BEF 1914: Attrition of Officers' Experience

[seaforth78]

Thank you Martin.

[Guest]

Here is an interesting Chart. BEF 1914 Cohort* for the Foot Guards' Officer Battle Casualties. The number of days served in theatre before becoming a battle casualty. Note the heavy skew towards the first 30,60 and 90 days in theatre.

Some 303 of the 381 Foot Guards' Officers who landed in France and Falnders before 22nd Nov 1914 subsequently became battle casualties (79.5%). Of these 303 battle casualties;

31% became battle casualties within 30 days

56% became battle casualties within 60 days

77% became battle casualties within 90 days

More Officers from this cohort became battle casualties in their first 50 days than became battle casualties during the rest of the war.

* Recipients of the 1914 Star

[Guest]

Here is another interesting Chart. BEF 1914 Cohort* for the Infantry Officer Battle Casualties. The number of days served in theatre before becoming a battle casualty. Note the heavy skew towards the first 30,60 and 90 days in theatre.

 

 

 

 

Some 3,107* Infantry Officers who landed in France and Flanders before 22nd Nov 1914 subsequently became battle casualties. Of these 3,107 battle casualties;

 

 

 

36% became battle casualties within 30 days

 

50% became battle casualties within 40 days

 

63% became battle casualties within 60 days

 

77% became battle casualties within 90 days

 

 

 

As many Officers from this cohort became battle casualties in their first 40 days than became battle casualties during the rest of the war.

 

 

* Recipients of the 1914 Star. This is a very conservative figure. It does not include data where the date of becoming wounded is not known.

 

 

 

 

Edited 8 December , 2016 by Guest

[seaforth78]

How would you tally let's say to bring this down between two groups; the officers who disembarked in early August and the 1st and 2nd reinforcements coming in mid late September? Would there be a disparity between the original and later cohorts until November 22 in terms of frequency?

[Guest]

How would you tally let's say to bring this down between two groups; the officers who disembarked in early August and the 1st and 2nd reinforcements coming in mid late September? Would there be a disparity between the original and later cohorts until November 22 in terms of frequency?

By Formation the splits are shown on post #97

The first four Divisions (1st 2nd, 3rd and 5th DIvs)

4th Div

6th Div, 7th Div, 8th Div

The percentages and skews are all very similar.

If we looked at First Cohort (i.e.original battalion members) v subsequent reinforcements, the data for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th reinforcements is actually worse. I think this simply reflects these men hitting First Ypres. This is also reflected in 7th Div first Cohort data which was hit hard at 1st Ypres. Take the Irish Guards as a random example. The 1914-15 Star Officers are split into two groups: Originals and subsequent reinforcements. The Reinforcements had a slightly higher attrition rate. Again this is largely down to First Ypres.Both groups with heavy skews towards the first 30-60 days from disembarkation reflecting the fact that the reinfocements were often held a the base before making their way forward - creating a small lag.

Put simply, regardless of when Infantry Officers disembarked in 1914 they had an 80% chance of becoming a battle casualty and a 40% chance of becoming a fatality (+/-3% variance). If one became a battle casualty more than 50% of cases happened within 50 days of disembarking. I have started to assemble the considerably larger block of data for 1914-15 Star and the stats are very similar.

All the data is very conservative as it relies on casualties being recorded in diaries or histories. Scores of Officers simply disappear from the diaries with no mention, never to be heard of again. The charts do illustrate those who recovered and were twice and thrice wounded, or wounded, recovered and subsequently killed etc. These represent 9.1% of all Officers who became battle casualties. For the purposes of the charts above I have simply used the first event. It would be interesting to see how quickly Officers who had returned from being wounded managed to last until their second wounding or their death. That would require a lot of work as the dates they returned to duty would need to be established. I am not sure it is worth the effort.

MG

[phil andrade]

Martin .

All this wonderful research that you've shared with us has left me with the conviction that the shock of first encounter was even more catastrophic for the professional core of the old BEF than the frequently cited figure of 89,000 battle casualties in the first four months suggests.

I am wondering if Winston Churchill was right in his advocacy of keeping the BEF back in reserve around Amiens while the initial battles played out.

A form of heresy, maybe....but perhaps he was being prescient.

Editing here : Allan Mallinson makes a persuasive argument about how right Churchill was. I reckon your research would provide grist to his mill.

Phil ( PJA)

[Guest]

A scatter charts showing the date of disembarkation and the date each casulaty happened. The first charts shows the BEF Infantry Officer Casualties for 1914-15.

The high density plots towards the bottom of the chart illustrate the high concentration of casualties in the first months after disembarking. Note as one progresses along the X Axix (= later disembarkation) the pattern of high density early casualties does not change. Very few of the 1914 Cohort became casualties at Loos in Sep 1915 suggesting most had by then left the field.

[Guest]

The second chart is the same as above but includes Officer casualties throughout the war 1914-1918. Spare a thought for the chap in the top left. Disembarked on 13th Aug 1914 and eventually died of wounds on Armistice Day. Capt Hon Gerald Philip M N Sturt Coldstream Guards. MG

[Guest]

The Grenadier Guards at War.

 

614 Regimental Officers served in the four Grenadier Guards battalions during the war.

200 died during the war............................32.6%

203 were wounded during the war............33.1%

 

Roughly speaking for every three Grenadier Guards Officers that disembarked in France, one would die during the war and one would be wounded. This does not count Officers who were wounded multiple times. One Officer was wounded five times. The most fascinating aspect of this is the killed:wounded ratio of 1:1 which seems extraordiarily high.

 

The data comes from the three volume "The Grenadier Guards in the Great War 1914-1918" cross reference with ODGW and the medal rolls and diaries. There is little margin for error, although interestingly all four sources contained some errors. Even the ODGW.  

 

As one sub-set; the 1st Bn Grenadier Guards

180 Officers passed through the battalion between Oct 1914 and Nov 1918. On a War Establishment of 30 Officers that equates to a turnover of six times.

59 died during the war................................32.3%

58 were wounded during the war................32.0%

117 Casualties............................................64.3%

 

If we look at the First Cohort of Officers who disembarked on 4th Oct 1914 with the 1st Battalion:

30 Officers disembarked

14 died during the war................................46.7%

10 were wounded during the war................33.3%

24 Casualties.............................................80.0%

 

If we look at each subsequent group of 30 Officers based on their date of arrival in the battalion (6 groups in total spread between Oct 1914 and Nov 1918) the First Cohort appears to have had it rather hard:

 

Edited 8 December , 2016 by Guest

[phil andrade]

Martin,

 

This really is quite shocking.

 

When did the 5th and 6th cohorts disembark ?

 

Phil

 

 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, phil andrade said:

Martin,

This really is quite shocking.

When did the 5th and 6th cohorts disembark ?

Phil

 The Cohorts are in blocks of 30 Officers (= War Establishment) running chronologically. The 121st Officer to join the battalion (i.e the first Officer of the 5th Cohort) joined the Battalion on 14th March 1917. The 150th Officer to join (i.e the last Officer of the 5th Cohort) arrived on 30th Sep 1918. The 6th Cohort includes 20 odd junior Officers whose exact arrival date was not recorded but whose presence is recorded in regular nominal rolls of Officers. The Grenadiers were exceptionally good record keepers, but even so, still not perfect. 

 

All the data has been meticulously cross-referenced against the diaries, ODGW, medal rolls and MICs (some show disembarkation dates) as well as the published history which has battalion nominal rolls of Officers every 2 months or so. By the standards of the war is is exceptionally high quality data as we are able to cross-check  a number of ways. 

 

One swing factor is that some men had served with other battalions before joining. I am crunching the data for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions as well, so there will be a small element of double counting (less that I would have thought). I have yet to establish a simple methodology that adjusts for Officers who switched battalions after major engagements. 

 

One might aggregate the 5th and 6th Cohorts as the record keeping during 1918 dropped. Despite this I am very confident that the first Cohort had the most extreme experience. All this latest analysis does is confirm my deductions from the earlier work on the 1914 Star rolls. It simply provides the hard facts for the subsequent reinforcements. Given the extreme skew in Officer casualties of all types towards the beginning of the war it is almost a physical impossibility for any subsequent Cohort to have had a worse experience than the 'Originals'. 

 

The more I research this aspect the more the catastrophe of 1914-15 seems to dominate. When we start to look at the age and experience of the Officers of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc Cohorts, it is even more pronounced; the attrition of Officers with any experience is difficult to articulate in simple terms. The fact that the 1st Battalion saw 6 times its war establishment of Officers pass through in four years tells us a lot. 614 Officers for 4 battalions implies over 150 per Battalion; equivalent to five War Establishments each. 

 

MG

[phil andrade]

Thanks Martin.

 

Presumably, there were significant contingents of the Grenadier Guards who were engaged in France and Belgium in the August and September battles.  I'm sure that they played a prominent part in the Aisne fighting in September,

 

The tabulation you provide for the 1st Battalion gives stark evidence of the impact of First Ypres.

 

Was there a comparable killing of officers in those units of the GG who fought before October ?

 

As you say, it's not just the casualty rate that shocks : it's the very high proportion of killed to wounded - actually exceeding the wounded - that stands out.

 

Was this also apparent in August and September 1914 ?

 

The prominence of First Ypres as the " martyrdom " of the old BEF is becoming more and more apparent as a result of your work.

 

Phil

[David Filsell]

The impact of such huge losses of trained officers in such a small army in 1914/15 certainly puts its performance in 15  and 16 in clear perspective.

[phil andrade]

Didn't French military planners make some comment before the war, in respect of the notoriously small size of the British army, that might be expressed as :

 

If the English only send us one soldier, we'll make sure that he is killed !   ?

 

These officers of the Grenadier Guards did their best to conform to this French mandate.

 

They didn't live up to it : they died up to it.

 

Phil

 

 

[Guest]

I recently stumbled on three more Brigade MGOs who deployed in 1914 - from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Bn Rifle Brigade serving with the 11th, 25th and 17th Infantry Brigades respectively. The list of Infantry Brigades with named Brigade Machine Gun Officers now runs to twelve....

 

1st Guards Bde,

3rd Inf Bde,

4th Guards Bde

6th Inf Bde

10th Inf Bde

11th Inf Bde

12th Inf Bde

13th Inf Bde

14th Inf Bde

17th Inf Bde

18th Inf Bde

25th Inf Bde