The British Army and the First World War (Armies of the Great War)

In 1914, the British Army was not prepared for a major war on the continent of Europe, let alone the global conflict that the First World War became. Its pre-war preparations laid only the most minimal foundations for a larger army and for the logistical infrastructure that would be needed. Somehow, the British Army would have to both grow and fight.This (relatively) concise history manages to compress a lot of good information into a bit over 400 pages of text. The narrative systematically considers the pre-war Army and then the British Army, year by year, from 1914 to 1918. The picture that emerges is one of remarkable adaptation under fire. By war's end, the British Army was undoubtedly a major player in the Allied victory.The book's analysis is necessarily brief, and the narrative moves briskly. It might not be the best starting point for a study of the First World War. It includes a very small but useful selection of maps and a few period photographs. Well recommended to students of the First World War.

A summary of the review on StrategyPage:'The authors, who have written previously on the British Army, give us a comprehensive look at it during the First World War. After a short introduction they offer detailed views of the prewar army and officer corps, followed by chapters on the background and recruiting of troops, their morale, discipline, and experience of war. There follows a chapter on the complexities of the evolution of British strategy. They cover the Western Front in five chapters, one for each year of the war, and then rather neglect the other fronts by treating them all in just one chapter, which mostly covers only the war against theOttomans. The authors do offer a number of surprising insights, most notably that the “Old Contemptibles” of 1914 were mostly not long service veterans, a majority being reservists or recent enlistees. They also throw light on such neglected matters as women in auxiliary service, inter-personal relationships among senior officers, non-white personnel in the ranks, and much more. A volume in Cambridge’s excellent series “Armies of the Great War”, despite its Western Front concentration, this is a valuable contribution to the literature.'For the full review, see StrategyPage.