Sergeants in an Infantry Company

[Hoplophile]

One of the more curious features of the war establishments for standard infantry companies during World War I is the relatively high number of sergeants. While there are only four billets for platoon sergeants, every war establishment I have seen (from 1914 through the end of 1916) allows each company eight sergeants of platoon sergeant rank. (That is, sergeants other than the company sergeant major and the company quartermaster sergeant.)

Does anyone know what these extra sergeants did?

The pre-war lectures that F.I. Maxse gave in favour of the four-company battalion propose that each company only have four sergeants (other than the CSM and the CQMS) and that each sergeant be employed as a platoon sergeant or (in the absence of a subaltern) platoon commander.

Infantry Training 1914, which was largely written by Maxse, is consistent with this arrangement, but does not necessarily prescribe it. (When dealing with infantry companies, it does not mention specific non-commissioned ranks, only billet titles.)

[Desmond7]

I can't answer your question of what they DID at present ... but your post does bring to mind the 'implementation' (for want of a better word) of what I think we can call the junior ranks command structure.

I wonder and you can probably tell me, if Maxse had been tasked with observing the (for example) German command structure which gave much greater command roles to their junior ranks etc?

IN British terms, was the structure within the army simply a case of a large labour force needing more 'foremen' (in industrial terms and thus a reflection of wider society) and did the German pattern for industrial employment differ radically from the British? Thus influencing their wilingness to delegate command powers to NCO ranks?

Just thinking out loud on the wider issue!

[Hoplophile]

The switch from old-fashioned eight-company battalions to new-fangled four-company battalions took place in most European armies over the course of the second half of the nineteenth century, with Prussia being one of the first (if not the first) countries to make the switch. By 1913, when the British Army adopted the four-company battalion, it was the last major army to use the old system. Thus, the switch to the four-company system might have been interpreted as part of a larger trend towards "Prussianization" or "Continentalization" ofthe British Army, the arguments put forward in the professional literature made little mention of the adoption of the system by other countries. Rather, the arguments had more to do with day-to-day details of training and administration, as well as the need to facilitate the kind of open-order tactics seen in South Africa and the Northwest Frontier.

Under the eight company system, each company had one captain, two subalterns, one colour-sergeant, four sergeants and five corporals. When two of the old companies were doubled to make one of the new companies, the new company rated one major (or senior captain), one captain, four subalterns, one company sergeant major (the senior colour sergeant), one company quartermaster sergeant (the junior colour sergeant), eight sergeants and ten corporals. Thus, no one lost rank when the new scheme was adopted.

In discussing the ideal company for the new scheme, Maxse had proposed four sergeants (to serve as platoon sergeants) and sixteen corporals (to serve as section leaders), with sixteen unpaid lance-corporals (to serve as seconds-in-command of sections.)

Thus, rather than pursuing the logic of Maxse's scheme, the War Office preferred the route that kept half of the sergeants in infantry companies from losing their stripes.

Unfortunately, it left each company commander with a conundrum. Did he make the spare sergeants into section leaders (which would have seemed beneath the dignity of a sergeant in 1913), did he employ them as assistant platoon sergeants, or did he find some use for them outside of the framework of each platoon?

[PhilB]

I`ve always thought, not wholly in jest, that each officer in a company would necessitate a sergeant to do the actual work for him. So there are roughly equal numbers of sergeants and officers in any army unit! Phil B

[Muerrisch]

If you have Westlake's British Battalions France and Belgium 1914, you will see that very very few battalions, even after having numbers made up from the Special Reserve of Officers and the Reserve of Officers, had anything like enough subalterns. The Guards were more or less OK, as were 2nd RWF.

So most went to war with some platoons commanded by sergeants. I cannot guess whether the plan was always to absorb the 'extra' sergeants this way, but it certainly helped.

The other thing is this: when we went 8 to 4 companies, it would have caused huge unrest in the SNCOs to demote them: indeed, perhaps even illegal, as their rank and pay were substantive and could, I believe, only be removed by Court Martial process.

And leaving them as they were did not put the wage bill up!

[PhilB]

So most went to war with some platoons commanded by sergeants. I cannot guess whether the plan was always to absorb the 'extra' sergeants this way, but it certainly helped.

Would this mean having 2 sgts, a platoon commander and a platoon sergeant? Or would he double as both, which I imagine would be the case? Phil B

[Muerrisch]

I always imagined that the senior of the two sergeants in the platoon commanded it in lieu of a subaltern, and t'other acted as platoon sergeant.

[Hoplophile]

Where the initial transition from eight-company to four-company is concerned, I can see the rationale for preserving sergeants from demotion. Once the Army began to expand, however, sergeants were in very short supply. Indeed, I suspect that pre-war sergeants were in great demand to fill the many billets for sergeants-major and quartermaster sergeants created by the formation of the New Armies.

[Tom A McCluskey]

Hoplophile,

Your initial point was what did they all do? Well the truth is many, albeit on the Battalion's establishment, were not in fact in a Rifle Company as such. Many were sub-detached off to the various other departments within the battalion (TMB, MG, Transport, Band, etc.). Also, as Grumpy has stated some were in fact platoon commanders.

Here is the Orbat of the 4/5th BW on 31 Jul 1917, it is useful in that it shows the true fighting strength of a British battalion:

4 / 5th Bn. The Black Watch.

BATTALION STATE. 31 st July, 1917

A. Detached, vide A.F.B. 213 … … … 185

Total 185

B. Training personnel left out 54

H.Q. Administrative details,

Transport & Q.M’s branch 104

Caretakers posts … 7

Servants to 7 officers … 5

Total 170

C. In the battle but not in the

Fighting ranks of the Battalion:

Bearers … … … 17

Attached to M.G.C. & T.M.B … 36

Servants of officers detached … 4

Bde. Communication service … 13

Pipe band & cooks (carriers for

Front line) … … … 24

Total 94

D. Battalion H.Q. … … 10

M.O.’s party (stretcher bearers) … 34

Battalion communication service ... 105

Total 149

E. 4 Coy. H.Q. … … 15

16 Platoons … … 348

Total 363

Average strength of platoons is 21.8

Officers with Battalion:

H.Q. – C.O., Adjt., Sigs.O., I.O … … … … 4

Coy. – Coy commander & 3 … … … … 16

G. McL. SCEALES, Lieut. Col.

Commanding 4/5 th Bn. The Black Watch

hope this helps

Aye

Tom McC

[Tom A McCluskey]

Also,

Here are the Company and Platoon Commanders for 4 BW on the 25 Sep 1915:

A Company

Captain N.C. Walker.

No.1 Platoon…………….. Captain R. McIntyre.

No.2 Platoon…………….. Sergeant Naismith/Sergeant T. Cameron.

No.3 Platoon…………….. Lieut. L.A. Wilson

No.4 Platoon…………….. 2nd Lieut. A.B. Watson

B Company

Captain E.V.Campbell.

No.7 Platoon…………….. Captain P.F. Duncan.

No.2 Platoon…………….. 2nd Lieut. R.C.Cunningham

No.3 Platoon…………….. 2nd Lieut. J. Bruce.

No.4 Platoon…………….. Sergt. J. Petrie.

C Company

Captain O.S. Moodie.

No.9 Platoon…………….. 2nd Lieut. T.C. Williamson.

No.10 Platoon……………. Sergt. Dawson.

No.11 Platoon……………..Lieut. S.H. Watson

No.12 Platoon……………..Lieut. S. Steven.

D Company

Captain O.S. Moodie.

No.13 Platoon……………..Captain C.A. Air.

No.14 Platoon……………..Lieut. B.S. Sturrock.

No.15 Platoon……………..2nd Lieut. C. Methven.

No.16 Platoon……………..Sergt. Douglas.

As you can see, there is a Sergeant Platoon Commander in each Company.

Again, hope this helps

Aye

Tom McC

[Muerrisch]

Another point occurs to me: the 16 platoon org. was designed for open warfare. In trenches, the concept of a platoon was rather meaningless: a company was allocated a front, and, as it was a 24 hour responsibility, there was a strong tendency to have a 'duty subaltern' and a 'duty SNCO' roster, with the CO and CSM on 'admin days' in so far as the exigencies of war permitted. This enabled those 'off duty' to snatch a sleep, do personal admin, cook, eat, socialise. When a platoon was isolated or detached, the only way to run matters through 24 hours was to adopt a similar duty system: continual vigilance is not sustainable.

[Hoplophile]

Many thanks for all the replies.

[ChrisC]

Sergeants in an Infantry Company, What did they all do?

A question I often asked myself during my own service.

Seriously, I believe that the German Armed forces used their NCO's in higher and more responsible positions. EG Sergeants as platoon commanders.

In the words of Robert Graves in "Goodbye to all that" , "The German officers didn't believe in keeping a dog and barking themselves".

Chris C

[Hoplophile]

The points made about the requirements of trench warfare - and the consequent reduction in the strength of platoons - are important ones. They tell a part of the story that war establishments leave out.

Nonetheless, I'm struck by the persistence of the pre-war pattern in establishments published later in the war. That is to say, even when trench mortar batteries and brigade machinegun companies got their own establishments and even when the war establishments referred to theatres other than the Western Front, the basic pattern was retained. This pattern, moreover, invariably made provision for eight sergeants (not including the CSM and the CQMS) in each company.

Perhaps we are barking up the wrong tree. Has anyone come across a memoir written by a sergeant in an infantry company?