BRITAIN must mimic Nato's poster-boy Poland in bolstering and modernising its "second class" army into one that is ready to fight against an aggressive military, former British generals have warned.
If it fails to do this now, British forces would suffer "catastrophic" losses on the WW3 battlefields against an advancing Russian army if Putin invades Nato.
Three British ex-army chiefs told The Sun that as it stands, the UK's army would be "steamrolled" by Putin's forces if a major war erupted in the next two years.
They said two decades of relative peace in the post-Cold War era has meant the UK - like much of European Nato - has stopped thinking about WW3 and "run the armed forces to the ground".
But as Nato turns 75 today, the former commanders warned that the threat to the military alliance from Russia has "never been higher".
They said once the guns stop in Ukraine, a "vengeful" Putin could invade Nato's eastern flank if he smells weakness and turn the Baltics into a bloodbath.
And the only way for the UK and Nato to avoid WW3 is by having larger, better equipped and highly trained armed forces that would make Putin take a step back.
But in reality, the military experts warned that most Nato countries in Europe, including the UK, are nowhere near where they should be to pose a credible deterrence to Putin.
They said the UK and the likes of France and Germany must mimic Poland in investing in its military if Nato is going to stop Russia from sending columns of tanks over the border to Estonia or Lithuania.
Former tank commander Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told The Sun: "The UK really needs to catch up - our conventional deterrence is not up to the mark and we've allowed our ability to fight global wars to drift.
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