Boots on the Ground

A vivid and fascinating account of Britain and her Army since 1945, told by the former head of the British Army.

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On Lüneberg Heath in 1945, the German High Command surrendered to Field Marshall Montgomery; in 2015, seventy years after this historic triumph, the last combat units of the British Army finally left their garrisons next to Lüneberg Heath.

Boots on the Ground is the story of those years, following the British Army against the backdrop of Britain's shifting security and defence policies. From the decolonisation of India to the two interventions in Iraq, and, of course, Northern Ireland, the book tracks the key historical conflicts, big and small, of Britain's transformation from a leading nation with some 2 million troops in 1945, to a significantly reduced place on the world stage and fewer than 82,000 troops in 2015. Despite this apparent de-escalation, at no point since WWII has Britain not had 'boots on the ground' - and with the current tensions in the Middle East, and the rise of terrorism, this situation is unlikely to change.

Sir Richard Dannatt brings forty years of military service, including as Chief of the General Staff, to tell the fascinating story of how the British Army has shaped, and been shaped by, world events from the Cold War to the Good Friday Agreement to the EU Referendum. Whether examining the fallout of empire in the insurgencies of Malaya, Kenya and Dhofar, the extraordinary battle for the Falklands, the long-standing conflict in Northern Ireland or Britain's relationship with NATO and experience of fighting with - or for - America, Dannatt examines the complexity of a great British institution.