Growth of the British Army in France between 1914-1916

[silky28]

Hey all, 

Hey all,

I am looking for some data on the growth of the expeditionary force between 1914 and 1916, ideally a chart which shows its month-month growth. I am trying to correlate developments within the army, particularly the General Staff, and its Intelligence Branch, with the expansion of EF as a whole. I understand that about October 1914, with the great retreat and the Race to the Sea, the depleted Expeditionary Force was reinforced and expanded, that in the winter of 1915 the Territorials started to arrive en mass, and that a few months later Kitchener's New Army came to France. I've  been looking but all I can find are recruitment numbers, particularly related to the rise of the New Army, and the total numbers that were mobilized - but I cannot find anything about the month-month growth of the EF in France.

Any help here would be appreciated!

[fellop]

Statistics 1914 -1920 will have some of the answers. I will copy out the ‘Estimated Strengths of the EF' by month for France from Dec 1914 – Dec 1916 and PM them to you if that is a help later today. For ‘Staffs’ I will have a look to see if the book gives details for them as a separate function.

Regards

Peter

[ianjonesncl]

@silky28 this is a chart I prepared when looking at the same subject. It is not manpower strengths, but divisions. From a staff and intelligence perspective it will give an indication of the change required in command and control, as well as intelligence gathering.

The base information is from the Appendix to A Record of the Battles and Engagements of the Brtish Armies in France and Flanders 1914 to 1918. It only covers the British Cavalry (including Indian) and Infantry Divisions. It does not cover the Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders or Portuguese.

It may be of interest.

 

 

[silky28]

4 hours ago, fellop said:

Statistics 1914 -1920 will have some of the answers. I will copy out the ‘Estimated Strengths of the EF' by month for France from Dec 1914 – Dec 1916 and PM them to you if that is a help later today. For ‘Staffs’ I will have a look to see if the book gives details for them as a separate function.

Regards

Peter

Thanks, I am sure that will be of help. But I don’t need the staff figures - I am just tracking how certain elements of the staff adapted to the increase in the size of the force.

[silky28]

3 hours ago, ianjonesncl said:

@silky28 this is a chart I prepared when looking at the same subject. It is not manpower strengths, but divisions. From a staff and intelligence perspective it will give an indication of the change required in command and control, as well as intelligence gathering.

The base information is from the Appendix to A Record of the Battles and Engagements of the Brtish Armies in France and Flanders 1914 to 1918. It only covers the British Cavalry (including Indian) and Infantry Divisions. It does not cover the Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders or Portuguese.

It may be of interest.

 

 

Thanks for this - quite helpful. I imagine it is difficult to find the actual number of men in theatre as divisions were often not at full strength. But based on an assumption of about 18,000 men per division, by the middle of 1915 the force was about 520, 000, and by the end of 1916 it reached a little over 1 million. Does this sound right?

[ianjonesncl]

Some where in here will be the numbers that you require

Statistics of the military effort of the British Empire during the Great War, 1914-1920 : Great Britain. War Office : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

A few thoughts;

The original BEF that deployed at the begining of August 1914. primarily consisted of a force HQ and two Corps. As the number of divisions grew this necessitated more Corps, and then the need to have Armies. All those additional headquarters requiring Staff Officers. I would suggest that this was a major driver for additional staff for G Branch - operations and intelligence 

The increase in manpower, horses and the material of war (guns, ammunition, forage, rations) required an increase in the size of the infrastructure supporting the army, transport, storage, transport, and consequently Staff to organise the personnel and logistics. I would suggest that this was a major driver for additional staff for A Branch -personnel. And Q Branch - logistics.

As the war progressed new methods of fighting were adopted, so specialist areas such as gas, machine guns, mortars and tanks also required additional Staff. 

 

 

 

[fellop]

Some problem with PM’ing you, my end I expect due to recent upgrade etc and system not fully set up yet as I would like.

Source. Statistics 1914 – 1920 of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War: Part 2 Table ii. Estimate Figures BEF in France.

Numbers are for British Officers and Other Ranks in France only with the exception of June 1916 when British, Australian and NZ are shown as a combined figure [for some reason]. No numbers given for May and July 1916.

Hope this may be some help

Regards

Peter

Month                             Officers                         Other Ranks                      Total

19 Dec 1914                    8,022                            221,760                              229,782

21 Jan 1915                    11,594                           286,990                              298,584

1 Feb 1915                      9,020                            261,522                               270,542

1 Mar 1915                     10,453                           297,768                               308,221

1 April 1915                    13,484                           369,418                               382,902

1 May 1915                     15,879                          435,133                                451,012

1 June 1915                    17,715                          500,543                                518,258

1 July 1915                     17,873                          499,000                                516,873

1 Aug 1915                     23,173                          652,299                                675,472

24 Aug 1915                   25,896                         723,895                                  749,791

1 Oct 1915                     29,855                          844,593                                874,448

1 Nov 1915                   29,127                           800,998                                 830,125

1 Dec 1915                    31,965                          880,024                                 911,989

1 Jan 1916                    32,455                           866,896                                 899,351

1 Feb 1916                    34,042                           911,008                                945,050

19 Mar 1916                 39,190                           1,020,552                              1,059,742

1 Apr 1916                   39,393                           1,026,925                              1,066,318

 

May 1916 No numbers given

 

1 June 1916                 45,856                          1,201,400                                 1,247,256

                                   Includes Australian and NZ for some reason

.

July 1916 No numbers given

 

1 Aug 1916                 48,223                        1,220,096                                      1,268,329

1 Sept 1916                49,025                          1,255,918                                     1,304,943

1 Oct 1916                  49,370                         1,270,741                                      1,320,111

1 Nov 1916                 48,636                       1,262,355                                         1,310,997

1 Dec 1916                48,226                        1,245,355                                         1,293,581

 

 

 

[silky28]

1 hour ago, ianjonesncl said:

Some where in here will be the numbers that you require

Statistics of the military effort of the British Empire during the Great War, 1914-1920 : Great Britain. War Office : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

A few thoughts;

The original BEF that deployed at the begining of August 1914. primarily consisted of a force HQ and two Corps. As the number of divisions grew this necessitated more Corps, and then the need to have Armies. All those additional headquarters requiring Staff Officers. I would suggest that this was a major driver for additional staff for G Branch - operations and intelligence 

The increase in manpower, horses and the material of war (guns, ammunition, forage, rations) required an increase in the size of the infrastructure supporting the army, transport, storage, transport, and consequently Staff to organise the personnel and logistics. I would suggest that this was a major driver for additional staff for A Branch -personnel. And Q Branch - logistics.

As the war progressed new methods of fighting were adopted, so specialist areas such as gas, machine guns, mortars and tanks also required additional Staff. 

 

 

 

I am looking at the branches of General Staff Intel at GHQ, right now I am specifically focused on the censorship subsection. I am looking at how these sorts of non combat subsidiary elements of the force were treated as the size of the force grew.

basically, unsurprisingly, I have found a correlation between the increase in the EF and the size of the censorship subsection. It grew in late 1914 as reinforcements arrived during the Race to the Sea, and it grew again between May and September 1915, presumably in response to arrival of the Territorials and the New Armies. My goal now is to make some charts that contrast the growth of the EF and the Censorship subsection.

unfortunately, after about April of 1916 it becomes nigh impossible to track the staffing of the censorship subsection. Prior to this we have a war diary from it through which we can  identify the censors. The problem is that the censors are, most often, simply listed in the General or Special List with no indication of their work in censorship, or it simply states that they were attached to the Intel. With the loss of the diary in 1916 we lose the main source...that is why I am focused on 1914-early 1916.

[QUEX]

Is the evolution of the censorship staff at GHQ not traceable through the periodic 'Composition of HQ' and the aperiodic establishments of GHQ? And ISTR that at some point in 1918 the Censorship & Propaganda section moves from intelligence to operations within GHQ. 

[silky28]

1 hour ago, QUEX said:

Is the evolution of the censorship staff at GHQ not traceable through the periodic 'Composition of HQ' and the aperiodic establishments of GHQ? And ISTR that at some point in 1918 the Censorship & Propaganda section moves from intelligence to operations within GHQ. 

It might show the members attached directly to GHQ but most were not at GHQ, they were attached to HQ of bases. As for establishments - I’ve found the censorship listed in the establishment records but they do not seem accurate - like I believe it showed like 1 officer and 3 subalterns when by 1915 it already comprised a GS03 in command, 3 head censors at bases, and like 55 assistant censors working under them. 
 

Censorship subsection was reorganised 2, maybe 3 times between 1916 and 1918. Putting the censorship under the BGi may have been fine when the section was small but by 1916 I think they were finding it had grown too large and become too bothersome...a distraction to the core function of the Intelligence branch. They tried, in various ways, to push the censorship away until 1918 when they moved it from the Intelligence Branch to the Staff Duties branch and renamed it the Propaganda and Censorship section.

we lose the war diary because in 1915 the section was more fully absorbed by GHQ at which time they stopped keeping a diary...

[QUEX]

On 02/02/2023 at 20:26, silky28 said:

It might show the members attached directly to GHQ but most were not at GHQ, they were attached to HQ of bases. As for establishments - I’ve found the censorship listed in the establishment records but they do not seem accurate - like I believe it showed like 1 officer and 3 subalterns when by 1915 it already comprised a GS03 in command, 3 head censors at bases, and like 55 assistant censors working under them. 

Interesting - never looked in detail, only ever noted them in passing as one of those groups, like cipher officers and some forms of interpreters, that appear alongside core intelligence.  

[silky28]

5 hours ago, QUEX said:

Interesting - never looked in detail, only ever noted them in passing as one of those groups, like cipher officers and some forms of interpreters, that appear alongside core intelligence.  

There may be some way of identifying the numbers but I haven’t found it. I’ve used a combination of medal index cards, medal rolls, and personnel files but it is very hit or miss. Even men I k ow we’re censors will often not show up as censors on index cards etc.

[A Rankin]

Hello Silky 28,

Dan Todman provides a good sketch of the growth of GHQ in

Todman, Dan - ‘The Grand Lamasery Revisited: General Headquarters on the Western Front, 1914-1918’, in Gary Sheffield & Dan Todman (eds), Command and Control on the Western Front: The British Army’s Experience 1914-18 (Stroud: Spellmount, 2004)

 

The Staff Manual 1912 also set out the pre-war conception of the expeditionary force... The Olgiby Muster has a copy that can be browsed at https://www.theogilbymuster.com/record/562757

 

WO 158/961 Reorganisation of Intelligence branch GHQ

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C162451 goes over the changes made to GHQ I in 1917 and seems to have at least some blurbs on the the censorship subsection.  It has not been digitized so accessing it at Kew will be your only option.

 

Haig's intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916-1918 by Jim Beach is a very well written overview of the the Intelligence Branch that could provide an overall context for your search

 

 

[silky28]

Thanks for the input -

I have copies of the Staff Manual and the documents on the reorganisation of the intelligence. There were actually three reorganisation between 1917 and 1918. They were all predicated on offloading superfluous work from the intelligence section. Culminated in 1918 with the creation of the Censorship and Publicity Section which was moved to Staff Duties branch. 
 

On the topic of troop numbers - I was trying to gauge the level of concern within the military to censorship by comparing the growth of the censorship section to the growth of the army in France. It turns out that the ratio of censors in the section to number of soldiers widened massively after 1914: when the war started there was about 1 censor for every 6000 soliders...by the end of 1915 it was about 1:16000. So as the army grew, the amount of mail circulating increased substantially, and the threat of leakage of military information increased - the numbers of censors declined relative to the size of the army.

 

[A Rankin]

Glad to be of help.

The AWM has also recently digitized a large number of files on Contre-espionage, including some items on press censorship and censorship of troops in general.  Maybe there is some more material here that would be helpful to you.

https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search?query=AWM25+325&collection=true&facet_type=Digitised+Collection

 

https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search?query=AWM27 491&collection=true&facet_type=Digitised Collection

Edited 23 March , 2023 by A Rankin
clarification

[green_acorn]

Silky28, you may also get an, incomplete, insight from the telephone books which list name and appointment