what would United Kingdom do if it was WW3?

My mind is just pondering here.

I know that United Kingdom had a big bash on the second world war, however, what are the opinions of those who see a coming third world war. Would United Kingdom back down and back Russia/China or would they back USA. If either, what is the possiblity of the damage to the United Kingdom in a third world war situation, in regards to threats of invasion or nuclar war head hitting United Kingdom?

I heard Republic of Ireland did not get involded in the second world war and i doubt they would again.

A lot will have to do with how the lisbon treaty plays out in the EU.
If it is ratified, then the UK will lose a lot of its control over its forces to the EU. Then the EU will decide who it backs and it could get tricky.

If the EU backs the US, there will be a massive front from Finland to Romania to defend from the Russians and tbh, the original reasons for the EU was to stop Europe from being destroyed by war again.
If the EU backs Russia, then it loses its economic relationship with the America's which will also go against one of the main reasons for the EU.. Money.
This could lead to EU neutrality. Britain if it so wanted could use its remaining forces to join the US.

If it all kicks off before the lisbon treaty comes into effect,
The British MOD is a crafty one, they wont back a losing horse. The US will be fighting on too many fronts at that stage & unless NATO is involved, the Brits might keep to Iraq and leave the US to clean up their own mess with Russia.

If so, this would change the balance of power in the world because a lone US could not successfully win on all these fronts.

Its a hard one to call but you can never guess what the British MOD is going to do, they are too crafty and meddlesome.

I heard Republic of Ireland did not get involded in the second world war and i doubt they would again

Ireland did not officially get involved in WW2 for a number of reasons, but an estimated 100,000 Irish fought in the War through Irish battalions in the British army because of Irelands neutrality.
Ireland is still neutral but has a UN peacekeeping force.
If the # hit the fan, there would be plenty of us there the get a piece of the action.

reply to post by deathpoet69


Historically, at least when Europe held all the cards, the UK usually backed the second most powerfull european power, i.e. when Russia was powerfull they backed France, when France was powerfull they backed Germany (that's how Germany got the Ruhr back), but since WWII it's been the US all the way and seeing as the UK is one the US's largest aircraft carriers, I can't see that changing anytime soon, add to that fiscal and cultural ties. You can be pretty sure that where the US leads the UK will follow.

As for Ireland's non involvment in WWII. Churchill was quite determined to get Ireland involved, " they are at war, just sculking!" etc etc. The simple fact is that Ireland was NOT in any way able to wage war. Her cities and towns were so small that the luftwaffe could have wiped out the south of Ireland in days. The RAF would have had to defend irish airspace to the detriment of her own defences in the battle of Britian. Perhaps after the US had entered the war it was in Ireland's national interest to join in, but we weren't really needed by then anyway. Took us a long time to recover internationally, being considered cowards and all.

Onto the preasent day. While still ostensibly nuetral, we do allow the US military use of our airports even under the suspicion of special rendition. Again fiscal ties with so many US corporations providing employment here, our government is not about to rock the boat. Cultural ties too, the very first Paddy's day parade EVER was in Boston. Our constitution dictates that our military (very small) can only operate outside our borders with UN approval. So while we may not be putting actual troops on the ground, I can't see our government doing anything that might annoy the Whitehouse.

[edit on 14/8/08 by feoil]

UK.... We're a bunch of backstabbers when it comes down to it.... We will back the side that doesn't mean we end up as slaves basically...

The stongest, perhaps not; but would we go against Europe with todays technology when they are right on our doorstep. In all honesty if it was between Europe or America I can see all American military installations being overrun immediately and commandeered to our own uses.

Another draft into the military, come home from abroad, and become the castle island again.

[edit on 14-8-2008 by umbr45]

thank you for your replys, i appericate it. so bascaily, if uk finally become apart of europe then uk have no option because it comes under european law. so then we should be aganist becoming a total member of europe for this reason.

Do you think its possible when a ww3 is delcared that the emeny would try to invade the uk and what are the possibilities of that happening?.


Most English are back stabbers, agreed. with a high number of Muslims in the country, do you feel that England would take the risk in going aganist Iran when there is a high population of muslims in England, how would the English natives react to such a thing?. Would there ever be a conscription?

In connection to Ireland, Would it be a safe haven for native english men?

[edit on 14-8-2008 by deathpoet69]

I think that no matter who the enemy is England would have a high chance of being invaded... If the enemy is America it's their home in Europe to fight.

If the enemy is Europe, then we are so close it would be stupid not to.

If the enemy is Russia it gives them a slingshot round to the other side of Europe. Same reason for the countries like Iran etc


England is in a terrible position, which is why in times of old it HAD to have such a great army. Unfortuenately we now go by skill instead of numbers, when infact we should keep the skill as high as it is whilst making the numbers higher too.

But actually succesfully invading England, well now that will be a difficult thing indeed. As I said, the UK is a bunch of backstabbers, if the invaders are American we will have their captured technology on home land to bolster our own and if it comes from anywhere else we can still rely on the patriotism to supply huge amounts of volunteers.

In a time of need I truly believe almost half of the population would form a resistance, with more joining as time went on... We have more patriotic people than it appears.

(I say England invaded as it is the biggest and controlling country and so the most likely main target)

If the target was Iran and Muslims in this country rebelled (though rather unlikely in my opinion) They would be silenced near immediately, with out military involvement. We brits are very quick to riot against a particular group of people, it would be a slaughter....unfortuenately.

[edit on 14-8-2008 by umbr45]

if uk finally become apart of europe then uk have no option because it comes under european law.

Firstly, The UK is already a major part of the EU, the lisbon treaty is basically an EU constitution. It should be up and running in the next year and would add much more centralized control over all the member states.
The EU military wing would be in control of quite a large number of the UK forces but the UK could be able to use the rest as they see fit - to an extent. While the UK would be able to back the US, if anyone tried to attack the UK, the EU army would be there for backup.

Do you think its possible when a ww3 is delcared that the emeny would try to invade the uk and what are the possibilities of that happening?.

They could try but would more than likely fail, the UK is a relatively small island with a massive population, is very tech advanced and has a very rugged coastline. It would be almost impossible to get a sizable force onto their shores if every able bodied person had a gun.

In connection to Ireland, Would it be a safe haven for native english men?

As long as there wasn't too many of them around, its the accent - it does our collective heads in

[edit on 14/8/08 by Dermo]

Yes, there are places in Britain tje police wont go...with guns. And they are on our side, try marching an enemy army down their and come out alive.

We're resourceful blighters too, deoderant and a lighter get you your flamethrower. Kitchen knives to stab. Swords, steel knucleds, a few guns, camping stoves rigged to explode, cars rigged to explode, power lines severed, and of course we could always tell 'chavs' the enemy want to ban burbary


Defeat the army in an invasion and you just led yourself into one 57 million strong.... Good luck.

As to first point, the possibilty of invading the UK. Depends on the enemy, if it were the russians, they'd have to come through the whole of western europe and that wouldn't be as easy as 1945. In the unlikely event of the americans trying to invade, as Umbr45 says, all american installations would be taken by the MOD and the rest of the EU would also object. That leaves Germany and/or France, and I don't think Sarkozi is gone quite that mad yet.

I'm no authority on British demographics and i'd hate for any comment on a minorities to decend into mud-slinging. It seems to me though, that alot of immigrants to both the UK (and Ireland) are fairly gratefull to be over here. Every religion has it's extremists and these are an unreliable measure to guage more ordinary adherants by. Some may take up arms, but i'm guessing the vast majority wouldn't.

As for Englishmen seeking a safe haven in Ireland, sure!!, so as long as they leave the guns, tanks and warships at home, joking aside, if Britian ever does get invaded, it would be reasonable to assume we'd be next

I totaly think we would help the usa, my reason is how many usa base's / facility's here? Then how many russia china bases's / facility's here?
Anyone have the exact figure ?
As for us as a target would the largest electronic monitoring station in the world at menwith hill would be struck?

I cant hepl but think of how many major corporations, foundries and factories have been being systematically moved over seas for the past 8 years, this alone makes me think also of the strange bedfellows bush and putin have been and were even seen in past days together at the olympics.

Makes me think that america will be the next target for land based war. And besides if you watch the news at all seems like every nation is trying to be friendly with Russia or it seems so to me.

The very idea of the United States invading the UK is absurd. If anything happens in the world I can guarantee you the last two allies to seperate will be the United States and the United Kingdom, and it will only be because one of them is gone.

reply to post by umbr45


Again, Thank for your replies. I am a bit more confident now with the robust intellect of our British people.
Firstly a reply to umbr45, you are knowledgeable on your stance on the British isles. I would agree as a North East resident, that the majority of the population would silence the Muslims and or Chinese, if they was a world war. This is shown in the example from the Bradford riots which started from Harhills in Leeds.


Even though we Brits do like to find enemies within, we do come together when it comes to a crucial point.
The chavs most defiantly would get involved ( I use to be one lol) and most of the young soldier in the British army are derived from been chavs.


I BELIEVE they is a high patriotism the U.K, however there is also in Iran etc. However, they would be counted out as our armies would concentrate on their countries while Iran etc try to invade us.

No doubt they will be a few who will try to fight us Brits like immigrants from Russia and middle eastern countries, however, there is a good amount of loyal British immigrants.

It is a shame the Brits are not as powerful as they use to be.


feoil


antar - I believe majority of nations have lost belief in the United States, because Russia and China have gained a great income. Therefore, they fear them. However, think of this, those who have less money are more brutal, so, United States could be seen as the underdog however this is not true.

slylee - For the benefit of the UK, at the moment we should support the USA however those I have talked to around the UK do not support USA but they rather USA than any other country.


I believe, the middle east really do underestimate the British and Europeans. The only way to explain how we are, is basically, when we kill, we don't leave the body, we would eat it and abuse it even when its dead, were animals.

Dermo- Not everyone has a gun however if they was a war what are the possibilities of the UK government giving us guns because really, us youngsters would have a field day!.

Thank you for everyone for contributing, I do hope the discussion continues, as I believe their is not much recognition of UK on the ATS forums.

[edit on 15-8-2008 by deathpoet69]

This scenario as presented would lead to the same conclusion as events past. There would be no choice for the UK but to turn to the one thing that the world fears and that is the truth and justice of the american way. Militarily the UK is weak because as a society their people are frail and dont understand complex machines. That is why america has nuclear subs aircraft carriers and stealth technology that the british dont have. People always tell me though the british are like our little brother we always bail them out and they look up to us so we should continue to set a good example for them. Never in history has the uk ever put a man on the moon or been successful in the field of cold fusion. Its not their fault that their intellects are not as developed as americans so there is no reason why america should ever turn its back on the uK.

reply to post by tigpoppa


Thanks for that post, I haven’t laughed out loud for quite a while.


That was sarcasm by the way, just so you know.

The British are the best army and intellectuals in the world

I guess your taking the mickey here, and i find it odd that an irish man would leap to the defence of the UK, but in the spirit of denying ignorance, i feel it only fair to point out.
1) The industrial age started in Britian, so they invented complex machinery.
2) Take on their military, ask Argentina.
3) If you want stealth technology, go to Sweden
4) As for aircraft carriers, i believe the first true carrier was HMS Ark Royal.
5) Wasn't it the germans who put you on the moon.
6) Atomic science?, well his name was Rutherford.

So tell me, parasite or pioneer?


[edit on 15/8/08 by feoil]

Originally posted by deathpoet69
The British are the best army and intellectuals in the world

Innit!!!

YAY!!! am half irish by the way, cork,rosscarbery.

reply to post by tigpoppa




[edit on 15/0808/08 by neformore]