POLL: Should the UK bring back national service? Have your say | World | News
The national service was Britain’s standard peacetime form of conscription.
Introduced in 1949, it required all men aged between 17 and 21 to serve in one of the Armed Forces for a period of time.
While for most young men the service lasted for 18 months, those summoned for the service as the Korean War was raging between 1950 and 1953 saw their time in the military increased to two years.
During the years in which the national service was in place, more than two million men were conscripted into the British Army, Royal Navy or Royal Air Force.
The national service was enforced as Cold War tensions between the USSR and the US were rising and Britain was facing a manpower shortage following the independence of many territories formerly part of the British Empire.
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Following their training, national servicemen were often posted to garrisons scattered around the world, including post-war Germany and Japan.
The service was eventually brought to an end in 1960, though periods of deferred service still had to be completed – which meant the last national servicemen were discharged in 1963.
In the decades that followed, the West enjoyed peace – but tensions have been rising again in recent years, with China feared to be planning a move on Taiwan and Russia tipped to be eyeing a new European nation to invade.
Countries on the eastern flank of NATO, closer to the Russian threat, are ramping up their defence spending and bolstering their armed forces.
In January, General Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing head of the British Army, said Britain should train a “citizen army” ready to fight a war on land, as he warned the reserve forces alone “would not be enough” should a new war in Europe erupt.
While he was not making an argument for conscription, he urged the UK to prepare for the possibility of a conflict between NATO and Russia.
This wasn’t the first time General Sanders had expressed concerns about Britain’s lack of readiness for a conflict.
In recent years, calls to bring back the national service, albeit in a different form and on a voluntary basis, have emerged multiple times.
