Army Manoeuvres of 1912

Last updated

The Army Manoeuvres of 1912 was the last military exercise of its kind conducted by the British Army before the outbreak of the First World War. (The Army Manoeuvres of 1913 were on a much smaller scale.) In the manoeuvres, Sir James Grierson decisively beat Douglas Haig, calling into question Haig's abilities as a field commander.

Contents

J. E. B. Seely, the Secretary of State for War had invited General Foch, a Russian delegation under Grand Duke Nicholas, and the Ministers for Defence of Canada (Sam Hughes) and South Africa (Jan Smuts). King George V arranged to visit the battlefield.

Scenario

The forces of an imaginary country (Red) had crossed the frontier dividing Red from Britain (Blue) between Wells-next-the-Sea and Hunstanton. Red forces were pushing south as quickly as possible. Blue had ordered a general mobilisation and its prime goal was to stop Red forces entering London: Blue forces were based around Cambridge. Time was of the essence for both sides.

The Chief Umpire was Sir John French, who was based in Cambridge.

Forces

The forces were nearly equal in size. Each consisted of a cavalry division, two infantry divisions, army troops, two aeroplane flights, and an airship. (The airships were Gamma and Delta.) [1]

Red Army

Blue Army

Organisational strength

However, despite the near equality of the forces on paper, the odds were in Haig's favour, as his forces were cohesive, with superior organisation and training, whilst Grierson's were more of a scratch team.

Also as the 'invader' Haig had the initiative.

Progress of the manoeuvres

16 September 1912

The Blue cavalry was pushed forward to the line Gog MagogRivey Hill. Grierson issued orders to his aircraft pilots to locate the enemy which they did within an hour of take-off. At the suggestion of Major Trenchard (who was accompanying one of the pilots), the Blue aircraft were then dispatched to inform the Blue cavalry of the enemy location. The intervention of aircraft handed Grierson the element of surprise and, although the Red forces also employed aircraft, they were unable to regain the initiative. [2] According to his diary, Grierson "stayed in camp all day receiving reports and very soon locating all the lines of march and halting places of the Red forces".

17 September 1912

Blue cavalry advanced to locate the enemy and fought with the 2nd Division near Hundon in Suffolk. The 3rd Division ended the day in position from Reid's Farm to Rivey Hill. The 4th Division concealed itself from aircraft and, after dark, moved through Saffron Walden and camped to the east of it.

18 September 1912

The Blue infantry was ordered to advance to the line HorseheathHelions Bumpstead. The hitherto concealed 4th Division closed up on the right of the 3rd, which had been strung out to represent the main force. The Blue cavalry was ordered to co-operate on the right of the 4th Division and the Territorials to advance from Cambridge to Linton. In the ensuing 'battle', Blue forces won a clear victory, bringing the manoeuvres to a close a day early. Grierson had the 10th Brigade in hand. Although the Red cavalry were somewhere to the rear of the Blue forces, they were not deployed in the battle. Haig was thus defeated in front of his own staff, the King, and the foreign observers.

The Blue forces bivouacked at Linton and Grierson celebrated his victory with champagne.

19 September 1912

At the final conference in Trinity Hall, the King presiding, the opponents were asked to explain their tactics and moves. Grierson was well received. "He looked like victory", said one observer. His speech was confident, lucid, and vigorous.

In contrast, Haig's speech was disastrous. According to John Charteris, he did not read out his written statement, which gave a "clear and convincing account of his views, he did not even refer to it when he spoke but to the dismay of his staff attempted to extemporise. In the effort he became totally unintelligible and unbearably dull. The university dignitaries soon fell asleep, Haig's friends became more and more uncomfortable, only he seemed totally unconscious of his failure."

Warner suggests that the notes Haig made in advance might have been prepared on the assumption that the battle was evenly balanced and would have sounded absurd if used after the result was declared. [3]

Analysis

"Haig was completely out-generalled by Grierson, in spite of the efforts of the umpires and judges to make the contest appear more even.". [3] A major factor, surprising in view of Haig's interest in aircraft, was that Grierson had almost perfect knowledge from air spotting of the movements of Haig's troops, whereas he had hidden his from observation so that Haig never knew where the Blue forces were. In his speech at Trinity Hall, Grierson recounted "I told them to look as like toadstools as they could and to make noises like oysters." [4]

Haig learnt the lessons of the manoeuvres and thenceforth encouraged the development of observer aircraft, and used more aircraft in the 1913 manoeuvres.

Grierson's style also encouraged his staff to take responsibility. Sir Percy Radcliffe recalls that he was sent with an order to throw in the Territorials at a certain point. Seeing there was not time, on his own initiative he threw them in at another with total success.

Anecdotes

Things went wrong for Seely, the Secretary of State for War:

Literature

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig</span> British Field Marshal (1861–1928)

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, the Third Battle of Ypres, the German Spring Offensive, and the Hundred Days Offensive.

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">Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby</span> British Field Marshal (1861–1936)

Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, was a senior British Army officer and Imperial Governor. He fought in the Second Boer War and also in the First World War, in which he led the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the conquest of Palestine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John French, 1st Earl of Ypres</span> British Army general (1852–1925)

Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres,, known as Sir John French from 1901 to 1916, and as The Viscount French between 1916 and 1922, was a senior British Army officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Corps (United Kingdom)</span> Inactive British Army formation

I Corps was an army corps in existence as an active formation in the British Army for most of the 80 years from its creation in the First World War until the end of the Cold War, longer than any other corps. It had a short-lived precursor during the Waterloo Campaign. It served as the operational component of the British Army of the Rhine during the Cold War, and was tasked with defending West Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet</span> British Army officer (1864–1922)

Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Baronet, was one of the most senior British Army staff officers of the First World War and was briefly an Irish unionist politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Horse Guards</span> British Army cavalry regiment

The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horace Smith-Dorrien</span> British Army General (1858–1930)

General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, was a British Army General. One of the few British survivors of the Battle of Isandlwana as a young officer, he also distinguished himself in the Second Boer War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">II Corps (United Kingdom)</span> Military unit

The II Corps was an army corps of the British Army formed in both the First World War and the Second World War. There had also been a short-lived II Corps during the Waterloo Campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd</span> British Army officer who served in the Second Boer War and in the First World War

Field Marshal Sir Archibald Armar Montgomery-Massingberd,, known as Archibald Armar Montgomery until October 1926, was a senior British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) from 1933 to 1936. He served in the Second Boer War and in the First World War, and later was the driving force behind the formation of a permanent "Mobile Division", the fore-runner of the 1st Armoured Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evelyn Wood (British Army officer)</span> British Army officer (1838–1919)

Field Marshal Sir Henry Evelyn Wood, was a British Army officer. After an early career in the Royal Navy, Wood joined the British Army in 1855. He served in several major conflicts including the Indian Mutiny where, as a lieutenant, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour in the face of the enemy that is awarded to British and Imperial forces, for rescuing a local merchant from a band of robbers who had taken their captive into the jungle, where they intended to hang him. Wood further served as a commander in several other conflicts, notably the Third Anglo-Ashanti War, the Anglo-Zulu War, the First Boer War and the Mahdist War. His service in Egypt led to his appointment as Sirdar where he reorganised the Egyptian Army. He returned to Britain to serve as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Aldershot Command from 1889, as Quartermaster-General to the Forces from 1893 and as Adjutant General from 1897. His last appointment was as commander of 2nd Army Corps from 1901 to 1904.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Grierson (British Army officer)</span> British soldier

Lieutenant-General Sir James Moncrieff Grierson, ADC (Gen.) was a British soldier.

The Army Manoeuvres of 1913 was a large exercise held by the British Army in the Midlands in September 1913. Learning from the Army Manoeuvres of 1912, many more spotter aircraft were used. The Manoeuvres highlighted Sir John French's deficiencies as a commander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Snow (British Army officer)</span> British Army general

Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow, was a British Army officer who fought on the Western Front during the First World War. He played an important role in the war, leading the 4th Division in the retreat of August 1914, and commanding VII Corps at the unsuccessful diversion of the Attack on the Gommecourt Salient on the first day on the Somme and at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Alderson</span> British and Canadian First World War general

Lieutenant-General Sir Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson, KCB was a senior British Army officer who served in several campaigns of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From 1915 to 1916 during the First World War he commanded the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, during which time it saw heavy fighting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Expeditionary Force order of battle (1914)</span>

The British Expeditionary Force order of battle 1914, as originally despatched to France in August and September 1914, at the beginning of World War I. The British Army prior to World War I traced its origins to the increasing demands of imperial expansion together with inefficiencies highlighted during the Crimean War, which led to the Cardwell and Childers Reforms of the late 19th century. These gave the British Army its modern shape, and defined its regimental system. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created an Expeditionary force and the Territorial Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haldane Reforms</span> Reforms of the British Army from 1906 to 1912

The Haldane Reforms were a series of far-ranging reforms of the British Army made from 1906 to 1912, and named after the Secretary of State for War, Richard Burdon Haldane. They were the first major reforms since the "Childers Reforms" of the early 1880s, and were made in the light of lessons newly learned in the Second Boer War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldershot Command</span> Former British Army command

Aldershot Command was a Home Command of the British Army.

The 1909 Birthday Honours for the British Empire were announced on 28 June, to celebrate the birthday of Edward VII.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Howell</span> British Army general (1877–1916)

Brigadier-General Philip Howell, was a senior British Army staff officer during the First World War. He was, successively, Brigadier General, General Staff (BGGS) to the Cavalry Corps and then to X Corps. In October 1915 he was posted as BGGS to the British Salonika Army before appointment as BGGS and second-in-command to II Corps, then forming part of the Fifth Army at the Battle of Somme in 1916.

References

  1. British Airships: Past, Present and Future: Chapter IV
  2. Boyle, Andrew (1962). "Chapter 5". Trenchard Man of Vision. St. James's Place London: Collins. pp. 103 to 104.
  3. 1 2 Warner, Philip Field-Marshal Earl Haig (London: Bodley Head, 1991; Cassell, 2001) pp107–109
  4. Reid 2006, p160
  5. Reid 2006, p159