THE army has suffered an unprecedented exodus of more than 1,300 officers in the past six months amid anger about government cost-cutting and equipment shortages.

The number quitting is more than double the rate in the previous 12 months and will add to pressure on Gordon Brown about the way his government is funding the armed services.

Many of those who have resigned their commissions are from frontline units. Most are captains or majors with invaluable experience of battle.

“The loss of a whole swathe of middle-ranking officers will leave us struggling to find the top quality generals of the future,” said one senior officer. “But it is clear the government does not care and would be happy to see the army reduced to a token force.”

One officer, who put in his 12-months’ notice last month, said the reason most were leaving was that the army felt “undermanned, undervalued and underfunded”.

“We are overstretched and quite clearly underfunded,” said 31-year-old Captain Will Richards. “It’s not a lack of job satisfaction – that still exists – but the incentive to stay in is no longer there. The forces no longer get the public appreciation and recognition, or the funding, they used to.”

Last week Brown had to defend his record after five former chiefs of the defence staff accused him of treating Britain’s fighting forces with contempt.

The new figures, released last week by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), show the criticisms are shared by serving officers. A total of 1,344 army officers have left in the past six months alone, more than 100% up on last year’s rate and close to three times the figure for 2004-05. Since the Iraq war, the army has lost 5,790 officers, recruiting only 4,500 to replace them. It now has more than 200 too few majors – a rank in which it was traditionally overstaffed.

The Parachute Regiment has lost nine officers in the past few months, all quitting in disgust at the lack of resources and poor treatment of soldiers and their families.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, another infantry regiment, has lost a dozen officers in the past year, according to one former member of the regiment. “They have lost a complete peer group,” he said. “Many of the young captains have left.” Derek Twigg, junior defence minister, claimed last week that the newly released figures show the overall numbers for personnel across the three services remain “broadly stable”.

However, the latest MoD performance report suggests there is little chance of the armed forces meeting their manpower targets by next April. Government cost-cutting has left the forces fighting far more often but with an ever-decreasing number of troops, the report says. Those leaving cite extreme overstretch and undermanning and the poor treatment of soldiers and their families.

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