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Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Army, wants Britain to avoid repeating fateful mistakes which left the nation dangerously weakened in the years leading up to World War 2.

“I’m afraid that we are vulnerable right across the piece,” he warns. “The Army, Navy and the Air Force have effectively never been smaller in peacetime than they are now.”

He sees worrying parallels between the state of the armed forces today and the way the country was ill-prepared to take on Nazi Germany. In his 2023 book with Robert Lyman, Victory to Defeat, he detailed how the British Army went from defeating the German military in World War 1 to being forced to evacuate at Dunkirk in 1940. He argues that after years of failing to invest in our defences Britain finally realised “Hitler was a threat” and the “rearmament process began just in time”.

Warning that we are in a “similar situation” today, with Vladimir Putin threatening Europe’s security, he asks: “How much time have we got left to be just in time? Are we drinking in the last chance saloon?”

The 75-year-old warns that failing to maintain a strong military can result in colossal cost, pointing to how Britain went from investing less than 3% of GDP in defence before the war with Germany to spending 46% in 1940 when the country was “fighting for our very survival”. Today, he is calling for Britain to “massively increase our investment in all types of drones for surveillance, for reconnaissance, for attack, and for defence”.

But he adds: “Just because there are new technologies, it doesn’t mean to say that the old technologies can be dispensed with. Main battle tanks and armoured infantry fighting vehicles and traditional gun and rocket artillery will still be needed in the future.”

The number of regular soldiers has crashed 153,000 in 1990 to just 73,790 at the start of the year.

“Years ago we said the critical mass below which we must not fall was 100,000,” he notes, adding: “I would argue that getting back towards that 100,000 figure is a sensible objective to move towards, supplemented by a much larger mobilisable reserve.”

Plans for a ballistic missile defence system were shelved in the late 1990s, he says, and now this is an “acknowledged weakness”. It would be “phenomenally expensive” to roll out a new system to protect Britain; difficult choices await about what locations should be prioritised for defence and there is “urgent work” to be done.

Looking back to the days when the country invested close to 5% of GDP in defence, he says: “We deterred further aggression from the Soviet Union, and the Cold War never went hot.”

Right now, the Government has a commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by April next year, alongside an ambition to invest 3% in the next parliament.

Getting back to “something approaching 5%”, he suggests, may be the “price we ought to be paying for our security”.

Where can the money come from to boost defence expenditure? Lord Dannatt, who was Chief of the General Staff from 2006 to 2009, lays out the hard choices.

“We might all have to share the burden of increased defence by paying a few pence more on the basic rate of income tax. But otherwise, it’s a question of reordering Government spending priorities. And one has to look at the burgeoning, out-of-control welfare budget.”

It is one thing to have “the best welfare system in the world”, he remarks, “but if it’s under Russian domination, it’s a waste of time.”

Lord Dannatt’s first tour of duty was in Northern Ireland in 1971. There is now immense concern throughout the veterans community that those who served in the province during the years of IRA terror could face vexatious prosecutions. This has intensified as a result of Labour’s decision to repeal the so-called Legacy Act, which was intended to offer conditional immunity to those who served.

On his last day as head of the Army, Lord Dannatt was quizzed by two members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland about actions by his platoon in Belfast in 1973.

Describing the grilling as a “complete waste of time”, he says: “If even the Chief of the General Staff is going to be quizzed in an unnecessary fashion, one worries about a 75-year-old former private who may not be able to recall what happened, who may feel under huge pressure and be extraordinarily worried. And frankly, we’ve got to find a mechanism to stop all that.”

He agrees that if “substantive evidence” is uncovered then a case should be reopened, but he argues that Sinn Fein – which during the Troubles served as the political wing of the IRA and now leads the Stormont Government – is on a mission to rewrite history and paint UK forces as the “oppressor”.

The retired general fears both Vladimir Putin and the US President have fallen victim to “hubris”, thinking “they can use the military arm to suddenly achieve something that hasn’t been properly thought through”.

Condemning an “oversight of ridiculous proportions”, he states it should have been clear that “the Iranians could put their foot on the neck of the West by controlling the Strait of Hormuz” and cutting off oil supplies.

Looking East, Lord Dannatt warns of the danger if a ceasefire is agreed in Ukraine which freezes the conflict but does not revolve it, pointing to the multi-decades stand-off between North and South Korea.

“If Ukraine stops with a ceasefire and there’s no peace agreement, just think about this,” he says. “The United States still has 25,000 soldiers in South Korea guaranteeing that ceasefire. When Keir Starmer said he’s ready and willing to put British boots on the ground to guarantee a ceasefire, is he willing to keep them there for 75 years?”

A ceasefire, he warns, would allow “Russian armed forces to reset, reconstitute themselves and either push again in Ukraine or perhaps push in the Baltics or Scandinavia or the High North or wherever”.

Despite the severity of the threats facing the nation, Lord Dannatt, a devout Christian, burns with hope for a better future.

He describes how in August 1971, when stationed in Northern Ireland, “the violence was so deep-seated, the hatred was so deep-seated, one couldn’t see a way forward”.

But, he adds: “One hoped there might be better times. And that hope has been realised. And I was in Belfast a month ago and was able to go up and down the Crumlin road, up and down the Falls road, without fear at all. Better times have come.”

Warming to the theme, he adds: “My wife and I started married life in Berlin in 1977, when that city was divided, when Germany was divided. One hoped that better times might come for Berlin and for Germany and for Europe.

“And that hope was realised when the Berlin Wall came down and Germany was reunified and the Soviet Union collapsed.

“So in times of great difficulty, when you can’t see your way forward, I think it is legitimate to hope there might be better times and to work towards the hope of better times.”

Today, he holds onto hope for peace for the people of Israel and Gaza, of the wider Middle East, and Taiwan.

“I don’t think it’s naive to believe in hope,” he says. “I think hope sustains, hope encourages, and hope can be a guiding light.”