A Social and Military History of the 1/8Th Battalion, The
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A SOCIAL AND MILITARY HISTORY OF THE 1/8TH BATTALION, THE ROYAL WARWICKSHIRE REGIMENT, IN THE GREAT WAR by ROBERT DAVID WILLIAMS B.A. (HONS) A thesis submitted to the School of Historical Studies of The University of Birmingham for the degree of MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Modern History School of Historical Studies The University of Birmingham November 1999 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Contents List of Tables Introduction 1 PART ONE - Development Chapter One “To The Sound of the Rolling Drum” 22 Chapter Two “Warwickshire’s Butchers”: The Battalion in Action from March 1915 to 1 July 1916 44 Live and Let Live 48 Sniping 50 Patrolling and Intelligence Gathering 55 Raiding 59 Battle 63 Chapter Three Orders is Orders 71 PART TWO - Watershed Chapter Four In Pursuit of the Barrage: The Battalion in Action From The Somme to The Piave 93 Drafts 93 Training and Working Parties 96 Patrolling and Raiding 100 Battle 102 Chapter Five “For Conspicuous Gallantry...” 114 Chapter Six A Very Young Army? 133 PART THREE - Fulfilment Chapter Seven “A Very Satisfactory Day”: The Battalion in Action in the Hundred Days 147 Failed Attacks 150 Unopposed Success 152 Limited Gains 153 Opposed Success 154 Chapter Eight At a High Price 165 Conclusion 177 Bibliography List of Tables Table Page 1. Strength of Territorial Force Units in Birmingham, July 1914 28 2. Home Districts of 8th Battalion Men, Birmingham area 39 3. Field General Courts Martial By Battalion 73 4. Field General Courts Martial Over Time 74 5. Gloucestershire Regiment Field General Courts Martial Over Time 76 6. Field General Courts Martial Concerning Men of the 1/8th Battalion 78 7. Conviction Rates, by Rank, for R Warwickshire & Gloucestershire Regiments 82 8. Number of Victoria Crosses Awarded to Regiments 113 9. Honours in the Great War, August 1914 - May 1920 115 10. Honours in the Great War, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment 117 11. A Comparison of Honours in the Great War 117 12. Honours in the Great War, 1/8th Bn., Royal Warwickshire Regiment 119 13. Honours in the Great War, The Battalion Compared to the Regiment 119 14. Average Age at Death, by Year 133 15. Average Age at Death, by Year, 1/8th Battalion 136 16. Average Age at Death, by Battalion, R Warwickshire Regiment 136 17. Monthly Analysis of Age at Death, R Warwickshire Regiment 138 18. Monthly Analysis of Age at Death, Gloucestershire Regiment 139 19. The Fate of the Original Recipients of the 1914 and 1914-15 Stars 166 20. The Pace of Change in the 1/8th Battalion 168 21. Part II Orders, 1/7th Battalion, R Warwickshire Regiment 172 Introduction The Problem This work examines the social and military development of the 1/8th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, in the Great War. It covers the period from the unit’s formation, in 1908, to the end of the war and will embrace both a sociological analysis of the unit’s members and an operational analysis of its tactical evolution. Extensive use has been made of both archival and published sources. The former include letters and diaries held in public collections, as well as the war diaries, medal rolls and service papers held at the Public Record Office (PRO), Kew. Local newspapers have also been widely consulted. One of the major problems in approaching a work such as this has been the validity of studying a single battalion. The battalion was the unit to which its members most closely related. They knew in which battalion they were serving and the names of their senior officers. They may also have known the brigade and division to which their battalion belonged; the relevant corps and army, however, would have meant little to the individual soldier. In truth these latter two were organisations that existed mainly on paper; in reality, they amounted to little more than a commander and his, surprisingly small, staff. Armies and corps held a portion of the front line with a degree of permanency. Divisions were rotated 1 into, and out of, these formations with regularity. Divisions and brigades of the Territorial Force were built upon regional allegiances, many of them predating the formation of the force itself. There were links between many of the battalions within a division and there was a pride in the achievements of those units. By the summer of 1916 many men began wearing divisional badges, thereby increasing their knowledge and pride. The division was the basic fighting unit in the Great War. It had its own infantry, artillery, engineers, cavalry, pioneers, medical units and supply organisation. The brigade was an intermediate level of command that created flexibility and relief. In action, units fought as part of a division. The battalion was simply a part of the division; its importance was never more than simply being a part of the division. Battalions of various brigades could fight side by side, or one brigade could support another of a different division. Battalions could be split, by company, some fighting, some resting, some supporting another battalion or brigade. The permutations were endless. This leaves the study of the battalion in a precarious position. Is the fighting efficiency of the battalion being studied, or is it a part of a division? At the start of the war whole battalions, four rifle companies supported by two machine-guns, could, and would, be committed to attack or defence. During the course of the war the army, and with it, the battalion, evolved considerably. 2 The number of men in a battalion was reduced; specialists were posted into machine-gun companies and trench mortar batteries; others became bombers, rifle grenadiers or Lewis gunners. Increasingly, the battalion as a whole became less important, tactically, as the importance of the company and platoon increased. The firepower available to a company, or platoon, commander in 1918 far outweighed that of the battalion commander of 1914. One point needs emphasising at this stage. The infantry did not fight the war alone. Most importantly, from a tactical point of view, was the artillery. During the course of the war the Royal Artillery increased in size to such an extent that, in 1918, there were as many officers in the corps as there had been in the whole of the Army of 1914. They served a number of guns and fired a quantity of shells that were unimaginable to the army of 1914. The artillery’s technical prowess progressed to the point that, in 1918, it was a highly efficient and professional, killing machine. Technological advances, wedded to professional development allowed the artillery to deliver the infantry safely onto a dazed enemy without rendering useless, or impassable, the enemy’s positions. Any study of the infantry, in isolation, does not give the deserved attention to the role of the artillery. The problem, therefore, is one of scale and degree. Whilst the men were part of a battalion and, no doubt, took pride in it, when they were deployed in 3 action it was a different story. Increasingly they were scattered, used in smaller packets, separated in time and distance from their colleagues. On balance, the justification for the study of a single battalion lies in the fact that, no matter how well planned an operation, no matter how well supported, the crucial moment of attack depended upon the discipline of the members of the battalion. A poor battalion could ruin the best of plans. A good battalion could rescue a weak plan. It may well be that the ability of the men to perform, and to do so successfully, under such conditions is a more fitting testimony to the ability and esprit-de-corps of the battalion as a whole. Archive Sources Crucial to this work has been an examination of war diaries, from corps level to the battalion, held in the PRO, in class WO/95. All of them suffer from the same, inherent, problem. The purpose of the war diary was, firstly, to record the work of the unit on a day-to-day basis and, secondly, to record matters of intelligence. Compilation of the war diary was the responsibility of the adjutant. At the start of the war the adjutant was a senior officer, often the most senior captain. In a Territorial battalion the adjutant was an attached, regular, officer. Remarkably quickly, that responsibility frequently fell to a junior subaltern.1 1 Prior to the war Captain G.C. Sladen, The Rifle Brigade, was adjutant to the Battalion. By the summer of 1916 Second Lieutenant S.H. Anstey held the post. He had only been commissioned from the ranks in January 1916. 4 Each adjutant approached the task differently. Some recorded everything, others very little. When units were busy the war diary was often left to one side, to be completed later. When casualties were high there was, very often, more important work to be done and so the war diary was again left. More significantly, high casualties often meant there was no one in a position to provide the necessary information. War diaries are, therefore, an unknown quantity, ranging in quality from a veritable gold mine to a turgid listing of postings.