Kitchener's Army - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, Kitchener's Mob, was an (initially) all-volunteer army formed in the United Kingdom following the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War. It was created on the recommendation of Horatio Kitchener, then Secretary of State for War

Secretary of State for War

The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...

Origins

Contrary to the popular belief that the war would be over by Christmas 1914, Kitchener predicted a long and brutal war. He believed that arrival in Europe of an overwhelming force of new, well-trained and well-led divisions would prove a decisive blow against the Central Powers

Central Powers

The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...

.
Kitchener fought off opposition to his plan, and attempts to weaken or water down its potential, including piece-meal dispersal of the New Army battalions into existing regular or Territorial Force

Territorial Force

The Territorial Force was the volunteer reserve component of the British Army from 1908 to 1920, when it became the Territorial Army.-Origins:...

divisions (the view of the Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, Field Marshal French). Kitchener declined to use the existing Territorial Force (which, ironically, had been set up by Haldane and Douglas Haig

Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE, ADC, was a British senior officer during World War I. He commanded the British Expeditionary Force from 1915 to the end of the War...

as part of the Army reforms of the Edwardian period) as the basis for the New Army, as many of its members had volunteered for "Home Service" only, and because he was suspicious of the poor performance of French "territorials" in the war of 1870-1. In the early days of the war, the Territorial Force could not reinforce the regular army, as it lacked modern equipment, particularly artillery. In addition, it took time to form First-Line units composed only of men who had volunteered for "General Service."

Those recruited into the New Army were used to form complete Battalion

Battalion

A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

s under existing British Army Regiments. These new battalions had titles of the form "xxth (Service) Battalion, ". The first New Army divisions were used at the Battle of Loos in the autumn of 1915, and they were sorely tested in the Battle of the Somme. The initial BEF - a single army of 5 regular divisions in August 1914, two armies comprising 16 divisions by the end of the 1914 when the Territorials had been deployed - had grown to five armies totalling around 60 divisions in strength by the summer of 1916, approximately 2 million men of whom around half were infantry (the rest were gun crews, supply and logistics men etc).

Recruitment

All five of the full army groups (meaning a group of divisions similar in size to an army, not a group of armies) were made up of volunteer recruits, which included the famous Pals' Battalions

Pals battalion

The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted units of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbours and work colleagues , rather than being arbitrarily...

. Due to the huge numbers of men wishing to sign up, in places queues up to a mile long formed outside recruitment offices. There were many problems in equipping and providing shelter for the new recruits. Rapidly the Government added many new recruitment centres, which eased the admissions burden, and began a programme of temporary construction at the main training camps. Almost 2.5 million men volunteered for Kitchener's Army.

By the beginning of 1916, the queues were not so long anymore. Information about the true nature of the war had reached Great Britain, and enthusiasm for volunteering plunged. Great Britain had to resort to conscription like the other great powers involved in the war. (Conscription was also applied "in reverse", so that skilled workers and craftsmen who had volunteered early in the war could be drafted back into the munitions industry, where they were sorely needed.)

The first conscripts arrived in France in late 1916 to fill the gaps in the volunteer units, which had been greatly diminished during the Battle of the Somme. After the bloody battles of 1916 and 1917, the British army facing the Ludendorff Offensive of 1918 were mainly conscripted youths, most of them under 20 years of age, although there were also some men in their late thirties or older. Roughly half of those who served in the British Army throughout the war, including more than half of the five million men serving in the British Army in 1918, were conscripts.

Training

A recruit accepted into the army was first sent to his Regimental depot, where he received his kit and was introduced to army discipline and training. Next he was sent to the main training camps to join his battalion

Battalion

A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

. In practice, no Regiment

Regiment

A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

had the required stocks of equipment, or the manpower to train the flood of recruits; men trained wearing their own clothes and shoes. To mitigate this problem, the army issued old stored uniforms, including First Boer War

First Boer War

The First Boer War also known as the First Anglo-Boer War or the Transvaal War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881-1877 annexation:...

-vintage red jackets. Some regiments bought their own uniform and boots with money paid from public collections. Many regiments were also issued with emergency blue uniforms, popularly known as Kitchener Blue. Whilst this crisis went on, the soldiers wore regimental and unit badges or patches on their clothing. Many photographs from the era show uniformed soldiers drilling alongside civilian clothed soldiers, perhaps led by red-jacketed NCOs.

The Regiments also suffered from a lack of officers to train them. The government called up all reserve-list officers and any British Indian Army

British Indian Army

The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

officer who happened to be on leave in the UK during the period. Men who had been to a recognised public school and university graduates, many of whom had some prior military training in Officer Training Corps, were often granted direct commissions. Commanding officers were encouraged to promote promising leaders and later in the war it was common for officers ("temporary gentlemen") to have been promoted from the ranks to meet the demand, especially as casualty rates among junior infantry officers were extremely high. Many officers, both regular and temporary, were promoted to ranks and responsibilities far greater than they had ever realistically expected to hold.

The Army had difficulty supplying new units with enough weapons. No artillery pieces had been left in Britain to train new artillery brigades, and most battalions had to drill with obsolete rifles or wooden mockups. By early 1915 the government had overcome many of these problems. Among its methods was pressing into use old ceremonial cannons and unfinished modern artillery pieces (they lacked targeting sights). During 1915, it corrected such shortages.

Later developments

At the beginning of 1918, the shortage of manpower in the British Expeditionary Force in France became acute. The Army ordered infantry divisions to be reduced from twelve infantry battalions to nine. The higher-numbered battalions (in effect the New Army units, and some Second-Line Territorial units) were to be disbanded rather than the lower-numbered Regular and First-Line Territorial battalions. (Since Kitchener's death in 1916, no other major figure opposed this fundamental change to the principles on which the New Army had been raised.) In some cases, New Army divisions had to disband about half of their units to make room for surplus battalions transferred from Regular or First-Line Territorial divisions. While the change reduced the unique sense of identity of some New Army formations, it developed the divisions in France into more homogeneous units. By this time there was no longer much real distinction between Regular, Territorial and New Army divisions.

Following the failure of the Ludendorff Offensive

Spring Offensive

The 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, beginning on 21 March 1918, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914...

in the spring of 1918, the BEF performed a combined arms counterattack. The Hundred Days Offensive

Hundred Days Offensive

The Hundred Days Offensive was the final period of the First World War, during which the Allies launched a series of offensives against the Central Powers on the Western Front from 8 August to 11 November 1918, beginning with the Battle of Amiens. The offensive forced the German armies to retreat...

drove the German forces back through Belgium, with high casualties. The British took many hundreds of thousands of German soldiers by capture or surrender. Coupled with a revolution in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, the German generals requested an armistice

Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)

The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...

, which came into effect at 11 o'clock on 11 November 1918.

Structure

Kitchener's New Army was made up of the following Army Groups (meaning a group of divisions similar in size to an army, not a group of armies) and Division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

s:

K1 Army Group :

9th (Scottish) Division
10th (Irish) Division
11th (Northern) Division
British 11th (Northern) Division
The British 11th Division, was one of the Kitchener's Army divisions raised from volunteers by Lord Kitchener, it fought at Gallipoli and the Western Front during the First World War...
12th (Eastern) Division
British 12th (Eastern) Division
The 12th Infantry Division was a division raised by the British Army during the First World War. It was disbanded during the Second World War due to the number of casualties that it took.- Formation and First World War :...
13th (Western) Division
British 13th (Western) Division
The 13th Division was one of the Kitchener's Army divisions raised from volunteers by Lord Kitchener. It fought at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia and Persia during the First World War.- 1914 - 1915 :...
14th (Light) Division
British 14th (Light) Division
The 14th Division was one of the Kitchener's Army divisions raised from volunteers by Lord Kitchener. It fought on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War.- Formation :...

K2 Army Group :

15th (Scottish) Division
16th (Irish) Division
17th (Northern) Division
British 17th (Northern) Division
The British 17th Division was a New Army division formed in September 1914 as part of the K2 Army Group. The division moved to France in July 1915 and spent the duration of the First World War in action on the Western Front.- Formation :...
18th (Eastern) Division
British 18th (Eastern) Division
The British 18th Division was a New Army division formed in September 1914 as part of the K2 Army Group. The division landed in France on 25 May 1915 and spent the duration of the First World War in action on the Western Front, becoming one of the elite divisions of the British Army...
19th (Western) Division
British 19th (Western) Division
The British 19th Division was a New Army division formed in September 1914 as part of the K2 Army Group. The division landed in France July 1915 and spent the duration of the First World War in action on the Western Front.- Formation :...
20th (Light) Division
British 20th (Light) Division
The British 20th Division was a New Army division formed in September 1914 as part of the K2 Army Group. The division landed in France July 1915 and spent the duration of the First World War in action on the Western Front.- Formation :...

K3 Army Group :

21st Division
22nd Division
23rd Division
24th Division
British 24th Division
The British 24th Division was a New Army division that was sent to France between August and September, 1915. It served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War...
25th Division
26th Division

K4 Army Group :
Broken up into reserve regiments.

K5 Army Group :
Redesignated K4 following break up of original K4.

30th Division
British 30th Division
The British 30th Division was a New Army division that was originally made up of battalions raised by public subscription or private patronage. The division was taken over by the British War Office in August 1915 and moved to France in December...
31st Division
British 31st Division
The British 31st Division was a New Army division formed in April 1915 as part of the K4 Army Group and taken over by the War Office on 10 August 1915. Comprising mainly battalions from Yorkshire and Lancashire, the division was sent to Egypt in December 1915 before moving to France in March 1916...
32nd Division
British 32nd Division
The British 32nd Division was a New Army division that was originally made up of battalions raised by public subscription or private patronage. The division was taken over by the British War Office in September 1915...
33rd Division
British 33rd Division
The British 33rd Division was a New Army division formed in 1914 as the 40th Division in the K5 Army group then renumbered in April 1915 as part of the new K4 Army Group....
34th Division
British 34th Division
The British 34th Division was a New Army division formed in April 1915 as part of the K4 Army Group. The division landed in France on January 1916 and spent the duration of the First World War in action on the Western Front....
35th Division
35th Division (United Kingdom)
The 35th Infantry Division was a unit of the British Army during World War I.Originally raised for the Fifth New Army as the 42nd Division, it was renumbered as the 35th when the Fifth New Army was redesignated as the Fourth New Army in April 1915. By June 1915, the division had begun to congregate...

K6 Army Group :
Redesignated K5 following redesignation of original K5.

36th (Ulster) Division
37th Division
38th (Welsh) Division
39th Division
40th Division
British 40th Infantry Division
- World War I :The 40th Infantry Division was originally formed as a Kitchener's Army 'Bantam' division between September and December 1915 for service in World War I. 'Bantam' personnel were those who were under the Army regulation height but otherwise fit for service. It comprised the 119th,...
41st Division
British 41st Division
The British 41st Division is a New Army division formed in September 1915 as part of the K5 Army. The division landed in France in May 1916 and spent the duration of the First World War in action on the Western Front.- Formation :122nd Brigade :...

Divisional structure in 1915

In 1915, the prescribed structure of one division

Division (military)

would have comprised the following units:

Divisional
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

HQ
Infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

:
- 3 brigade
  Brigade
  A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
  
  s, each comprising:
  - 4 battalion
    Battalion
    A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
    
    s (with 4 machine gun
    Machine gun
    A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
    
    s each)

Mounted troops:
- 1 cavalry
  Cavalry
  Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
  
  squadron
- 1 cyclist company

Artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

:
- HQ Divisional Artillery
- 3 field artillery
  Field artillery
  Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, long range, short range and extremely long range target engagement....
  
  brigades (12 batteries
  Artillery battery
  In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
  
  - 18 pounders (~8 kg) with three ammunition column
  Ammunition column
  An ammunition column consists of military vehicles carrying artillery and small arms ammunition for the combatant unit to which the column belongs. Thus the ammunition columns of a division, forming part of the brigades of field artillery, carry reserve ammunition for the guns, the machine guns of...
  
  s)
- 1 field artillery howitzer
  Howitzer
  A howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent...
  
  brigade (4 batteries - 4.5 in. (114 mm) howitzers with one ammunition column)
- 1 heavy battery (4 x 60 pounder (27 kg) with one ammunition column)
- 1 divisional ammunition column

Engineers
Military engineer
In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...

:
- HQ Divisional Engineers
- 3 field companies
  Company (military unit)
  A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...

Signals Service
Royal Corps of Signals
The Royal Corps of Signals is one of the combat support arms of the British Army...

:
- 1 signal company

Pioneers:
- 1 pioneer battalion (with 4 machine guns)

3 field ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...

s
1 sanitary section
1 mobile veterinary section
1 motor ambulance workshop
1 divisional train

Composition

Number of Soldiers: 19,614
Horses & mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...

s: 5,818
Guns:
- 48 x 18 pounder (8 kg)
- 16 x 4.5 in (114 mm) howitzer
- 4 x 60 pounder (27 kg)
Vickers machine guns: 52
Assorted carts & vehicles: 958
Cycles: 538
Motor vehicle
Motor vehicle
A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or motor, usually by an internal combustion engine, or an electric motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid...

s:
- cycles: 19
- cars: 11
- lorries: 4
- ambulances: 21

Divisional structure in 1918

In 1918, a typical division

Division (military)

would have comprised the following units:

Divisional HQ
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...

.
- Infantry
  Infantry
  Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
- 3 brigade
  Brigade
  A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
  
  s, each comprising 3 battalion
  Battalion
  A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
  
  s, with 36 machine gun
  Machine gun
  A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
  
  s each.
- 3 light trench mortar
  Mortar (weapon)
  A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
  
  batteries with 8 x 3 in (76 mm) Stokes
  Stokes Mortar
  The Stokes mortar was a British trench mortar invented by Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE which was issued to the British Army and the Commonwealth armies during the latter half of the First World War.-History:...

Artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
- H.Q. Divisional Artillery
- 2 field artillery brigades, each comprising 4 batteries with 6 x 18 pounders
  Ordnance QF 18 pounder
  The Ordnance QF 18 pounder, or simply 18-pounder Gun, was the standard British Army field gun of the World War I era. It formed the backbone of the Royal Field Artillery during the war, and was produced in large numbers. It was also used by British and Commonwealth Forces in all the main theatres,...
  
  (8 kg) and 2 x 4.5-inch Howitzers
  QF 4.5 inch Howitzer
  The Ordnance QF 4.5 inch Howitzer was the standard British Empire field howitzer of the First World War era. It replaced the BL 5 inch Howitzer and equipped some 25% of the field artillery. It entered service in 1910 and remained in service through the interwar period and was last used in...
- 2 medium trench mortar batteries with 6 x 2 in (51 mm)
- 1 divisional ammunition column

Engineer
Military engineer
In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...

s
- H.Q. Divisional Engineers
- 3 field companies

Signals Service
- 1 signal company

Pioneers
- 1 pioneer battalion, comprising 4 companies, with 16 Vickers machine gun
  Vickers machine gun
  Not to be confused with the Vickers light machine gunThe Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled .303 inch machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army...
  
  s each

3 field ambulances
1 sanitary section
1 mobile veterinary section
1 motor ambulance workshop
1 divisional train

Number of troops and equipment:

All ranks: 16,035
Horses & mules: 3,838
Guns: 48
- 18 pounder (8 kg): 36
- 4.5 in (114 mm) howitzer: 12
- trench mortars: 36
  - Stokes: 24
  - Medium: 12
Machine guns: 400
- Vickers: 64
- Lewis
  Lewis Gun
  The Lewis Gun is a World War I–era light machine gun of American design that was perfected and widely used by the British Empire. It was first used in combat in World War I, and continued in service with a number of armed forces through to the end of the Korean War...
  
  : 336
Assorted carts & vehicles: 870
Cycles: 341
Motor cycles: 44
Motor cars: 11
Motor lorries: 3
Motor ambulances: 21

External links

E-book The First Hundred Thousand by John Hay Beith
John Hay Beith
Major General John Hay Beith, CBE , from Edinburgh, Scotland, was a schoolmaster and soldier, and, under the pen name Ian Hay, a novelist and playwright.-Background:...

at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
E-book All in It: K(1) Carries On A Continuation of the First Hundred Thousand by John Hay Beith
John Hay Beith
Major General John Hay Beith, CBE , from Edinburgh, Scotland, was a schoolmaster and soldier, and, under the pen name Ian Hay, a novelist and playwright.-Background:...

at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
E-book Kitchener's Mob: Adventures of an American in the British Army by James Norman Hall
James Norman Hall
James Norman Hall was an American author best known for the novel Mutiny on the Bounty with co-author Charles Nordhoff.-Biography:Hall was born in Colfax, Iowa, where he attended the local schools...

at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...

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