# 315 - The Thin Khaki Line

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ww2-podcast-745440/315-the-thin-khaki-line
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ww2-podcast-745440/315-the-thin-khaki-line.md
Podcast: [The WW2 Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ww2-podcast-745440)
Published: 2026-08-01T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://ww2podcast.libsyn.com/315-the-thin-khaki-line
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/ww2podcast/315a_-_The_Thin_Khaki_Line.mp3?dest-id=260446
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-ww2-podcast-745440/episodes/315-the-thin-khaki-line
Duration seconds: 4343

## Resource

The British Army in the Second World War is often judged through the lens of manpower shortages and a sense of being overstretched. Critics point to a force spread across too many theatres and suggest that this inevitably limited its effectiveness. But is that a fair assessment of an army that expanded from a few hundred thousand men into a global fighting force of over eight million, operating across Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Far East? In this episode, I am joined by Brian Walter to explore his argument that the British and Commonwealth armies emerged from the legacy of the First World War as a reduced force, entered the Second World War underprepared, but went on to adapt, expand, and ultimately play a decisive role in defeating Germany, Italy, and Japan across multiple theatres of war. Brian is the author of The Thin Khaki Line: An Operational History of the British and Commonwealth Armies during World War II .

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## Transcript

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