Field Service Pocket Book, 1914

Field Service Pocket Book, 1914

Author: War Office

Publisher:

Published: 2003-02

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9781843425106

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This book was issued by the British War Office to all senior NCOs, warrant officers and officers in the Great War. It details many aspects of the British military art, starting with the war establishments of the British Army (cavalry and Infantry Divisions and ancillary units) and the Indian Army. The handbook details everyday military conduct in the field, and lays down the regulations and guidelines for marches, quarters, camp cooking, sanitation and water supply. There are chapters on orders and the means of communication, plus overseas operations, map reading and field sketching (the intelligence functions). Field engineering is dealt with too, along with tools and explosives, together with defensive systems, obstacles, and working parties. The minutiae of engineering is also laid bare, with knots, blocks and tackles, bridging and bridging expedients and demolitions laid down. Transport is covered in Chapter V, including convoys and movements by rail and by sea. Chapter VI deals with small arms and guns, the supply of ammunition, rations and fuel, together with their storage. Pay, clothing and field equipment is detailed, and so too is office work, discipline and courts martial. Added to this is a chapter on the army in India and other overseas dominions, and details of foreign armies. Here too are tables of comparison of such diverse matters as weights and measures (British and Indian), aeronautical terms and billeting orders. This handbook - issued in 1914 and revised in 1916 - gives a remarkably detailed picture of the rules and regulations governing the British and Indian armies at the mid-point of the First World War and is warmly recommended to all students of the period.


British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War

British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War

Author: Sanders Marble

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 1351954709

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In the popular imagination, the battle fields of the Western Front were dominated by the machine gun. Yet soldiers at the time were clear that artillery - not machine guns - dictated the nature, tactics and strategy of the conflict. Only in the last months of the war when the Allies had amassed sufficient numbers of artillery and learned how to use it in an integrated and coherent manner was the stalemate broken and war ended. In this lucid and prize-winning study, the steady development of artillery, and the growing realisation of its primacy within the British Expeditionary Force is charted and analysed. Through an examination of British and Dominion forces operating on the Western Front, the book looks at how tactical and operational changes affected the overall strategy. Chapters cover the role of artillery in supporting infantry attacks, counter-battery work, artillery in defence, training and command and staff arrangements. In line with the 'learning curve' thesis, the work concludes that despite many setbacks and missed opportunities, by 1918 the Royal Artillery had developed effective and coordinated tactics to overcome the defensive advantages of trench warfare that had mired the Western Front in bloody stalemate for the previous three years.