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99-716: The Second Army was part of the British Army formed on 26 December 1914, when the British Expeditionary Force was split in two due to becoming too big to control its subordinate formations. The army controlled both III Corps and IV Corps . Second Army spent most of the war positioned around the Ypres salient, but was redeployed to Italy as part of the Italian Expeditionary Force between November 1917 and March 1918. In 1919 it

198-455: A force that was maintained on a part-time basis in peacetime, ready to be embodied upon the outbreak of hostilities. From the 1870s, the Yeomanry, Militia, and Volunteer Force regiments and corps mostly lost their unique identities, becoming numbered battalions or companies within regiments that included regular and reserve force units. Although the separate reserve forces continued to exist,

297-480: A high allocation of artillery compared to foreign cavalry divisions, with 24 13-pounder guns organised into two brigades and two machine guns for each regiment. When dismounted, the cavalry division was the equivalent of two weakened infantry brigades with less artillery than the infantry division. By 1916, there were five cavalry divisions, each of three brigades, serving in France, the 1st , 2nd , 3rd divisions in

396-698: A holding phase. Whilst it pinned down the German forces facing it, the Canadian First Army and US Ninth Army made a pincer movement from north and south (Operations Veritable and Grenade ) which pierced the Siegfried Line in that area and cleared the remaining German forces west of the Rhine in conjunction with further American offensives in the south of the Rhineland . Second Army crossed

495-477: A machine-gun section (two machine-guns). In August 1914 it included 30 officers and 977 other ranks. It had 25 carts and wagons, including 4 field kitchens . The single cavalry division assigned to the BEF in 1914 consisted of 15 cavalry regiments in five brigades. They were armed with rifles, unlike their French and German counterparts, who were only armed with the shorter range carbine . The cavalry division also had

594-645: A mounted infantry detachment in the Second Boer war, where he started to build his reputation. He held command of the Ypres salient for three years and gained an overwhelming victory over the German Army at the battle of Messines in 1917. Plumer is generally recognised as one of the most effective of the senior British commanders on the Western Front. In 1914, General Edmund Allenby was commander of

693-677: A period of service as with the Regular Army and militia, and could no longer resign during peacetime with fourteen days notice). At the same time, the Militia (in the British Isles) was re-organised as the Special Reserve , which still fielded units for home defence but otherwise functioned as a trained reserve from which personnel could be transferred to reinforce regular battalions and companies liable to serve anywhere. By

792-409: A register that was maintained by Territorial Force County Associations; these men had military experience, but no other reserve obligation, and only some 60,000 were classified as willing or able to serve an active role at home or abroad. The regulars and reserves—at least on paper—totalled a mobilised force of almost 700,000 men, although only 150,000 men were immediately available to be formed into

891-560: A result, staff work was again poor, until training and experience slowly remedied the situation. In 1918, staff officers who had been trained exclusively for static trench warfare were forced to adapt to the demands of semi-open warfare. During the course of the war, 78 British and Dominion officers of the rank of brigadier-general and above were killed or died during active service, while another 146 were wounded, gassed, or captured. British official historian Brigadier James Edward Edmonds , in 1925, recorded that "The British Army of 1914

990-576: A total of 324 such weapons in the division. Additionally, there was a divisional machine gun battalion, equipped with 64 Vickers machine guns in four companies of 16 guns. Each brigade in the division also had a mortar battery with eight Stokes Mortars . The artillery also changed the composition of its batteries. At the start of the war, there were three batteries with six guns per brigade; they then moved to four batteries with four guns per brigade, and finally in 1917, to four batteries with six guns per brigade to economise on battery commanders. In this way,

1089-544: A week (17.5  pence ) worth about £70 per week in 2013 terms, and had to attend 12 training days per year. The Special Reserve had another 64,000 men and was a form of part-time soldiering, similar to the Territorial Force. A Special Reservist had an initial six months full-time training and was paid the same as a regular soldier during this period; they had three or four weeks training per year thereafter. The National Reserve had some 215,000 men, who were on

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1188-613: The 7th Division arrived in France, forming the basis of the British III Corps ; the cavalry had grown into its own corps of three divisions. By December 1914, the BEF had expanded, fielding five army corps divided between the First and the Second Armies . As the Regular Army's strength declined, the numbers were made up— first by the Territorial Force, then by the volunteers of Field Marshal Kitchener's New Army . By

1287-902: The Australian Corps , an appointment requiring a combination of tact and tactical flair. On the Macedonian front , General George Milne commanded the British Salonika Army , and General Ian Hamilton commanded the ill-fated MEF during the Gallipoli Campaign . He had previously seen service in the First Boer War , the Sudan campaign, and the Second Boer War. Back in Britain, Chief of

1386-528: The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that was sent to the continent. This consisted of six infantry divisions and one of cavalry. By contrast, the French Army in 1914 mobilised 1,650,000 troops and 62 infantry divisions, while the German Army mobilised 1,850,000 troops and 87 infantry divisions. Britain, therefore, began the war with six regular and fourteen territorial infantry divisions. During

1485-655: The British IV Corps in 1914 and then command of the Fourth Army in 1916, as the plans for the Allied offensive on the Somme were being developed. During the war, Rawlinson was noted for his willingness to use innovative tactics , which he employed during the battle of Amiens , where he combined attacks by tanks with artillery. General Hubert Gough commanded a mounted infantry regiment with distinction during

1584-709: The Cavalry Corps and the 1st and 2nd Indian Cavalry Divisions in the Indian Cavalry Corps , each brigade in the Indian cavalry corps contained a British cavalry regiment. Over the course of the war, the composition of the infantry division gradually changed, and there was an increased emphasis on providing the infantry divisions with organic fire support . By 1918, a British division consisted of three infantry brigades, each of three battalions. Each of these battalions had 36 Lewis machine guns , making

1683-773: The Channel Islands ) parts of the British Army. As the various forces became increasingly integrated, the professional force was generally distinguished from the reserve forces by referring to it as the Regular Army or Regular Force . In 1908, the Yeomanry and Volunteer Force in the British Isles were merged to create the Territorial Force , which ceased to be voluntary (i.e., it continued to be voluntarily recruited, but recruits engaged for

1782-745: The Crimean War and the Second Boer War had led to sweeping changes under Haldane. The Staff College, Camberley was greatly expanded and Lord Kitchener established another one, the Staff College at Quetta for Indian Army officers in 1904. Nonetheless, when war broke out in August 1914, there were barely enough graduates to staff the BEF. Four-month-long staff courses were introduced, and filled with regimental officers who, upon completing their training, were posted to various headquarters. As

1881-555: The Fourth Army and the Reserve Army , which became the Fifth Army were formed in 1916. In August 1914, 300,000 men had signed up to fight, and another 450,000 had joined-up by the end of September. A prominent feature of the early months of volunteering was the formation of Pals battalions . These were men who had lived and worked together, and who as an incentive to recruitment were allowed to train together and serve in

1980-542: The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) had four regular battalions, two of which served overseas. Almost half of the regular army (74 of the 157 infantry battalions and 12 of the 31 cavalry regiments), was stationed overseas in garrisons throughout the British Empire. The Royal Flying Corps was part of the British Army until 1918. At the outbreak of the war, it consisted of 84 aircraft. The regular army

2079-464: The Siege of Tsingtao . The war also posed problems for the army commanders, given that, prior to 1914, the largest formation any serving General in the BEF had commanded on operations was a division. The expansion of the British Army saw some officers promoted from brigade to corps commander in less than a year. Army commanders also had to cope with the new tactics and weapons that were developed. With

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2178-658: The U.S. Ninth Army was unable to advance across the Roer during Operation Queen , because German forces controlled dams close to the river's source in the densely forested region of the Hohes Venn. This meant Axis forces could potentially blow the dams, releasing enough water to wash out an Allied assault. At the same time, the German Ardennes Offensive meant any further westward push would leave Allied forces stretched and supply lines exposed. Eventually

2277-570: The Zulu War in 1879 and was one of only five officers to survive the battle of Isandlwana . He had built a formidable reputation as an infantry commander during the Sudan Campaign and the Second Boer War. After the Second Boer War, he was responsible for a number of reforms, notably forcing an increase in dismounted training for the cavalry. This was met with hostility by French (as a cavalryman). By 1914, French's dislike for Smith-Dorrien

2376-606: The battle of Loos . In May 1916, he was appointed commander of the Fifth Army, which suffered heavy losses at the battle of Passchendaele. The collapse of the Fifth Army was widely viewed as the reason for the German breakthrough in the Spring Offensive , and Gough was dismissed as its commander in March 1918, being succeeded by General William Birdwood for the last months of the war. Birdwood had previously commanded

2475-591: The regimental system, which had been defined by the Cardwell and Childers Reforms of the late 19th century. The British Army had been prepared and primarily called upon for Empire matters and the ensuing colonial wars . In the last years of the 19th century, the Army was involved in a major conflict, the Second Boer War (1899–1902), which highlighted shortcomings in its tactics, leadership and administration. The 1904 Esher Report recommended radical reform, such as

2574-629: The relief of Ladysmith , but his command was destroyed while attacking a larger Boer force in 1901. When he joined the BEF, he was in command of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, and was promoted from a brigade to a corps command in less than a year. He was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division in September 1914, the 7th Division in April 1915, and the British I Corps in July 1915. He commanded I Corps during

2673-611: The 1870s) and by Commanders-in-Chief in British colonies (an appointment normally filled by the civil Governor of the colony). The Militia was originally composed of locally funded, local-service infantry regiments. The Yeomanry was made up of cavalry regiments. The Volunteer Force was primarily made-up of infantry regiments, originally raised only for the duration of hostilities. These reserve forces were for local (home defence) service, and their personnel could not be compelled to serve overseas. They were also separate forces, auxiliary to

2772-402: The 1st Battalion Black Watch recorded 184 marksmen, 263 first-class shots, 89-second-class shots and four third-class shots, at ranges from 300–600 yd (270–550 m). The infantry also practised squad and section attacks and fire from cover, often without orders from officers or NCOs , so that soldiers would be able to act on their own initiative. In the last exercise before the war, it

2871-750: The Allied push towards Germany at the end of the Second World War . A fortified area known as the Roer Triangle , formed by the towns of Roermond and Sittard , in the Netherlands , and Heinsberg in Germany , was the scene of heavy fighting at the beginning of 1945. Operation Blackcock was the code name for the clearing of the Roer Triangle. It was conducted by the 2nd British Army between 14 and 26 January 1945. The objective

2970-575: The Army when the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), was founded. The WAAC was divided into four sections: cookery; mechanical; clerical and miscellaneous. Most stayed on the Home Front, but around 9,000 served in France. In 1914, no serving British officer of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had controlled a formation larger than a division on active operations. The first Commander in Chief of

3069-403: The BEF appointed in August 1914 was Field Marshal John French . His last active command had been the cavalry division in the Second Boer War. The commander of the British I Corps in 1914 was Douglas Haig . French had remarked in 1912 that Haig would be better suited to a position on the staff than a field command. Like French, Haig was a cavalryman. His last active command had been during

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3168-470: The Board, involved with stores, transport, barracks, and other areas of support, were also absorbed into the British Army and militarised. From the 1850s, the Militia was re-organised from a conscripted to a voluntary force, with some of its infantry regiments converting to other roles while new units were also raised from the outset as artillery or engineers. The Volunteer Force was also re-instated from 1859 as

3267-545: The British Army and Ordnance Military Corps. After the 1859 organisation of the British Army's Regular Reserve , the Reserve Forces were generally referred to as Local Forces or Auxiliary Forces to avoid confusion. Following the 1853-1856 Crimean War , the Board of Ordnance was abolished and the Ordnance Military Corps absorbed into the British Army. Various previously-civilian departments of

3366-937: The British Army fought in the main theatre of war on the Western Front in France and Belgium against the German Empire . Some units were engaged in Italy and Salonika against Austria-Hungary and the Bulgarian Army , while other units fought in the Middle East , Africa and Mesopotamia —mainly against the Ottoman Empire —and one battalion fought alongside the Japanese Army in China during

3465-527: The British Army was considerably smaller than its French and German counterparts. During the First World War , there were four distinct British armies. The first comprised approximately 247,000 soldiers of the regular army , over half of whom were posted overseas to garrison the British Empire , supported by some 21 reserves and a potential 60,000 additional reserves. This component formed

3564-478: The British Army, of which 12,738 were regular officers, the rest were in the reserves. The number of officers in the army had increased to 164,255 by November 1918. These were survivors among the 247,061 officers who had been granted a commission during the war. Most pre-war officers came from families with military connections, the gentry or the peerage ; a public school education was almost essential. In 1913, about 2% of regular officers had been promoted from

3663-737: The Cavalry Corps. He was sent to the Dardanelles in August 1915, to command the British IX Corps . He planned the highly successful evacuation of 105,000 Allied troops and the majority of the equipment of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF). The withdrawal was successfully completed in January 1916, without the loss of a single man. Byng had already returned to the western front, where he

3762-691: The Cavalry Division and later the Cavalry Corps in the BEF. His leadership was noted during the retreat from Mons and the first battle of Ypres . After commanding an infantry corps, he was appointed to command the Third Army on the western front. He had previously served in the Zulu War, the Sudan campaign, and the Second Boer war. In 1917, he was given command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force , where he oversaw

3861-411: The First World War, the British military forces (i.e., those raised in British territory, whether in the British Isles or colonies, and also those raised in the Channel Islands, but not the British Indian Army , the military forces of the Dominions , or those of British protectorates ) was still a complex of organisations, and not strictly a single force under a single administration. What is connoted by

3960-425: The General Staff, especially in the early days, when many former senior officers were recalled from retirement. Some of these were found wanting, due to their advanced age, their unwillingness to serve, or a lack of competence and fitness; most were sent back into retirement before the first year of the war was over, leaving a gap that had to be filled by lower-ranking officers. Criticism of the quality of staff work in

4059-428: The Germans believed they were facing huge numbers of machine guns. The Army concentrated on rifle practice, with days spent on the ranges dedicated to improving marksmanship and obtaining a rate of fire of 15 effective rounds a minute at 300 yd (270 m); one sergeant set a record of 38 rounds into a 12 in (300 mm) target set at 300 yd (270 m) in 30 seconds. In their 1914 skill-at-arms meeting,

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4158-456: The Imperial General Staff (CIGS), effectively the professional head of the British Army, was General James Murray , who retained that post during the early years of the war. He was replaced as CIGS for a brief period in late 1915 by Archibald Murray then, at the end of 1915 by General William Robertson . A strong supporter of Haig, Robertson was replaced in 1918, by General Henry Hughes Wilson . In August 1914, there were 28,060 officers in

4257-412: The Netherlands, in order to allow Second Army's XXX Corps to cross the Rhine and advance into Germany , relieving the parachute troops en route. However, the single road XXX Corps had to traverse caused enormous logistical difficulties and, combined with German counterattacks, the operation failed resulting in the loss of much of the 1st Airborne Division during the Battle of Arnhem . Second Army spent

4356-433: The Rhine on 23 March in an attack codenamed Operation Plunder . It then headed across the North German Plain towards Osnabrück , with the First Canadian Army on its left wheeling to clear the north of the Netherlands and the area of Lower Saxony west of Oldenburg . The US Ninth Army on its right turned south-east towards Lippstadt to trap the German Army Group B , under General Walter Model , in an enormous pocket in

4455-401: The Roer are Monschau, Heimbach , Nideggen , Düren , Jülich , Linnich , Hückelhoven , Heinsberg (all in Germany) and Roermond (Netherlands). In the 1960s and 1970s, the northern part of the Roer was heavily polluted by the tailings of many German coal mines. Neither fish nor other organisms could be found, and it was dangerous to swim in the river. Foam flakes regularly flooded parts of

4554-410: The Ruhr . With Army Group B trapped, the last major German formation in the west had been neutralized. Second Army reached the Weser on 4 April, the Elbe on 19 April, the shore of the Baltic Sea at Lübeck on 2 May. On 3 May, Hamburg capitulated. By 7 May the Soviet Army had met up with the British forces. Shortly thereafter, the Second World War in Europe came to an end with the surrender of

4653-504: The Second Boer War, first as a senior staff officer in the cavalry division, then commanding a brigade-sized group of columns. The first commander of the British II Corps was Lieutenant General James Grierson , a noted tactician who died of a heart attack soon after arriving in France. French wished to appoint Lieutenant General Herbert Plumer in his place, but against French's wishes, Kitchener instead appointed Lieutenant General Horace Smith-Dorrien , who had begun his military career in

4752-423: The administration and funding of those in the British Isles was taken over in the 1870s by the War Office. As any military unit, whether moveable or local-service, however it was organised and administered, that received War Office funds was designated part of the British Army, this made the reserve forces in the British Isles (as well as reserve units in the Imperial fortress colonies and the Crown Dependencies of

4851-452: The army would change drastically over the course of the war, reacting to the various developments, from the mobile war fought in the opening weeks to the static trench warfare of 1916 and 1917. The cavalry of the BEF represented 9.28% of the army; by July 1918, it would only represent 1.65%. The infantry would decrease from 64.64% in 1914 to 51.25% of the army in 1918, while the Royal Engineers would increase from 5.91% to 11.24% in 1918. Under

4950-425: The army, unless they were married (or widowed with children), or served in one of a number of reserved occupations , which were usually industrial but which also included clergymen and teachers. This legislation did not apply to Ireland, despite its then status as part of the United Kingdom (but see Conscription Crisis of 1918 ). Conscription was extended to married men in May 1916. By January 1916, when conscription

5049-455: The average age for a battalion commanding officer in the BEF between 1917 and 1918 was 28. By this stage, it was official policy that men over 35 were no longer eligible to command battalions. This trend was reflected amongst the junior officers. Anthony Eden was the Adjutant of a battalion when aged 18, and served as the brigade major in the 198th Brigade while still only aged 20. The war also provided opportunities for advancement onto

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5148-417: The backbone of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), which was formed for service in France and became known as the Old Contemptibles . The second army was provided by the approximately 246,000-strong Territorial Force , initially allocated to home defence but used to reinforce the BEF after the regular army suffered heavy losses in the opening battles of the war. The third army was Kitchener's Army , which

5247-461: The city of Roermond. After the closure of the mines, the waste water treatment in Germany and the Netherlands greatly improved. Only the lower part of the river is still contaminated. The water in the upper part of the river is so clean that trout and more than 30 species of fish are back. After an absence of 125 years, salmon returned to the Roer in 2004. The Roer is the only real white water river in North Rhine-Westphalia. The upper section above

5346-408: The conquest of Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918. Allenby replaced Archibald Murray , who had been the Chief of Staff of the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1914. Allenby was replaced as Third Army commander by General Julian Byng , who began the war as commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division . After performing well during the First Battle of Ypres, he succeeded Allenby in command of

5445-411: The control of the Board of Ordnance (which also controlled various civilian-staffed departments concerned with commissariat and ordnance stores, transport and other roles supporting the military forces). The reserve forces included the Militia (or Constitutional Force ), Yeomanry , and Volunteer Force , controlled (in the 19th century) by Lord-Lieutenants in counties of the British Isles (up 'til

5544-552: The counteroffensive was overwhelmed and German engineers, under pressure of aerial and artillery bombardment, released the dams. As the flood waters began to subside, Allied forces crossed the Rur in rafts in the early hours of February 23, 1945, as part of Operation Grenade . The Roer rises in the High Fens , near the 696-metre (2,283 ft) high Signal de Botrange in Belgium at an elevation of 660 metres (2,170 ft) above sea level. South of Monschau it flows into Germany, through North Rhine-Westphalia . It flows first through

5643-427: The creation of an Army Council, a General Staff, the abolition of the office of Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, and the creation of a Chief of the General Staff . The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created an Expeditionary Force of seven divisions (one cavalry, six infantry), reorganised the volunteers into a new Territorial Force of fourteen cavalry brigades and fourteen infantry divisions, and changed

5742-408: The decision was made at the General Staff Conference that dismounted cavalry should be taught infantry tactics in attack and defence. They were the only cavalry from a major European power trained for both the mounted cavalry charge and dismounted action, and equipped with the same rifles as the infantry, rather than short-range carbines . The cavalry were also issued with entrenching tools prior to

5841-414: The end of August 1914, he had raised six new divisions; by March 1915, the number of divisions had increased to 29. The Territorial Force was also expanded, raising second and third battalions and forming eight new divisions, which supplemented its peacetime strength of 14 divisions. The Third Army was formed in July 1915 and with the influx of troops from Kitchener's volunteers and further reorganisation,

5940-405: The end of July, American forces had broken out of Normandy. As they swept east, the German Seventh Army was pinned by the Second Army and trapped in pockets around Falaise . The German formation was subsequently annihilated during the battle of the Falaise pocket . The Second Army then commenced a dash across France in parallel with the Americans on its right, and the Canadians on its left. During

6039-487: The end of the conflict substantially decreased the strength of the British Army, from its peak strength of 3,820,000 men in 1918 to 370,000 men by 1920. The British Army was created after the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland unified under the Acts of Union 1707 , and the Scottish Army was effectively absorbed into the English Army . It was one of several regular and reserve military forces (i.e., land armed forces, as distinct from naval forces), and until

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6138-420: The front lines in 1917-18 had volunteered earlier in the war), and that despite the recent lowering of the age limit for service on the Western Front from nineteen to eighteen-and-a-half, the average age of the dead was still in the mid-twenties. Alison Hine comments that although incompleteness of records makes it hard to say whether these dead men were a representative sample of the BEF as a whole, assertions that

6237-417: The government of Karl Dönitz , who had succeeded Adolf Hitler after his suicide. British Army during World War I The British Army during the First World War fought the largest and most costly war in its long history . Unlike the French and German Armies , the British Army was made up exclusively of volunteers—as opposed to conscripts —at the beginning of the conflict. Furthermore,

6336-421: The interim, I Corps was transferred from Second Army's control, and assigned to the First Canadian Army . Due to the heavy casualties sustained by the army during the Normandy campaign, the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division was disbanded in August 1944 to make up for the infantry deficit. Second Army entered Belgium quickly, and cleared much of the country. Its captures included the capital Brussels and

6435-414: The late-war BEF consisted largely of conscripted "boys" should therefore be treated with caution. Furthermore, although there were certainly many cases of men being sent to regiments from parts of the country other than their own, many battalions were still filled with men from their traditional local areas, the same as earlier in the war. Caution therefore should be employed before accepting claims that there

6534-400: The latter half of the 19th century, it included only regular (i.e., professional ) cavalry and infantry units administered (by the 19th century) by the War Office under the Secretary of State for War . However, the Royal Artillery , officer-only Royal Engineers , and Royal Sappers and Miners (officered by the Royal Engineers) were organised separately as the Ordnance Military Corps, under

6633-480: The line and the Rifle Brigade (despite its name, this was an infantry regiment), 31 cavalry regiments, artillery and other support arms. Most of the line infantry regiments had two regular battalions, one of which served at home and provided drafts and replacements to the other which was stationed overseas, while also being prepared to be part of the Expeditionary Force – the Royal Fusiliers , Worcestershire Regiment , Middlesex Regiment , King's Royal Rifle Corps and

6732-425: The line during late June to add its weight to the assault; in particular for the launching of Operation Epsom . The main British objective during the early stages of the campaign was to capture the French city of Caen , the so-called Battle for Caen . However, due to various factors the city was not captured until mid-July during Operation Atlantic , conducted by Canadian troops under the command of Second Army. By

6831-445: The move from manoeuvre to trench warfare , both the infantry and the artillery had to learn how to work together. During an offensive, and when in defence, they learned how to combine forces to defend the front line. Later in the war, when the Machine Gun Corps and the Tank Corps were added to the order of battle , they were also included in the new tactical doctrine. The men at the front had to struggle with supply problems–there

6930-423: The northern part of the Eifel mountains. After 39 kilometres (24 mi) it reaches the Roer Reservoir , the second-largest artificial lake in Germany. After approximately 160 kilometres (99 mi) it flows into the Netherlands, and at its 170-kilometre (110 mi) mark it flows into the river Meuse in the city of Roermond . Major tributaries of the Roer include the Inde and the Wurm . The towns along

7029-405: The old militia into the Special Reserve to reinforce the expeditionary force. At the outbreak of the war in August 1914, the British regular army was a small professional force. It consisted of 247,432 regular troops organised in four regiments of Guards ( Grenadier , with 3 Battalions ; Coldstream , with 3 Battalions; Scots , with 2 Battalions; Irish with 1 Battalion), 68 regiments of

7128-453: The outbreak of war, as a result of experience gained during the Second Boer War. The infantry's marksmanship, and fire and movement techniques, had been inspired by Boer tactics and was established as formal doctrine by Colonel Charles Monro when he was in charge of the School of Musketry at Hythe . In 1914, British rifle fire was so effective that there were some reports to the effect that

7227-409: The port city of Antwerp . Second Army's highest profile operation in 1944, apart from Operation Overlord, was providing the main force for Operation Market Garden . During the operation, American ( 82nd and 101st ), British ( 1st ) and Polish ( 1st Polish Parachute Brigade ) airborne troops , outside the control of Second Army, were landed to capture vital bridges over several rivers in the east of

7326-439: The ranks for the duration of the war alone. In September 1914, Lord Kitchener announced that he was looking for volunteers and regular NCOs to provide officers for the expanding army. Most of the volunteers came from the middle class, with the largest group from commercial and clerical occupations (27%), followed by teachers and students (18%) and professional men (15%). In March 1915, it was discovered that 12,290 men serving in

7425-437: The ranks had been members of a university or public school Officers' Training Corps (OTC). Most applied for and were granted commissions, while others who did not apply were also commissioned. Direct commissioning largely ceased early in 1916, from then most new officers had served in the ranks first, even if in a unit of potential officers. Once a candidate was selected as an officer, promotion could be rapid. A. S. Smeltzer

7524-429: The ranks. The officer corps, during the war, consisted of regular officers from the peacetime army, officers who had been granted permanent commissions during the war, officers who had been granted temporary commissions for the duration of the war, territorial army officers commissioned during peacetime, officers commissioned from the ranks of the pre-war regular and territorial army and temporary officers commissioned from

7623-576: The rest of 1944 exploiting the salient in the German line that it had created during Operation Market Garden, to advance on the Rhine and Meuse rivers in the Netherlands . The final part of this advance took place in mid-January 1945, with the clearing of the Roermond Triangle (codename Operation Blackcock ) by XII and VIII Corps. This enabled the completion of the advance on the River Roer . During February, 1945, Second Army entered

7722-913: The river's course is in Germany. It is not to be confused with the rivers Ruhr and Röhr , which are tributaries of the Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia. During the Middle Ages the valley of the Roer lay mostly within the Duchy of Jülich . In 1795, until 1814, during which time the area was part of the French Republic and Empire , it gave its name to the French département of the Roer . The Roer represented an important front in

7821-492: The same units. The policy ensured that, when the Pals battalions suffered casualties, whole communities back in Britain were to suffer disproportionate losses. With the introduction of conscription in January 1916, no further Pals battalions were raised. Conscription for single men was introduced in January 1916. The Military Service Act 1916 specified that men from the ages of 18 to 41 were liable to be called up for service in

7920-462: The term "British Army" , consequently, is subject to the context, although in its narrowest, official definition it referred only to those military corps which were wholly or partly-funded out of Army Funds by the War Office. The British Army during World War I could trace its organisation to the increasing demands of imperial expansion. The framework was the voluntary system of recruitment and

8019-636: The terms of the Entente Cordiale , the British Army's role in a European war was to embark soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), which consisted of six infantry divisions and five cavalry brigades that were arranged into two Army corps : I Corps , under the command of Douglas Haig , and II Corps , under the command of Horace Smith-Dorrien . At the outset of the conflict, the British Indian Army

8118-418: The use of artillery to support the attack, flank and converging attacks and fire and movement. The Army expected units to advance as far as possible in a firing line without opening fire, both to conceal their positions and conserve ammunition, then to attack in successive waves, closing with the enemy decisively. The cavalry practised reconnaissance and fighting dismounted more regularly, and in January 1910,

8217-964: The war, a further six regular, 14 Territorial, 36 Kitchener's Army and six other divisions, including the Naval Division from the Royal Navy were formed. In 1914, each British infantry division consisted of three infantry brigades, each of four battalions, with two machine guns per battalion, (24 in the division). They also had three field artillery brigades with fifty-four 18-pounder guns , one field howitzer brigade with eighteen 4.5 in (110 mm) howitzers , one heavy artillery battery with four 60-pounder guns , two engineer field companies, one royal engineer signals company, one cavalry squadron, one cyclist company, three field ambulances, four Army Service Corps horse-drawn transport companies and divisional headquarters support detachments. A British infantry battalion had 4 companies and

8316-788: Was a deliberate attempt to "destroy the Regiment … and nationalise the Army" (e.g. by Dunn in The War The Infantry Knew (1938)). Women also volunteered and served in a non-combatant role; by the end of the war, 80,000 had enlisted. They mostly served as nurses in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD); and from 1917, in

8415-481: Was a shortage of food; and disease was rife in the damp, rat-infested conditions. Along with enemy action, many soldiers had to contend with new diseases: trench foot , trench fever and trench nephritis . When the war ended in November 1918 , British Army casualties, as the result of enemy action and disease, were recorded as 673,375 killed and missing , with another 1,643,469 wounded . The rush to demobilise at

8514-561: Was called upon for assistance; in August 1914, 20 percent of the 9,610 British officers initially sent to France were from the Indian army, while 16 percent of the 76,450 other ranks came from the British Indian Army. By the end of 1914 (after the battles of Mons , Le Cateau , the Aisne and Ypres ), the old regular British Army had been virtually wiped out; although it managed to stop the German advance. In October 1914,

8613-416: Was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1915, after serving in the Regular Army for 15 years. He rose in rank, and by the spring of 1917 had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and was commanding officer of the 6th Battalion, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment). Along with rapid promotion, the war also noticeably lowered the age of battalion commanding officers. In 1914, they were aged over 50, while

8712-533: Was composed of men who answered Lord Kitchener's call for volunteers in 1914–1915 and went into action at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The fourth army was the reinforcement of existing formations with conscripts after the introduction of compulsory service in January 1916. By the end of 1918, the British Army had reached its maximum strength of 3,820,000 men and could field over 70 divisions . The vast majority of

8811-557: Was given command of the Canadian Corps . His most notable battle was the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917, which was carried out by the Canadian Corps with British support. General Henry Rawlinson served on Kitchener's staff during the advance on Omdurman , in 1898, and served with distinction in the Second Boer War, where he earned a reputation as one of the most able British commanders. Rawlinson took command of

8910-469: Was introduced, 2.6 million men had volunteered for service, a further 2.3 million were conscripted before the end of the war; by the end of 1918, the army had reached its peak strength of four million men. Analysis of death records from the Hundred Days (August - November 1918) suggests that around 60% of those who died were conscripts (many of the men "combed out" from rear echelon jobs and posted to

9009-613: Was noted that the "infantry made wonderful use of ground, advances in short rushes and always at the double and almost invariably fires from a prone position". The British Army was armed with the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield Mk III (SMLE Mk III), which featured a bolt-action and large magazine capacity that enabled a trained rifleman to fire 20–30 aimed rounds a minute. First World War accounts tell of British troops repelling German attackers, who subsequently reported that they had encountered machine guns, when in fact, it

9108-499: Was outlined in the Field Service Pocket Book , which Haig had introduced while serving as Director of Staff Studies at the War Office in 1906. The Second Boer War had alerted the army to the dangers posed by fire zones that were covered by long-range, magazine-fed rifles . In the place of volley firing and frontal attacks , there was a greater emphasis on advancing in extended order, the use of available cover,

9207-548: Was reconstituted as the British Army of the Rhine . The formation was commanded by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey and served under the 21st Army Group . Two of its formations, I Corps (also containing Canadian units) and XXX Corps took part in Operation Neptune, the 6 June D-Day landings that commenced Operation Overlord , with its remaining units coming ashore during the remainder of Overlord's Normandy campaign. The third corps to land, VIII Corps , entered

9306-494: Was simply a group of trained riflemen armed with SMLEs. River Roer The Roer ( Dutch: [ruːr] , Limburgish: [ʀuːʀ˦] ) or Rur ( German: [ʁuːɐ̯] ; French: Rour [ʁuʁ] ) is a major river that flows through portions of Belgium , Germany and the Netherlands . It is a right (eastern) tributary to the Meuse (Dutch: Maas ). About 90 percent of

9405-582: Was succeeded in command of the First Army by General Charles Carmichael Monro , who in turn was succeeded by General Henry Horne in September 1916, the only officer with an artillery background to command a British army during the war. General Plumer was eventually appointed to command II Corps in December 1914, and succeeded Smith-Dorrien in command of the Second Army in 1915. He had commanded

9504-419: Was supported by the Territorial Force , which numbered some 246,000 men in September 1913 and, on the outbreak of war, was deployed in home defence . In August 1914, there were three forms of reserves. The Army Reserve comprised soldiers who had completed their colour service, and had joined the reserve upon returning to civilian life; it was 145,347 strong. They were paid 3  Shillings and 6 pence

9603-561: Was the best trained, best equipped and best organized British Army ever sent to war". This was in part due to the Haldane reforms , and the Army itself recognising the need for change and training. Training began with individual training in winter, followed by squadron, company or battery training in spring; regimental, battalion and brigade training in summer; and division or inter-divisional exercises and army manoeuvres in late summer and autumn. The common doctrine of headquarters at all levels

9702-574: Was to drive the German 15th Army back across the Rivers Roer and Wurm and move the frontline further into Germany. The operation was carried out under command of the XII Corps by three divisions. The operation is relatively unknown despite the sometimes fierce battles that were fought for each and every village and hamlet within the "Roer Triangle". Between 16 December 1944 and 23 February 1945,

9801-492: Was well known within the army. After the failed offensive at the Battle of Loos in 1915, French was replaced as commander of the BEF by Haig, who remained in command for the rest of the war. He became most famous for his role as its commander during the battle of the Somme , the battle of Passchendaele , and the Hundred Days Offensive , the series of victories leading to the German surrender in 1918. Haig

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