- Missing missiles - 20th August 2026
- Investigation report part one - 19th August 2026
- Another Huwge mistake again - 18th August 2026
The benefits of a Politics and Modern History (PMH) degree for our Editor Welshman Phil Parry, are clearly shown by the parallels which can be drawn today between the crisis now over the scarcity of the vital ‘Patriot’ missile system, and the ‘Shell Shortage’ of World War One, which helped propel Lloyd George to power.
There’s nothing new under the sun.
All the focus today is on the shortfall of interceptor ‘Patriot’ missiles made by the United States of America (USA), when the stockpile has been massively reduced because of the war against Iran, and there is enormous concern that Ukraine does not have enough of them to protect Kyiv frpm Russian attacks, but surely our politicians need to find answers in the ‘Shell Shortage’ of 1915?!
The Economist even headlined its story about the crisis: “What happens when the West runs out of interceptor missiles”.
Kyiv’s air-defence crews were left helpless during recent waves of Russian ballistic missile attacks, because its Patriot interceptor launchers were empty.
Ukrainian officials said the country had already spent the small number of interceptors provided by Washington when missiles struck Kyiv on August 5, and again three days later.
During Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s White House meeting with Mr Trump in late July, the American president did not agree to provide additional Patriot air-defence interceptors (the only ones capable of shooting down Russia’s ballistic missiles), to cover the next few months.
In July, Ukrainian air defence intercepted only 29 out of 195 Russian ballistic missiles, with another 40 failing to reach their targets, Ukraine’s defence ministry declared.
It’s not just Ukraine either that is being affected by this crisis.
Poland’s Deputy Defence Minister, Cezary Tomczyk, said Warsaw was within days of a decision to send a batch of Patriots there, but Donald Trump appeared to step back from an agreement reached at the NATO summit in Turkey last month to grant Ukraine a licence to produce them.
Germany, one of Ukraine’s top military aid donors, has already transferred Patriot systems and missiles to Ukraine, but is feeling the pinch now. Berlin must balance Kyiv’s increasingly urgent needs against the minimum stocks required to protect Germany and meet its NATO commitments.
Other European countries are also weighing up whether to hang on to their interceptors or give them to Ukraine.
“We are really reaching our limits here”, proclaimed Brigadier General Jürgen Schrödl, a senior German defence ministry official, at a panel in Berlin shortly after the NATO summit in Ankara. “We also have to ensure our own protection”.
Berlin and other northern European capitals have urged counterparts elsewhere on the continent to examine what more military equipment and financial support they could release.
“I think it’s not sustainable for Europe in the long run”, the Norwegian Defence Minister Tore O. Sandvik has stated, “all the European countries have to step up”.
However in all of this there are distinct parallels to be drawn with what has happened in the past, when Wales’ Lloyd George was pivotal, and in which a degree in Politics and Modern History helps.
The parallel is with what has been dubbed the ‘Shell Shortage’, and THAT crisis of 1915 was a shortage of artillery shells on the front lines in the First World War which led to a political crisis in the United Kingdom (UK).
This was VERY similar to today’s Patriot missile deficit which has caused conniptions around the world, and I would suggest that the politicians today could do worse than look to solutions here.
Let’s look in a bit more detail at what happened.
The huge furore about the ‘Shell Shortage’ was widely publicised in the press (as in the extensive media coverage today of the Patriot Missile crisis), and it is instructive to examine this.
The Times, in cooperation with Lloyd George and Lord Northcliffe, sought to force Parliament to adopt a national munitions policy with centralised control.
This resulted in a transfer of the Munitions Department from the War Office to a cabinet level position in the UK Government, and a coalition government with Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions.
In 1916 the long-term effects included the fall of the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and his replacement by Lloyd George in December 1916.
So for Patriot Missile crisis, read ‘Shell Shortage’!
Or should that be the other way around..?!
The memories of Phil’s decades-long award-winning career in journalism as he was gripped by the rare disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’ (which includes historical cases). Order it now!
Tomorrow – how during 23 years with the BBC, and in a 43 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for Phil, putting centre stage the bizarre political actions of politicians has always been vital, but towering over them all today is the incredible behaviour of Mr Trump who this week has cosied up to a dictator, and threatened to bomb an ally.
