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b'The British Army won a convincing series of victories between 1916 and 1918. But by 1939 the British Army was an entirely different animal. The hard-won knowledge, experience and strategic vision that delivered victory after victory in the closing stages of the First World War had been lost. In the inter-war years there was plenty of talking, but very little focus on who Britain might have to fight, and how. The British Army wasn\\u2019t prepared to fight a first-class European Army in 1939 for the simple reason that as a country Britain hadn\\u2019t prepared itself to do so. The failure of the army\\u2019s leadership led directly to its abysmal performance in Norway and France in 1940.

Today\\u2019s guest is General Lord Richard Dannat, author of \\u201cVictory to Defeat: The British Army 1918-40.\\u201d The discussion issues a stark warning that we neglect to understand who our enemy might be, and how to defeat him, at the peril of our country. The British Army is now to be cut to its smallest size since 1714. Are we, this book asks, repeating the same mistakes again?'