The British Army is facing its biggest setback since the Second World War this month, as the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that nearly 10% of its 140,000 strong military personnel were currently "self-isolating" due to the coronavirus fears. Some 13,000 British military personnel are not absent from duty either because they have shown symptoms or have family members showing symptoms.

The Ministry issued the following guidelines to combat the COVID-19 outbreak: "Any serving personnel who are infected with the COVID-19, or who have come into contact, directly or otherwise, with those who are, will follow the advice and guidance issued by Public Health England. To reduce the risk to the public, anyone that needs isolating will be kept in quarantine for the recommended 14-day quarantine period, with around-the-clock support from medical staff. This means there is absolutely no risk to the wider public from any of our staff that may get infected."

So far just 100 soldiers have actually tested positive for the virus, but the fear is that it could spread rapidly within the military ranks. COVID-19 has sidelined military forces around the world, with the Russian military announcing last week that 15,000 soldiers were sent back to base to be put under a two-week quarantine.

To help fill the void within the British Army, the MoD has also issued a call to former military personnel who have left the Army in the past 12 months and invited those individuals to rejoin their regiments. This has been seen as crucial as the MoD has been active in building mobile testing labs to aid rural communities and care homes. These would be similar to "mobile libraries" that could be sent out to the community.

"We are also increasingly involved in the government's testing programme, partly in the planning and everything that goes with that," Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, told the British media earlier this week. "But also with the thinking of ways the testing can be rolled out to isolated communities and indeed perhaps in the future to care homes. The idea is to have pop-ups, but like mobile libraries that are able to touch the community more closely are the sorts of things that are in development. The military is involved in trying to construct that and to create prototypes that can be let out to industry in short order."

Despite the pandemic outbreak, the British Army is still recruiting, however, the process is now continuing "virtually" while face-to-face recruiting activity been has been paused. Like the Army Training Regiments in Pirbright and Winchester, the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick and the Army Foundation College in Harrogate have announced a pause in training.

"Everything will start again as soon as conditions allow. Any recruits in training will retain their place in training," the MoD posted on its website.

The British Army is one of the world's oldest active military units presently in existence, and its history can be traced back to the English standing army that was formed by Oliver Cromwell in 1645 during the English Civil War. The "New Model Army" was known to be highly disciplined and well trained, and while it was disbanded following the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, the household brigade remained as the Coldstream Guards – one of the five-foot regiments still charged with guarding the Queen to this day.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Image: Reuters.