Britain's large force in West Germany sat uneasily beside a long political tradition of suspicion toward standing armies, reaching back to the civil wars of the four kingdoms. A permanent continental force on that scale was a strategic and political choice rather than Britain's inherited military default. Concentrating on NATO's Central Front made the British contribution visible in the theatre its allies treated as decisive. It also gave governments a justification for saving money by cutting maritime and other capabilities labelled secondary. The bargain narrowed policy toward a forty-five-minute or four-day war just as NATO thinking was moving away from that assumption.
Notable Point · 4:03-6:28
Britain's standing-army tradition and the BAOR bargain
The British Army of the Rhine broke with an older suspicion of standing armies: a conspicuous Central Front role saved money elsewhere but narrowed Britain's choices.