page_title: British Army during the Second World War
section_title: Comparison of equipment
hierarchical_section_title: British Army during the Second World War / Comparison of equipment
caption_attribution_description: A Light Tank Mk.VIA of the 3rd King's Own Hussars.
context_page_description: At the start of 1939, the British Army was a small volunteer professional army. At the beginning of the Second World War, 3 September 1939, the British Army was small in comparison to its enemies, as it had been in the First World War. It also quickly became evident that the initial structure and manpower of the British Army were woefully unprepared and ill-equipped for a war with multiple enemies on multiple fronts. During the early war years the British Army suffered defeat in almost every theatre of war in which it was deployed. But from late 1942, starting with the battle of El Alamein, fortunes changed and the British Army never suffered another strategic defeat, despite some tactical failures.
  While there are a number of reasons for this shift, not least the USA joining the Allies from 8 December 1941, an important factor was the stronger British Army. This included better equipment and training, better military intelligence and mass conscription that allowed the British Army to expand to form larger armies and army groups, as well as create new specialist formations such as the Special Air Service, Special Boat Service, Commandos and the Parachute Regiment.
context_section_description: The British tank force consisted of the slow and heavily armed infantry tank, together with the faster and lighter cruiser tank. The cruiser tanks were intended to operate independently of the slow-moving infantry and their heavier infantry tanks. The British doctrine at the time did not foresee the armoured division having a role in its own right and was assigned the traditional cavalry role. They would then deploy independent tank brigades equipped with the infantry tanks to operate with the infantry. German panzer and light divisions were equipped with the latest Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, which could outgun all British tanks. By 1942, American Grant and Lend-Lease Sherman tanks entered British service. These tanks, with a 75mm gun, and the ability to fire high explosive and anti-tank rounds, were better than any other tank then in British service. A British development of the Sherman led to the Sherman Firefly, which was the only tank able to defeat German Panther, Tiger I and Tiger II tanks at range, until the Comet tank entered service in late 1944.
  The British divisional anti-tank weapon was the Ordnance QF 2-pounder, which had three times the range of the German 3.7 cm PaK 36. After its introduction in May 1942 the more powerful Ordnance QF 6-pounder replaced the QF 2-pounder during the second part of the war. Its small size and light weight provided excellent mobility and at the same time it was also capable of defeating most German tanks. But only with the development of the 17-pounder anti-tank gun in 1943, did the artillery have the ability to knock out the heavily armoured Tiger and Panther tanks at a maximum range of 1 mile (1.6 km). 
  The other British artillery guns in 1939 were the 6-inch howitzer left over from World War I, and the 25-pounder.
  In the evacuation from France, the artillery left behind 1,000 field and 600 anti-tank guns. Much of what was lost was obsolete and the re-equipment programme produced the mass of artillery that proved decisive from 1942 onwards. Self propelled artillery guns used were the German Wespe and Hummel against the Allied Bishop, Deacon, Priest and Sexton.
  For the infantry the German MP 38/40 submachine gun took the British by surprise, and the army issued an urgent requirement for its own submachine gun. The Thompson submachine gun was effective, but heavy, and initially hard to obtain because of its American patent. The crude but simple to manufacture Sten gun was accepted and between 1941 and 1945, some 3,750,000 were produced. 
  The British Bren light machine gun with a rate of fire of 500 rounds a minute and 30 round magazine, came up against the German MG 42 which had a rate of fire of 1,500 rounds per minute and ammunition belts of 200 rounds. The standard British rifle was the bolt action Lee–Enfield Rifle, No. 4 Mk I that outmatched the standard German rifle of the war, the Karabiner 98k; later German rifles included the Semi-automatic rifles Gewehr 41, Gewehr 43 and the first assault rifle, the StG 44.
  The British medical services had better staffing, equipment and medicines; it enabled the British Army to keep a higher proportion of troops in the field than its opponents.
  In April 1940 a standardised system of markings for British vehicles was introduced to take account of the mass mechanisation of the army.
caption: The Light Tank Mk VI. When the Battle of France began, the majority of the tanks possessed by the BEF were Mark VI variants.[80]
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