Civilian Specialists at War: Britains Transport Experts and the First World War,

[ilkley remembers]

Civilian Specialists at War: Britains Transport Experts and the First World War, Christopher Phillips (ULP 2020)

 

The author himself created a post about his new book last week kindly offering free access and inviting comments. Unfortunately, the original post seems to have disappeared, or perhaps I simply cannot find it.

 

Christopher Phillips isn’t the first person to note that the First World War wasn’t simply won by the abilities small cadre of professional soldiers commanding an army made up of volunteers and conscripts. However, what he does show is that harnessing the skills of a highly industrialized society was an essential requirement to achieve victory in a modern industrial war. In this book Phillips uses the development of transport networks during the conflict to highlight this point but the thesis could equally apply to other aspects such as manufacturing or food production.

 

The British Army, Phillips relates, had recognized the potential of the railways as a means of moving troops as far back as the 1830 and in the immediate prewar years had developed plans in the event of a Continental conflict to efficiently transport men, horses and materials. But it was the colossal expansion of the army from 1915 onwards and its increasing need for war materials that led to the need for men with technical expertise to reorganize the supply system. It also took political will and leadership to take the radical step of involving men of the calibre of Eric Geddes with a military clinging to the Victorian views of soldiering and logistics. This forced marriage of general and civilian manager remained uneasy throughout the remainder of the war but mutual respect between them was achieved.

 

The book concludes that the Britain was highly successful in integrating supply chains that stretched from the trenches across oceans and continents and without experts like Geddes victory would have been unachievable. I would comment that I thought the book overly concentrates on the Western Front and nor does it address the structural problems of Britains national transport system controlled by the private sector in which connective efficiency was lacking ,but overall this is an excellent and welcome addition to the study of WW1.  Certainly it is now difficult, for me at least, to view battles like Passchendaele without considering the enormous logistical planning that made them possible by men whose extraordinary contribution has largely been overlooked by history.

 

The whole book can be accessed via this link and I am grateful to Christopher for allowing free access to it https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvrs8z4b.1?refreqid=excelsior%3A2528c75dd44a66243ab6c31b004dbbff&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents