'Degummed'

[armourersergeant]

Having just read about General Sandbach who just prior to being degummed did the same to one of his brigade commanders, who in turn did the same to one of his battalion commanders and all three ended up going home on the same ship, ( bet that was a barrel of fun on the trip home), it has occurred to me that the perception always seems to be that the lower ranked officer was a scapegoat.

The first one i recall coming across was Montagu Stuart-Wortley who went home after 1st july 1916 at Gommecourt. The impression given is that he went home to cover the failure of his corps commander Snow. Yet when you delve deeper it appears that he was not a good General and some what handicaped by 'illness' in getting around his division especially when they were in the line. Which also begs the question why he was there in the first place but thats another question.

Does anyone have any other famous 'degummings' and also was the phrase used for all high ranked officers sent home or has it been used usually when they seem to have been scapegoated?

Arm.

[michaeldr]

Arm,

Prof Tim Travers covers this subject very well in the first chapter (The System at Work) of his book "The Killing Ground."

Degumming was usually for 'sticking' or not moving forward, in short, for not being aggressive enough. However Travers offers other alternatives to straightforward scapegoating;

+poor health and/or incompetence

+personal rivalry and animosity

+failure in action and as a lever to encourage the offensive spirit

Apparently Haig told Edmonds that he had degummed over 100 Brigadiers, but was forced to keep some Corps and Divisional commanders as there were no replacements at the time

Travers spends several pages on this aspect of the working of the system and quotes many examples. If you accept that degumming covers not just those sent home, but that the term was also the successor to 'Stellenbosched' then one of the more unusual was Allenby who, for his handling of the Arras offensive, was sent to Palestine ["where all failures were consigned" (Edmonds)] and there seems to have landed on his feet

Regards

Michael D.R.

[Annette Burgoyne]

Sorry this is a little off thread but I have noticed that a lot of officers at battalion level got sent to Field Ambulance sick and never seem to have come back to the battalion, I have not looked into this but have made the guess that these officers who did not come back were not much cop and were got rid of by sending them way sick and then sent back home. I am sure many senior officer were also sent home sick just to get rid of them.

Annette