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.