How the British army came to be so well equipped in the latter part of 1918

My mind still boggles when I step back and contemplate just how the British Army came to be so well equipped in the latter part of 1918.

In 1914 it was hopelessly ill-prepared as I wrote in my piece on Military History Now, Woolwich Arsenal and the race to Modernise Britain's armaments industry for WW1.

In the course of the war Britain's engineering industry would pay a major role, not least in Lincoln whose engineers were born from the needs of our farmers and who used the technology learnt there to produce the tank and the skills to manufacture aircraft.

Under Lloyd George and The Ministry of Munitions, probably the greater part of British Industry became involved in the war effort. New factories were built, not least the massive shell filling factory at Chilwell near Nottingham, which came at great cost, as I tell in my piece for The History Press,  Disaster at Chilwell shell-filling factory.

The role of the USA was significant.

All this materiel had to reach the troops at the right place and at the right time. This was both far from easy as I tell in another piece for The History Press, From socks to scout cars, how to supply the army at war.

On 18 October in Lincoln's Drill Hall, which was home to the 4th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment we will be commemorating the role Lincoln played in WW1.

There, but not There

Thrilled to have been awarded a grant for five silhouette figures representing the fallen of WW1. They will sit by the paving stones at Lincoln Drill Hall bearing the memorials of Lincoln's VCs, Leonard Keyworth and James Upton.

Lincoln Drill Hall was home to the 4th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment, who mustered at the Drill Hall on 4 August 1914 and who left to serve in France on 15 February 1915.

The silhouettes come as part of the initiative by There, by not There and were granted by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust. I hope people will see them every day and that this will prompt quiet reflection.

They will be particularly visible for the performances of Private Peaceful, the play by Michael Morpurgo which relives the life of Private Tommo Peaceful, a young soldier awaiting the firing squad at dawn. This comes as part of the Lincoln Book Festival, the leading speaker at which is Michael Morpugo himself, whose other works include the highly acclaimed War Horse.

They will take pride of place at our Commemoration of Lincoln in WW1 on 18 October, when we remember also those Lincoln men and women who worked so hard in the invention and production of the tank and in aircraft production.

We asked for five, being the number of sons of the Beechey family who lost their lives in WW1.