The 1957 Defence White Paper - Death by a Thousand Cuts

Good morning! :D

In this extended length video, we'll be looking over the point where the British defence industry faced a precipitous fall, as in the wake of World War II, with the presence of the British Empire as a major power on the global stage diminishing as it faced a terrible financial stagnation, cutbacks needed to be made to various departments in the UK state departments so as to balance the books.

Perhaps the worst hit was national defence, which saw numerous projects for fighters, missile systems and engines, that were to be used to defend against the menace of Soviet aggression, axed under the recommendations of a Parliamentary White Paper drafted in 1957 by the then Defence Minister, Duncan Sandys, in order to save money, some of these projects being justifiable losses, while others were cutting edge developments that could have heavily advanced Britain's prestige and military might.

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Chapters:

00:00 - Preamble
01:02 - The Fall of an Empire
03:24 - Nuclear Deterrence
06:40 - Early Rationalisation
10:00 - Hawker P.1083 and Supermarine Type 545
11:40 - Gloster Thin Wing Javelin
13:12 - Avro 730
16:18 - Rocket Fighters and the Saunders-Roe SR.177
19:55 - English Electric Lightning F.Mk.3
21:11 - Short Seamew
23:15 - Fairey Delta 3
26:02 - Hawker P.1121
28:07 - Missile and Radar Projects
30:08 - Engine Schemes
32:20 - The British Army and the Royal Navy
34:51 - Nuclear Embarrassment
36:12 - Undermining the White Paper
38:33 - A Return to Form
41:22 - Conclusion

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References:
The National Archives (and their respective references)
Key Aero (and their respective references)
Royal Aeronautical Society (and their respective references)
Wikipedia (and its respective references)