Kitchener's Army

Last updated
Alfred Leete's recruitment poster for Kitchener's Army. 30a Sammlung Eybl Grossbritannien. Alfred Leete (1882-1933) Britons (Kitchener) wants you (Briten Kitchener braucht Euch). 1914 (Nachdruck), 74 x 50 cm. (Slg.Nr. 552).jpg
Alfred Leete's recruitment poster for Kitchener's Army.

The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob, [lower-alpha 1] was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War in late July 1914. It originated on the recommendation of Herbert Kitchener, then the Secretary of State for War to obtain 500,000 volunteers for the Army. Kitchener's original intention was that these men would be formed into units that would be ready to be put into action in mid-1916, but circumstances dictated the use of these troops before then. [1] The first use in a major action of Kitchener's Army units came at the Battle of Loos (September–October 1915).

Contents

Origins

1914 poster describing terms of enlistment New Army Terms of Enlistment poster Aug 1914 IWM.jpg
1914 poster describing terms of enlistment

Contrary to the popular belief that the war would be over by Christmas 1914, Kitchener predicted a long and brutal war. He believed that arrival in Europe of an overwhelming force of new, well-trained and well-led divisions would prove a decisive blow against the Central Powers. Kitchener fought off opposition to his plan, and attempts to weaken or water down its potential, including piece-meal dispersal of the New Army battalions into existing regular or Territorial Force divisions (the view of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Field Marshal French). Kitchener declined to use the existing Territorial Force (set up by Lord Haldane and Douglas Haig as part of the Army reforms of the Edwardian period) as the basis for the New Army, as many of its members had volunteered for "Home Service" only, and because he was suspicious of the poor performance of French "territorials" in the Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871. In the early days of the war, the Territorial Force could not reinforce the regular army, as it lacked modern equipment, particularly artillery. In addition, it took time to form first-line units composed only of men who had volunteered for "General Service". [2] [ page needed ]

Those recruited into the New Army were used to form complete battalions under existing British Army regiments. These new battalions had titles of the form "xxth (Service) Battalion, <regiment name>". The first New Army divisions were first used in August 1915 at Suvla Bay during the Gallipoli Campaign and also the Battle of Loos on the Western Front in the autumn of 1915; they were sorely tested in the Battle of the Somme. The initial BEF—a single army of five regular divisions in August 1914, grew to two field armies comprising 16 divisions by the end of 1914 when the Territorials had been deployed, and to five armies totalling around 60 divisions in strength by the summer of 1916; approximately 2 million men, of whom around half were infantry (the rest were gun crews, supply and logistics men etc.)[ citation needed ]

Recruitment

All five of the full army groups (meaning a group of divisions similar in size to an army, not a group of armies) were made up of volunteer recruits, which included the famous Pals' Battalions. Due to the huge numbers of men wishing to sign up, in places queues up to a mile long formed outside recruitment offices, there were many problems in equipping and providing shelter for the new recruits. Rapidly the Government added many new recruitment centres, which eased the admissions burden, and began a programme of temporary construction at the main training camps. By 12 September, almost half a million men had enlisted. [3] [4] The priority placement of recruits was to make up the strength of K1 units, then the Reserve battalions, and then the K2 units. [5] Almost 2.5 million men volunteered for Kitchener's Army. [2] [ page needed ] The War Office stipulated that NCOs for these new formations should be selected from those men reenlisting. [lower-alpha 2]

By the beginning of 1916, the queues were not so long anymore. Information about the true nature of the war had reached Great Britain, and enthusiasm for volunteering plunged.[ weasel words ] Great Britain had to resort to conscription under the Military Service Act 1916, like the other great powers involved in the war. (Conscription was also applied "in reverse", so that skilled workers and craftsmen who had volunteered early in the war could be drafted back into the munitions industry, where they were sorely needed.)

The first conscripts arrived in France in late 1916 to fill the gaps in the volunteer units,[ dubious – discuss ] which had been greatly diminished during the Battle of the Somme. After the bloody battles of 1916 and 1917, many of the British Army facing the Ludendorff Offensive of 1918 were conscripts, many of whom were youths under 21 years of age, or in their late thirties or older. Many of the other soldiers were men of lower levels of fitness who had volunteered earlier in the war and had since been "combed out" of rear echelon jobs. Roughly half of those who served in the British Army throughout the war, including more than half of the five million men serving in the British Army in 1918, were conscripts.

Training

A Church of England service at the 10th (Irish) Division's camp at Basingstoke in 1915 10th (Irish) Division at Basingstoke.jpg
A Church of England service at the 10th (Irish) Division's camp at Basingstoke in 1915

The British Army traditionally recruited on a regimental basis, therefore a recruit accepted into the Army was first sent to his new regiment's depot, where he received his kit [lower-alpha 3] and was introduced to army discipline and training. Next he was sent to the main training camps to join his battalion. In practice, no regiment had the required stocks of equipment, or the manpower to train the flood of recruits; men trained wearing their own clothes and shoes. To mitigate this problem, the army issued old stored uniforms, including First Boer War–vintage red jackets. Some regiments bought their own uniform and boots with money paid from public collections. Many regiments were also issued with emergency blue uniforms, popularly known as Kitchener Blue. Whilst this crisis went on, the soldiers wore regimental and unit badges or patches on their clothing. Many photographs from the era show uniformed soldiers drilling alongside civilian clothed soldiers, perhaps led by red-jacketed NCOs. [2] [ page needed ]

The Regiments also suffered from a lack of officers to train them. The government called up all reserve-list officers and any British Indian Army officer who happened to be on leave in the UK during the period. Men who had been to a recognised public school and university graduates, many of whom had some prior military training in Officer Training Corps, were often granted direct commissions. Commanding officers were encouraged to promote promising leaders and later in the war it was common for officers ("temporary gentlemen") to have been promoted from the ranks to meet the demand, especially as casualty rates among junior infantry officers were extremely high. Many officers, both regular and temporary, were promoted to ranks and responsibilities far greater than they had ever realistically expected to hold.

The Army had difficulty supplying new units with enough weapons. No artillery pieces had been left in Britain to train new artillery brigades, and most battalions had to drill with obsolete rifles or wooden mockups. By early 1915 the Government had overcome many of these problems. Among its methods was pressing into use old ceremonial cannons and unfinished modern artillery pieces (they lacked targeting sights). During 1915, it corrected such shortages.

Later developments

At the beginning of 1918, the shortage of manpower in the British Expeditionary Force in France became acute. The Army ordered infantry divisions to be reduced from twelve infantry battalions to nine. The higher-numbered battalions (in effect the New Army units, and some Second-Line Territorial units) were to be disbanded rather than the lower-numbered Regular and First-Line Territorial battalions. (Since Kitchener's death in 1916, no other major figure opposed this fundamental change to the principles on which the New Army had been raised.) In some cases, New Army divisions had to disband about half of their units to make room for surplus battalions transferred from Regular or First-Line Territorial divisions. While the change reduced the unique sense of identity of some New Army formations, it developed the divisions in France into more homogeneous units. By this time there was no longer much real distinction between Regular, Territorial, and New Army divisions. [7]

Structure

Kitchener's New Army was made up of the following Army Groups (meaning a group of divisions similar in size to an army, not a group of armies) and Divisions:

K1 Army Group

K2 Army Group

K3 Army Group

Original K4 Army Group

Kitchener's Fourth New Army was formed from November 1914 with

The divisions were not fully formed when the decision was made to use them to provide replacements for the first three New Armies. The divisions were broken up on 10 April 1915; the infantry brigades and battalions became reserve formations and the other divisional troops were transferred to the divisions of the newly created Fourth and Fifth New Armies. [9]

K4/K5 Army Group

Redesignated K4 following breakup of original K4.

K5 Army Group

Following the re-designation of the previous K5 Army Group, a new K5 Army Group was formed.

Divisional structure in 1915

In 1915, the prescribed structure of a division would have comprised the following units:

Number of troops and equipment:

Divisional structure in 1918

In 1918, a typical division would have comprised the following units:

Number of troops and equipment:

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "'Kitchener's Mob' they were called in the early days of August, 1914, when London hoardings were clamorous with the first calls for volunteers. The seasoned regulars of the first British expeditionary force said it patronizingly, the great British public hopefully, the world at large doubtfully. 'Kitchener's Mob,' when there was but a scant sixty thousand under arms with millions yet to come. 'Kitchener's Mob' it remains to-day, fighting in hundreds of thousands in France, Belgium, Africa, the Balkans. And to-morrow, when the war is ended, who will come marching home again, old campaigners, war-worn remnants of once mighty armies? 'Kitchener's Mob.'"
    —Kitchener's Mob: Adventures of an American in the British Army by James Norman Hall, 1916
  2. ↑ Men 'who may be promoted from the rank they formerly held.' [6]
  3. ↑ his basic uniform, boots, webbing etc

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recruitment to the British Army during World War I</span> Recruitment to the British Army during World War I

At the beginning of 1914 the British Army had a reported strength of 710,000 men including reserves, of which around 80,000 were professional soldiers ready for war. By the end of the First World War almost 25 percent of the total male population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland had joined up, over five million men. Of these, 2.67 million joined as volunteers and 2.77 million as conscripts. Monthly recruiting rates for the army varied dramatically.

The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the six-divisions the British Army sent to the Western Front during the First World War. Planning for a British Expeditionary Force began with the 1906–1912 Haldane Reforms of the British Army carried out by the Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War (1899–1902).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Army Reserve (United Kingdom)</span> Element of the British Army

The Army Reserve is the active-duty volunteer reserve force of the British Army. It is separate from the Regular Reserve whose members are ex-Regular personnel who retain a statutory liability for service. The Army Reserve was known as the Territorial Force from 1908 to 1921, the Territorial Army (TA) from 1921 to 1967, the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve (TAVR) from 1967 to 1979, and again the Territorial Army (TA) from 1979 to 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Territorial Force</span> Former volunteer reserve component of the British Army

The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry into a unified auxiliary, commanded by the War Office and administered by local county territorial associations. The Territorial Force was designed to reinforce the regular army in expeditionary operations abroad, but because of political opposition it was assigned to home defence. Members were liable for service anywhere in the UK and could not be compelled to serve overseas. In the first two months of the First World War, territorials volunteered for foreign service in significant numbers, allowing territorial units to be deployed abroad. They saw their first action on the Western Front during the initial German offensive of 1914, and the force filled the gap between the near destruction of the regular army that year and the arrival of the New Army in 1915. Territorial units were deployed to Gallipoli in 1915 and, following the failure of that campaign, provided the bulk of the British contribution to allied forces in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. By the war's end, the Territorial Force had fielded twenty-three infantry divisions and two mounted divisions on foreign soil. It was demobilised after the war and reconstituted in 1921 as the Territorial Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">30th Division (United Kingdom)</span> Military unit

The British 30th Division was a New Army division that was originally made up of battalions raised by public subscription or private patronage. The division was taken over by the British War Office in August 1915 and moved to France in December. It served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedfordshire Yeomanry</span> Military unit

The Bedfordshire Yeomanry was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. Serving intermittently between 1797 and 1827, it was re-raised in 1901 for the Second Boer War. It participated in the First World War before being converted to an artillery regiment. It served in the Second World War. Its lineage was maintained by 201 Battery, 100th (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery until that unit was placed in suspended animation in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlesex Regiment</span> Infantry regiment of the British Army

The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The regiment was formed, as the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms when the 57th (West Middlesex) and 77th (East Middlesex) Regiments of Foot were amalgamated with the county's militia and rifle volunteer units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special Reserve</span> British Army reserve 1908–1919

The Special Reserve was established on 1 April 1908 with the function of maintaining a reservoir of manpower for the British Army and training replacement drafts in times of war. Its formation was part of the military reforms implemented by Richard Haldane, the Secretary of State for War, which also created the Territorial Force. Haldane originally intended that the Militia would provide the reserve, but opposition from its representatives forced him to abolish it and create the Special Reserve instead. Only 60 per cent of the Militia transferred into the new reserve, and it was consistently under strength, particularly in officers. Reservists enlisted for a six-year term of service, and had to undergo six months of basic training on recruitment and three to four weeks training annually.

The 1st Mounted Division was a Yeomanry Division of the British Army active during World War I. It was formed in August 1914 for the home defence of the United Kingdom from four existing mounted brigades of the Territorial Force, each of three regiments of Yeomanry. The divisional order of battle changed often, as the 1st Line brigades left for service overseas and were replaced by 2nd Line formations. It was converted to the 1st Cyclist Division in July 1916, and was broken up in November 1916 without being involved in active service. It remained in East Anglia throughout its existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincolnshire Yeomanry</span> Military unit

The Lincolnshire Yeomanry was a volunteer cavalry unit of the British Army formed in 1794. It saw action in the Second Boer War and the First World War before being disbanded in 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Army First World War reserve brigades</span>

The article lists British Army reserve brigades in World War I. At the start of the war volunteers in the vast majority of cases joined their local infantry regiment's reserve battalion. As the army expanded rapidly, further reserve battalions and brigades were formed. After conscription was introduced in 1916 the existing regimental system could not cope with the large influx of recruits and the existing reserve brigades were incorporated into the Training Reserve, with an official complement of over 209,000 soldiers, in addition to the regimental training units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British infantry brigades of the First World War</span>

During the First World War, 259 infantry brigades were raised by the British Army, two by the Royal Navy, and one from the Royal Marines. Of these brigades, fifty-three were held in reserve or only used for training, while another nine only served in British India.

The 45th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the Territorial Force, part of the British Army. It was formed in the First World War as a duplicate of the 43rd (Wessex) Division and was originally formed as the 2nd Wessex Division in 1914–1915 before later being renamed as the 45th Division and the brigades numbered. It was sent overseas to India in December 1914 to relieve Regular Army units for service in France. The division remained there for the rest of the war, supplying drafts of replacements to the British units fighting in the Middle East and later complete battalions.

The Glamorganshire Royal Horse Artillery was a Territorial Force Royal Horse Artillery battery that was formed in Glamorganshire in 1908. It saw active service during the First World War on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918 as part of an Army Field Artillery Brigade. A second line battery, 2/1st Glamorganshire RHA, served in England and Ireland before being broken up in January 1917. Glamorganshire RHA was not reconstituted in the post-war Territorial Force.

The Shropshire Royal Horse Artillery was a Territorial Force Royal Horse Artillery battery that was formed in Shropshire in 1908 from the Shropshire Battery of the 1st Shropshire and Staffordshire Artillery Volunteers, Royal Garrison Artillery of the Volunteer Force. It saw active service during the First World War on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918 as part of an Army Field Artillery Brigade. A second line battery, 2/1st Shropshire RHA, also served on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918 as part of another Army Field Artillery Brigade. It was reconstituted post-war as a medium artillery battery and served as such in the Second World War.

The Warwickshire Royal Horse Artillery was a Territorial Force Royal Horse Artillery battery that was formed in Warwickshire in 1908. It was the first Territorial Force artillery unit to go overseas on active service, spending the whole of the First World War on the Western Front, mostly with 1st Cavalry Division and 29th Division. A second line battery, 2/1st Warwickshire RHA, also served on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918 as part of an Army Field Artillery Brigade. Post-war it was reconstituted as a Royal Field Artillery battery.

The 2nd Home Counties Division was a 2nd Line Territorial Force division of the British Army in World War I. The division was formed as a duplicate of the 44th Division in November 1914. As the name suggests, the division recruited in the Home Counties, particularly Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. In August 1915, in common with all Territorial Force divisions, it was numbered as 67th Division. Between September 1917 and the end of the year, the division was extensively reorganized and lost its territorial identity; henceforth it was known as 67th Division.

The Northern Cyclist Battalion was a bicycle infantry battalion of the Territorial Force, part of the British Army. Formed in 1908, it served in the United Kingdom throughout the First World War and in 1920 it was converted as part of the Royal Garrison Artillery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highland Cyclist Battalion</span> Military unit

The Highland Cyclist Battalion was a bicycle infantry battalion of the Territorial Force, part of the British Army. Formed as part of the Volunteer Force in 1860, it became a Volunteer Battalion of the Black Watch in 1881. In 1909 it became an independent unit and served in the United Kingdom throughout the First World War. In 1920 it was converted as part of the Highland Divisional Signals.

The British home army in the First World War served the dual purpose of defending the country against invasion and training reinforcements for the army overseas. Initial responsibility for defending the nation lay with the Territorial Force, a part-time auxiliary designed in 1908 as a means of expanding the army in a major foreign conflict but, as a result of political compromise, implemented as a home defence army. It was supported in this role by 42,000 regular army troops, primarily belonging to the Royal Garrison Artillery and the Royal Engineers. The 14 infantry divisions and 14 mounted brigades of the Territorial Force were mainly allocated either to the Local Force, stationed near the coast and tasked with disrupting an invasion at the point of landing, or the Central Force, a mobile element tasked with defeating the invading force as it marched on London. The Local Force was augmented by units of the Special Reserve and Extra Reserve, which were the third battalions of the regular army line infantry regiments established to recruit and train replacements for their regiments' two combat battalions. The home army was also largely responsible for guarding vulnerable points, such as the communications infrastructure, rail network and munitions works.

References

  1. ↑ Medlicott, (1967), p. 21.'[Kitchener] had acted decisively on the outbreak of war in calling for a large enlistment of 500,000 volunteers for the regular army; but these would take time to train and he did not anticipate that the full weight of the British effort could be thrown in until perhaps the middle of 1916.'
  2. 1 2 3 Simkins 2007.
  3. ↑ Simkins, Peter (29 Jan 2014). "Voluntary recruiting in Britain, 1914-1915". The British Library . Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  4. ↑ "Recruiting [bar charts] Aug-Dec 1914". BEF 1915: Loos and the Kitchener battalions. Great War Forum. 8 January 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2024. I recall late Sep 1914 that the authorities tightened up the requirements in order to put the brakes on recruiting, only to relax it again in Nov 1914, once the backlog had started to clear. The effects can be clearly seen in the daily data (see below). The subtle changes in the recruiting criteria are of great interest. Sadly I only have daily recruiting data for 1914 [within "New Armies: Organisation", archive reference WO 162/3]. Thereafter it becomes monthly.
  5. ↑ "Kitchener Bn men drawn off to fill Regular Bns in 1914". Analysis of 1914 recruiting statistics in WO 162/4. Great War Forum. 11 October 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2024. Peter Simkins comments in "Kitchener's Army" that once K1 had been formed, the SR battalions would be brought up to strength of 2,000 before K2 was formed. This, according to Simkins was decided on 27th Aug 1914. Any further surplus would then be used for the formation of K2... [There was] the realisation that the SR would need far more men in the immediate future than their establishment of 606 ORs.
  6. ↑ Simkins 2007, p. 225.
  7. ↑ Carrington 1978, p. 15-20.
  8. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 14th (Light) Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  9. ↑ Becke 1945 , pp. 133–138
  10. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 30th Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  11. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 31st Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  12. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 32nd Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  13. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 33rd Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  14. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 34th Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  15. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 35th Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Archived from the original on 21 December 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  16. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 36th (Ulster) Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  17. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 37th Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  18. ↑ Baker, Chris. "The 38th (Welsh) Division in 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 17 January 2014.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.