Becke's Order of Battle of Divisions are available online

[MaureenE]

 Becke's Order of Battle of Divisions are part of the British Official Histories of the Great War, and were recently mentioned on another topic.

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/about/british-official-histories-great-war/ which says

Orders of Battle

History of the Great War based on official documents by direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Order of Battle of Divisions Part I: The Regular British Divisions by Major A.F. Becke (London: HMSO, 1935)

History of the Great War based on official documents by direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Order of Battle of Divisions Part 2A: The Territorial Force Mounted Divisions and the 1st-Line Territorial Force Divisions (42-56) by Major A.F. Becke (London: HMSO, 1936)

History of the Great War based on official documents by direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Order of Battle of Divisions Part 2B: The 2nd-Line Territorial Force Divisions (57th-69th) with the Home Service Divisions (71st-73rd) and 74th and 75th Divisions compiled by Major A.F. Becke (London: HMSO, 1937)

History of the Great War based on official documents by direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Order of Battle of Divisions Part 3A: New Army Divisions (9-26) compiled by Major A.F. Becke (London: HMSO, 1938)

History of the Great War based on official documents by direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Order of Battle of Divisions Part 3B: New Army Divisions (30-41) and 63rd (R.N.) Division compiled by Major A.F. Becke (London: HMSO, 1945)

History of the Great War based on official documents by direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Order of Battle. Part 4 The Army Council, G.H.Q.s, Armies, and Corps, 1914-1918 compiled by Major A.F. Becke (London: HMSO, 1945)

 

There is an online book on fold3.com (pay website) which I think is probably all of the above

https://www.fold3.com/browse/310/hTGb85NZ8wIfXXI19NTJHoYiz.  Order of Battle of Divisions] (1224 digital pages). I don't subscribe to fold3.com, so I can't see it in detail,  but I can see that it consists of 5 Naval & Military reprint editions which I think most likely are

https://www.naval-military-press.com/product/order-of-battle-of-divisions-part-1-the-regular-british-division/

https://www.naval-military-press.com/product/order-of-battle-of-divisions-part-2a-2b-territorial-yeomanry-divisions/

https://www.naval-military-press.com/product/order-of-battle-of-divisions-part-3a-3b-new-army-divisions/

https://www.naval-military-press.com/product/order-of-battle-of-divisions-part-4-the-army-council-ghqs-armies-and-corps-including-tank-corps/

https://www.naval-military-press.com/product/order-of-battle-of-divisions-index/

If anyone subscribes to fold3.com, would  they  be able to confirm the above.

Cheers

Maureen

Edited title which was originally 'Becke's Order of Battle of Divisions are available online on the pay website fold3.com"

Edited 23 September , 2021 by MaureenE

[petwes]

Maureen,

As far as I can see it is indeed all parts of the book.  Thanks for bringing it to general notice.

 

Peter

[MaureenE]

Peter, thanks for confirming.

 

Cheers

Maureen

[petwes]

No thank you

There are a number of cracking books in the collection.  Looks like a substantial proportion of Naval and Military's output has been scanned.

Peter

[johntaylor]

Thanks Maureen - it's great that these are finally available online, even if only with a double subscription (Ancestry + Fold3).

 

As Peter says, they seem to have most of the N&MP reprints on there, which is a pretty substantial body of work, but still no sign of the Official Histories last time I looked.

 

I guess at some point I'll have to bite the bullet...

 

John

[fellop]

I have the N&M printed set, or re-printed to be correct. The printed set is simply Part 1 – Part 4 plus the Index. Part 2 and 3 are not split into 2A or 3B for example. I assume that they are split in the online version for ease of reproduction.

The printed and online set, as shown by Maureene, cover exactly the same Divisions in the same Parts.

I do not subscribe separately to Fold 3 but do access it for Pension Records as an WFA member.

 

Regards

Peter

Edit for correction.

Just browsed my copies and in fact within Part 2 and 3 they are split into 2A and 2B and 3A and 3B within each printed volume.

Apologies for my error.

 

Edited 23 August , 2020 by fellop

[MaureenE]

13 hours ago, johntaylor said:

 

As Peter says, they seem to have most of the N&MP reprints on there, which is a pretty substantial body of work, but still no sign of the Official Histories last time I looked.

 

I guess at some point I'll have to bite the bullet...

 

There are many official histories available on fold3.com.

 

In respect of the Western Front, it is not known if ALL are on fold3, but there are many online books , perhaps the entire series, consisting of online versions of reprints from Naval & Military Press, under the title Military Operations France & Belgium, a total of 9421 digital pages from multiple books. (Located in International/ Military Books/France, letter M). It is thought the separate volumes of maps are all included.

 

Also  one which perhaps was intended to be part of the Official Histories, but was not.

Report of the Committee on the Lessons of the Great War 13 Oct 1932 includes two Appendices on the Western Front.  Also known as the Kirke Report it is available in a reprint edition,^[19] which in turn is available online on the Ancestry owned pay website fold3, located in International/Military Books/Britain.

 

There are also official histories from some of the other Fronts, probably the majority of them, but not The Occupation of Constantinople 1918–1923 

 

Cheers

Maureen

[johntaylor]

Thanks for the additional information Maureen, and I obviously didn't look carefully enough during a rare period of free access. If they've got the Official Histories plus maps it's hard to resist. Fortunately I can live without the Occupation of Constantinople!

 

All the best, John

[MaureenE]

The above Parts, missing Part 3B, are now available online on Archive.org and Google Books,

• Part 1 - The Regular British Divisions pub. 1935. Archive.org, Google Books
• Part 2A. The Territorial Force Mounted Divisions and the 1st-Line Territorial Force Divisions (42-56) pub. 1936. Archive.org, Google Books File 1, Google Books, File 2
• Part 2B. The 2nd-Line Territorial Force Divisions (57th-69th) with the Home-Service Divisions (71st-73rd) and 74th and 75th Divisions pub. 1937. Archive.org, GB File 1, GB File 2
• Part 3A New Army Divisions (9-26) pub. 1938. Archive.org, GB File 1, GB File 2
• Part 4. The Army Council, G.H.Q.s, Armies and Corps 1914-1918 pub. 1945. Archive.org, Google Books.

Cheers

Maureen

[FROGSMILE]

Excellent stuff Maureen, thank you for all your work drawing it to members attention.

[johntaylor]

Excellent Maureen, many thanks.

John

[themonsstar]

Thank you for posting these online books, great for research.

Roy

[Knotty]

Thanks for the posting a very useful data set collrction, may I ask (apart from the Fold3 version) is there any indication if Part 3b has been made available on-line.?

 

John

[MaureenE]

I wasn't able to find a digital file of Part 3B from any source (apart from Fold3), perhaps someone else may be able to locate  one.

Maureen

[Knotty]

Thanks Maureen

Here's hoping😁

[MaureenE]

I was kindly forwarded a digital file of Part 3B, which is now available on the Internet Archive (Archive.org)

Order of Battle of Divisions Part 3B. New Army Divisions (30-41); and 63rd (R.N.) Division (History of the Great War based on Official Documents) by Major A F Becke RFA (Retired) 1945 HMSO

https://archive.org/details/order-battle-divisions-pt3b

Maureen

[Knotty]

Thank you Maureen, much appreciated and successfully downloaded .

John