Supply of Manuals. Puchase or Issue?

[fv1620]

Most manuals of the era are priced that appear to be for public purchase or through service purchase using Form L1372. This requires payment to an army paymaster that then credits HMSO account. The book is then odered as a cashless transaction.

But were all ranks required to make purchases or were some supplied?

I had assumed books marked "Official Copy" were perhaps the issued ones?

Queens Regs 1859 required officers to purchase books. But serjeants were issued free in the first instance with certain books. Any that went missing had to be paid for.

So was this the same in the GW?

[Chris Henschke]

Many of the SS series were issued and have a distribution list, usually on the cover. For example, SS 534 has 'Issued in France down to :-- Companies, Batteries, Squadrons.'

Another example is the manual on the MG08 machine gun and MG08/15 which was issued down to Battalions.

The Waterproof Carrier Envelope has a list that states that every officer should carry SS 534 Defence Against Gas, SS 535 Gas Defence Card.

'The following are suggested in addition:-'

Cavalry Regimental and Squadron Commander:—SS 148 Forward Inter-Communication in Battle, SS 163 Hints on Reconnaissance for Mines and Land Mines in the Area evacuated by the Germans.

Infantry —Battalion and Company Commander:—SS 148 Forward Inter-Communication in Battle, SS 155 Notes on Dealing with Hostile Machine Guns in an Advance, The Organization of an Infantry Battalion and the Normal Formation for the Attack.

Platoon Commander:—SS 143 Instructions for the Training of Platoons for Offensive Action, 1917, Questions a Platoon Commander should ask himself before an attack.

Machine Gun Corps—SS 143 Instructions for the Training of Platoons for Offensive Action, 1917, Infantry machine-gun company training, Notes on trench warfare for infantry officers.

Royal Engineers —Field Squadron and Field Company Commander:—SS 104 Precis of Divisional R.E. instructions issued to a Division about to take over the line, SS 145 Notes on Engineer Work during operations.

Signal Service—All officers:—SS 148 Forward Inter-Communication in Battle.

SS 163 Hints on Reconnaissance for Mines and Land Mines had an imprint of 20,000.

[fv1620]

Thanks for coming back Chris I don't have any SS series. But can see they would be issued. I don't think I have any pre1939 books with any indication of scale of distribution.

[nigelfe]

The SS series can be confusing. They were writtten and issued under GHQ arrangements. However, some were also adopted, printed and issued as official War Office publications but kept the GHQ SS identifier. An added confusion is that successive versions used the same SS number.

From the early 1900s the peak publications were the volumes of Field Service Regulations (3 vols IIRC). Each arm/service was then required to produce its own publications to give effect to FSR. There were also 'all of army' publications susch as the Manual of Map Reading and Field Sketching and the Manual of Military Law.

[Ron Clifton]

Hello fv1620

The SS series were mainly wartime training pamphlets, issued by GHQ to specified distribution lists.

The pre-war books and manuals, with the pink pages at front and back,, were issued to officers, WOs and sergeants, or in some cases to officers only, free of charge, new editions (but not replacement copies) also being issued free. The exact scales of books to be issued was given in para 1878 of King's Regulations but is briefly as fgollows:

Officers, WOs and sergeants:

Field Service Regs Part I

Field Service Manuals and Departmental Manuals for the relevant service or department

Ceremonial

Training and Manoeuvre Regulations

Officers only:

King's Regulations

Manual of Military Law

Field Service Regs Part II

Mobilization Regs

Field Service Pocket Book

War Establishments

Officers, WOs and sergeants, infantry (other arms similar):

Musketry Regs Parts I and II

Manual of Field Engineering

Manual of Map Reading and Field Sketching (officers only)

Manual of Elementary Military Hygiene

Training Manuals (Infantry Training, etc) were issued to all officers of the relevant arm, and to units on a scale of 75% of the peace establishment of NCOs, to be distributed at the CO's discretion.

All the above were provided free, but if an infantry sergeant, say, wanted a copy of Field Artillery Training, he would have to pay for it.

Ron

[fv1620]

Thanks for replies. Yes it was issue of the pink paged books I was interested in. In the QR 1859 I noticed that serjeants got certain books free whilst officers had to pay for them. But I may have misinterpreted what it actually said was "officers were required to furnish themselves with".

If they were free in QR 1878 I wonder when the change took place? Or have I misconstrued "furnish"?

[fv1620]

Oh dear my dyslexia has got the better of me. Ron sorry I misread para 1878 as the year of the Regs which I thought was odd as you said KR not QR.

So the question is are these KR 1912?

Does anyone have any earlier Regs to see when the issue policy changed after QR 1859 please?