop the
[664]
project and the navy would soon follow
[667]
suit despite the efforts of first
[669]
sealord lord mountbatten to convince
[671]
sandys that the fleet would be in the
[673]
ridiculous position of not being able to
[675]
defend itself from soviet airplanes
[678]
the very futuristic looking avro 730
[681]
being designed as both a reconnaissance
[683]
aircraft and strategic bomber was also
[686]
cancelled
[687]
it was supposed to replace the v-bombers
[689]
the valiant the victor and the
[691]
unmistakable vulcan but the preference
[693]
for missile development and the
[695]
estimation that future soviet
[697]
anti-aircraft capabilities would render
[699]
it useless led to the project's
[701]
abandonment
[702]
however it wasn't only aircraft projects
[704]
that got the axe oddly enough
[707]
considering the direction that was being
[708]
planned a surface-to-air missile system
[710]
developed by bristol code-named blue
[713]
envoy was also cancelled
[715]
its intended purpose was to defend the v
[717]
bomber bases and they would do a fine
[720]
job against soviet bombers but no
[722]
realistic scenario could be made where
[725]
the soviets didn't also use their
[727]
ballistic missiles and blue envoy could
[729]
do nothing against ballistic missile
[731]
attacks
[732]
that meant that the v-bombers could only
[734]
survive by taking off as soon as an
[736]
attack was detected which would leave
[738]
blue envoy to defend empty airfields
[742]
this was coupled with technical issues
[744]
and an incompatibility with the navy's
[746]
new ships and as a result the project
[748]
was consequently abandoned
[751]
there was one project however that did
[753]
survive the slaughter the english
[755]
electric lightning its development was
[758]
met with various setbacks and delays
[760]
because of the white paper but thanks to
[762]
raf pressure on sandy's the project was
[764]
allowed to continue
[767]
sandy's white paper affected the defense
[768]
industries on a corporate level as well
[771]
especially those in the aviation sector
[774]
the british aviation industry was the
[775]
third largest in the world at the time
[777]
and included such giants as vickers
[780]
armstrong rolls royce and hawker sidley
[783]
these industries benefited enormously
[785]
from the huge amounts of money that the
[787]
ministry of supply was throwing at
[789]
research and development but the money
[791]
was divided between too many projects
[793]
that ran in parallel to one another this
[796]
was a practice britain could no longer
[798]
afford to follow as a result of a
[799]
declining economy and a weaker sterling
[803]
an amalgamation of these firms in order
[805]
to alleviate the growing competition
[807]
between them for the limited number of
[809]
skilled technicians and engineers had
[811]
already been considered by the secretary
[813]
of state for heir nigel burch back in
[815]
1956.
[817]
by 1957 sandy's defense paper came to
[820]
more or less force these amalgamations
[822]
as it made pretty clear that the
[824]
government in future would not invest in
[826]
as many projects as it used to nor would
[829]
it order as many aircraft as it had in
[831]
the past
[832]
in september at a meeting with the heads
[834]
of all major aircraft manufacturers the
[837]
permanent secretary of the ministry of
[838]
supply cert cyril musgrave
[841]
informed them that the british
[842]
government wouldn't have need of more
[844]
than three aviation firms for military
[846]
contracts and that the only major
[849]
project which had managed to survive the
[851]
white paper the future tsr-2 would be
[854]
placed with a consortium
[856]
spoiler by the way the tsr-2 would go on
[858]
to be cancelled as well
[860]
but long story short within a few years
[863]
most of the companies which produced
[865]
military aircraft in the united kingdom
[867]
had been absorbed into either hawker
[869]
sidley or a newly created company bac
[873]
the british aircraft corporation
[875]
production of aircraft engines meanwhile
[877]
was consolidated into bristol sidley and
[880]
rolls-royce
[882]
of course it wasn't just the aviation
[884]
industry that was affected by the white
[885]
paper navy and army suppliers also
[888]
suffered from contraction of orders and
[890]
shrank just as the armed forces shrank
[893]
the british army had to be reduced in
[894]
size and be reorganized into a
[897]
completely voluntary and professional
[899]
force
[900]
national service conscription ended in
[903]
1960 this led to the disbandment and
[906]
amalgamation of both major and smaller
[909]
units that brought the total strength of
[911]
the army to around 165 000 men
[914]
overseas garrisons that demanded a lot
[916]
of military power were substantially
[918]
reduced in size though exceptions like
[921]
hong kong were made
[923]
in their place a central army reserve
[925]
was created in the british isles that
[927]
would be rapidly deployed anywhere when
[930]
such a need arose
[932]
these moves were in accordance with the
[933]
economy mandated cuts and the two
[936]
different styles of future war that
[937]
could occur
[938]
the first scenario was global war with
[940]
the soviet union that undoubtedly would
[943]
escalate into thermonuclear conflict
[945]
where the size of garrisons and other
[947]
theaters wouldn't matter in the
[949]
slightest
[950]
the other and far more likely scenario
[952]
was that of a limited war which was
[954]
defined as a conflict with a limited
[956]
geographical area and not against the
[959]
ussr
[960]
in such a conflict conventional forces
[962]
had a much more significant role and
[964]
larger garrisons would be the more
[966]
logical strategy but as we've
[968]
established sandes was on a strict
[970]
budget and since those forces would be
[972]
irrelevant in the event of a nuclear
[974]
strategic exchange between nato and the
[976]
warsaw pact the formation of a quick
[979]
response reserve force was the
[980]
compromise sandy's had to make
[984]
while the economic incentives behind the
[986]
1957 defense white paper and sandy's
[989]
decision can be understood the paper was
[991]
and is still controversial and at the
[994]
time many raf officers were outraged
[997]
with it and that's putting it mildly
[1000]
in the end the theories behind the white
[1002]
paper died out some of the policies were
[1004]
reversed by following ministers of
[1006]
defense and after 1960 the raf started
[1009]
looking at fighter planes once again
[1012]
the 1957 white paper marked a
[1014]
fundamental shift in the position and
[1016]
disposition of britain as a global
[1018]
military force
[1020]
it was the manifestation of the sun
[1022]
setting on the empire with a general
[1024]
scaling down of its global military
[1026]
power
[1027]
it was the shift away from a conscript
[1028]
army to a volunteer professional armed
[1030]
forces
[1032]
it was a large reduction in the scale of
[1034]
domestic arms development and production
[1036]
which would rebound but was often
[1038]
conducted jointly with other allied
[1040]
nations in order to defray costs
[1043]
britain continued to operate overseas
[1045]
but much of its large-scale military
[1047]
focus was concentrated on maintaining
[1049]
its nato commitments rather than
[1051]
non-european ventures
[1053]
britain's preeminent global position
[1055]
enjoyed since at least 1815 had been
[1058]
well and truly eclipsed
[1061]
we hope you've enjoyed today's episode
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you with the words of jfk
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in the final analysis our most basic
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