At the start of 1939, the British Army was a small volunteer professional army. At the beginning of the Second World War, 3 September 1939, the British Army was small in comparison with those of its enemies, as it had been at the beginning of the First World War. It also quickly became evident that the initial structure and manpower of the British Army were woefully unprepared and ill-equipped for a war with multiple enemies on multiple fronts. During the early war years the British Army suffered defeat in almost every theatre of war in which it was deployed. But from late 1942, starting with the battle of El Alamein, fortunes changed and the British Army never suffered another strategic defeat, despite some tactical failures (most notably the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944).