War Establishment of an Infantry Division - Dec 1914

[Guest]

For anyone with an interest of the detailed composition of a Division, the HQ Gen Staff War Diary of 27th Div (WO 95/2254 or Ancestry Link here or TNA link here for £3.50) has a rather useful 120 pages of the War Establishment of 27th Division. This drills into all units, support units etc and provides some esoteric establishments such as the HQ of an Infantry Base depot, HQ General Base Depot, CCS, Div Ammo Park etc....

 

The Division was formed in late 1914 from units drawn in the main from Overseas Battalions of the Regular Army. Its War Establishment (dated 7th Dec 1914) may well have small but important differences from the Aug 1914 War Establishments as the Army adjusted to the realities of modern warfare. I thought it worth flagging. Of interest the HQ Infantry Brigade shows a Brigade Machine Gun Officer on its establishment - the early establishment of whom was something the GWF has debated in the past. 

 

Incidentally the diary also contains Maj Gen T D'O Snow's* personal narrative of the Division's time in France before being sent to Salonika as well as some interesting correspondence with Edmonds on some small but sensitive issues of Second Ypres. 

 

Originally GOC 4th Div, injured on 9th Sep when his horse fell and evacuated to England and subsequently appointed GOC 27th Div

 

Contents page:

 

 

Edited 15 January , 2018 by Guest

[Ron Clifton]

Hello Martin

 

The original War Establishments 1914 - Expeditionary Force are in file WO24/899 at Kew. Various amendments, including special establishments for 7th, 8th, 27th and 28th Divisions, issued in 1914 are in WO24/900, which also covers special establishments for 3rd Cavalry Division and 2nd Mounted Division as well as a few minor modifications to existing units. These "files" (actually small black books of about A6 page size) have not been digitised for download so your source may be easier for those interested to access.

 

As you say, there are differences from the original WEs, especially in the artillery, where not enough howitzer brigades were available to meet the official scales. Apart from the artillery, the differences are fairly minor. The totals for 27 Division are 17,015 all ranks, as against 18,073 for 1st to 6th Divisions. The totals for 7th, 8th and 28th Divisions are much closer to 18,000.

 

WO24/901 to 929 contain over 2,000 amendments from 1915 onwards. Some are a single sheet affecting one type of unit, but some are in effect complete updated re-issues of the original, with separate issues for each theatre of operations.

 

I spent many happy hours at Kew in the late 1990s digesting all these and extracting some details (mainly numbers of officers and men) which I have put into spreadsheets.

 

Ron

 

 

Edited 15 January , 2018 by Ron Clifton

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Ron Clifton said:

Hello Martin

 

The original War Establishments 1914 - Expeditionary Force are in file WO24/899 at Kew. Various amendments, including special establishments for 7th, 8th, 27th and 28th Divisions, issued in 1914 are in WO24/900, which also covers special establishments for 3rd Cavalry Division and 2nd Mounted Division as well as a few minor modifications to existing units. These "files" (actually small black books of about A6 page size) have not been digitised for download so your source may be easier for those interested to access.

 

As you say, there are differences from the original WEs, especially in the artillery, where not enough howitzer brigades were available to meet the official scales. Apart from the artillery, the differences are fairly minor. The totals for 27 Division are 17,015 all ranks, as against 18,073 for 1st to 6th Divisions. The totals for 7th, 8th and 28th Divisions are much closer to 18,000.

 

WO24/901 to 929 contain over 2,000 amendments from 1915 onwards. Some are a single sheet affecting one type of unit, but some are in effect complete updated re-issues of the original, with separate issues for each theatre of operations.

 

I spent many happy hours at Kew in the late 1990s digesting all these and extracting some details (mainly numbers of officers and men) which I have put into spreadsheets.

 

Ron

 

 

 

 

Thanks Ron.    It Sounds like a labour of love.  I am continually perplexed by Peace and War Establishments and their arcane complexities, particularly the 'attached' and who was considered fighting strength or trench strength and ration strength when they actually entered a theatre of War.

 

My aims were simply to alert people with Ancestry or £3.50 in their paypal pocket that the whole shooting match was a mere click away. I really do think GWF needs a 'Resources' pin board for researchers  - a one stop shop for easily accessible 'benchmark' material. I am wondering what happens to all these wonderful databases when we pass away. The GWF would seem like a useful depository in the cloud as storage costs diminish. I have 20 years of research database looking for a home one day and I think my Great War interests are waning fast....very fast. The candle flame is guttering. 

 

Separately I am working on medal rolls and men 'missing' from the 1914 and 1914-15 Star medal rolls from the disembarkation dates. In theory a battalion would disembark with 'X'  number of Other Ranks, but the 1914-15 Star rolls typically record far fewer than 'X' - I am over 100 short of 2nd Hants at Gallipoli  first cohort for example.  I know the 'missing' are usually tucked away in other units' rolls - places where men were transferred to before the rolls were compiled in 1918-19. One major change was the transfers to the MGC on its formation in 1916....do you by any chance have any War Establishments that reflect any reduction in the Infantry Battalions to reflect this change? I suspect around 26 per battalion but I am curious to know if there were other reductions... as I am trying to trace the missing. Ditto TMBs.....

 

Any pointers would be gratefully received. MG

Edited 15 January , 2018 by Guest

[Ron Clifton]

Martin

 

The establishment in 1914 was 977 other ranks. This increased to a figure of around 995-997 shortly afterwards (including 27th Div) as a result of the doubling of the MG sections from two to four guns. When MG sections were withdrawn by August 1916, on the formation of brigade MG companies, the figure dropped to 969, so your figure of around 26 certainly tallies with that. There were various other discrepancies of one or two, and slightly more in some other theatres (Salonika in particular), but basically there were no major changes to the overall totals for the rest of the war.

 

Incidentally there was a group of special establishments for 10th, 11th, 13th, 29th, 52nd, 53rd and 54th Divisions, all of which as you know went to Gallipoli, but the number of infantry ORs in these establishments were all in the 990s, so your point about 2nd Hants can't be due to that.

 

Ron

Edited 15 January , 2018 by Ron Clifton

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Ron Clifton said:

Martin

 

The establishment in 1914 was 977 other ranks. This increased to a figure of around 995-997 shortly afterwards (including 27th Div) as a result of the doubling of the MG sections from two to four guns. When MG sections were withdrawn by August 1916, on the formation of brigade MG companies, the figure dropped to 969, so your figure of around 26 certainly tallies with that. There were various other discrepancies of one or two, and slightly more in some other theatres (Salonika in particular), but basically there were no major changes to the overall totals for the rest of the war.

 

Incidentally there was a group of special establishments for 10th, 11th, 13th, 29th, 52nd, 53rd and 54th Divisions, all of which as you know went to Gallipoli, but the number of infantry ORs in these establishments were all in the 990s, so your point about 2nd Hants can't be due to that.

 

Ron

 

Ron. Thank you. Very gratefully received.  As I know you are aware, a significant proportion of units kept records of the numbers in their diaries, so the 995 for "2nd Bn hampshire Regt is a 'on the ground' reference point for those embarking for Gallipoli. The first recorded reinforcements (oddly two thirds less than the standard 93-95) did not arrive until 15th May, some three weeks after the landing, by which time the Battalion was reduced to less than 220 men. Given the disastrous events of the first two weeks one would reasonably assume very man and his dog were sent to the peninsula to shore up the numbers in the immediate aftermath of the landings. My gut instincts are that they were large invalided and sent home but not sufficiently medically downgraded to be discharged...so lingering somewhere within the system.