mrw311 - Anthology

Stagnation and Fear of Destruction

     Despite defeat in the First Boer War, several high ranking British officials were resistant towards adopting new military technologies such as breech loading and magazine fed rifles, to weapons as large as battleships and torpedoes. There were several critiques from anonymous military men addressing the British arrogance that prevented the forward progress necessary to keep up with other Imperial nations. The British army used the Brown Bess, a flintlock muzzleloader, up until 1838 (with the Navy using a variation till 1854) despite percussion cap technology being available in 1820. Even when adopting a bolt-action, magazine-fed rifle firing the small caliber .303 Mk. I cartridge, the British charged it with black-powder resulting in the usual vision-impairing and location betraying cloud of smoke associated with black powder weapons. British rifle training was also lax as the army still relied on volley inspired firing techniques that did not necessitate the individual skill and precision of a single rifleman despite the Boers proving that, at the hands of a well trained soldier, a long-barreled and high velocity rifle could wreak havoc on exposed and grouped formations of soldiers. Much of this resistance came from, as several of the included articles will show, a strong sense of British traditionalism and chivalry - what was effective in the 17th and 18th centuries would still be effective in the coming 20th century due to British prowess in the field. Many of the higher ranked, older officers felt that the new form of combat being employed against the empire was cowardly and impersonal as it relied on guerilla tactics and long distance shooting.
      Additionally, the British admirality did not believe, as an entry below will articulate, that with the wide-spread adoption of armor plated battleships that the torpedo was an effective weapon and instead relied on heavy-weave nets to defend their battleships (a similar sentiment would be held prior to the outbreak of World War II that airplanes would be the undoing of tanks and warships, a misgiving that the German blitzkrieg would take full advantage of). The tinkering and technological finesse necessary to make these technologies viable proved chaffing to the commanding officers used to the simplicity and time-proven reliability of more primitive rifles and warfare. This general arrogance resulted in the reluctance to adapt to new technologies and created anxieties amongst the lower ranks that, in the event of an attack, the British army and Navy would be incapable of defending themselves against nations with superior armaments. With the growing power of the German, Russian, and American Empires, many began feeling that simply relying on tradition would mean little in the face of a Mauser Gewehr 98 or Russian battleship.

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