Command and Control on the Western Front

[mahross]

Command and Control on the Western Front: The British Army's Experience, 1914-18

Gary Sheffield and Dan Todman (Eds.)

I recently picked up this book on an introductory deal to a book club, and I have to admit i'm glad I did. The editors have brought together an extraordinary group of experts on the Great War to dicuss the mny and varied elements that made up the development of the BEF's command and control system, which gradually matured over the four years of war. the list of contributors is:

Gary Sheffield

Dan Todman

Niall Barr

Andy Simpson

John Lee

Peter Simkins

Chris McCarthy

Sanders Marble

Each other has taken a specific aspect of the BEF command and control system and helped in starting to open this much ignored aspect of the BEF's operations. It goes from how the GHQ worked and it developed and what it did to cope with the ever increasing issue of the BEF's growing size, dealt with by Dan Todman, to Peter Simkin's and Chris McCarthy's chapter which deal with the command and control of the brigade and the infantry battalions respectively.

All in all a superb book which should, IMHO, be added toeveryone bookshelf. It has opened up another evenue to explore the inner working of the BEF on the Western Front.

Ross

[squirrel]

It's on my want list - have to wait for the Memsahib to calm down after the last consignment though!

[Steven Broomfield]

It's on my want list - have to wait for the Memsahib to calm down after the last consignment though!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Loosen her stays, burn feathers under her nose and bite the bullet - essential reading: buy it now!

[Robert Dunlop]

It is a good book. But it only covers some aspects of command and control. Much of the information about command focuses on structure. There is also a heavy emphasis on the means by which control was (or was not) exercised. By the editors' own admission, there are limitations in the scope of the work - which is not a criticism.

I was disappointed that there was so little focus on the process of command - how did commanders arrive at the decisions they made? What factors in their past contributed? How did Staff Officers and other adjuncts support the decision-making process? Some individuals were selected for closer scrutiny but I found these anecdotal reviews to be quite limited.

I should say that my past reading has already given me some understanding of command structures and control mechanisms. So this aspect was of less interest to me. Even so, there were insights to be gleaned and, despite the diversity of topics and contributors, it was easy to read.

Robert

[andigger]

Thought I would bring this back up, it seems like an interesting read and definitely has some interesting contributors. Has anyone else read it recently?

Andy

[SiegeGunner]

I read this book in January and honestly can't remember a thing about it. Perhaps I'd better read it again !

[Justin Moretti]

This is a book I keep returning to again and again, albeit to read individual chapters here and there rather than the whole thing. I agree that the only problem with the book is that there isn't more of it. I'd like to see a much better idea of what the Staff were actually expected to <i>do</i>, although the glimmer I've got puts the lie to any claim that they 'ought to have been facing the same dangers as the men'. You can't organise that sort of thing under fire, and without those red tabs shuffling paper in their cosy chateaux, you would have been looking at Crimea on the Somme, and they were bad enough as two different things.