Fighting Fit 1939

The Second World War prompted the recruitment and training of British soldiers on a scale never seen since. Physical training, sports, recreational games and bayonet fighting training all fell under the instruction of what became the Army Physical Training Corps in 1940, a unit that had already proved vital in creating and maintaining fitness and battle-readiness among recruits in the First World War.

Adam W. Culling, Curator of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps Museum, has collected here a number of training and equipment manuals, books and photographs. Together these provide an insight into how the physical training instructor kept the British soldier Fighting Fit.