Military Executions during World War I pp 131-163 | Cite as
Discipline and Morale in the Three Armies: Case Studies of Three British Infantry Divisions
Chapter
Abstract
The British Expeditionary Force that landed in France in August 1914 was a very different organisation from that which fought the later phases of the war. Over the course of four years the changing nature of modern battle led to the composition and organisation of infantry divisions being gradually altered. The number of horses declined from 5594 in 1914 to 3838 in 1918; the number of machine guns increased from 24 in 1914 to 400 in 1918. The allocation of artillery pieces to infantry divisions also decreased from 76 to 48, but trench mortars were added in 1916. The personnel of divisions also fluctuated between 1914 and 1917: there was a total of 18,179 all ranks in 1914; 18,122 in 1915; 19,372 in 1916; and 18,825 in 1917. But the most significant change in manpower came in 1918 when the strength of an infantry division was reduced to 16,035 all ranks.2
Keywords
Death Penalty Death Sentence British Army Western Front Heavy Casualty
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
- 1.Peter Simkins, ‘The Four Armies’ in Chandler, D. (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Army (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996), pp. 235–55, identifies four armies: the Regular army; the Territorial Force; the ‘Kitchener’ volunteers and the conscript army. To this we might add the Dominion and Colonial forces. For our purposes, however, there were three armies — Regular, Territorial and New Army — each characterised by different approaches to discipline.Google Scholar
- 2.Major A. F. Becke, History of the Great War based on Official Documents: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part I- The Regular British Divisions (HMSO, London, 1935), Appendix 1, pp. 126–7.Google Scholar
- 3.See the comparative tables in G. Oram, Death Sentences passed by Military Courts of the British Army 1914–1924 (Francis Boutle, London, 1998), p. 15, and Worthless Men: race, eugenics and the death penalty in the British Army during the First World War (Francis Boutle, London, 1998), p. 120, a synopsis of which is as follows: Condemnations for desertion: 2004 (272 executions) cowardice: 213 (14 executions) sleeping on post: 449 (2 executions) quitting post: 82 (6 executions)Google Scholar
- 4.Although there were 449 condemnations for sleeping on post only two were carried out. I have argued elsewhere that courts martial did not expect the commander-in-chief to confirm these sentences and so passed them all too frequently in order to enforce their authority on the ranks. However, after the execution of two men in Mesopotamia for this particular offence, courts martial could not afford to regard a condemnation with such impunity. Consequently the number of condemnations for sleeping on post fell dramatically.Google Scholar
- 5.See, for example, Routine Orders for 4th Division issued on 16 December 1914. PRO W095/1449.Google Scholar
- 6.Some trends in 23rd Division that are not typical of other New Army formations will be discussed later.Google Scholar
- 7.Gary Sheffield, ‘Officer-Man Relations: Morale and Discipline in the British Army 1902–22’. PhD thesis. King’s College. London (1994).Google Scholar
- 106.For a comparison of desertion in the British and German armies on the Western Front, including the military and judicial responses to it, see Christoph Jahr, Gewonliche Soldaten. Desertion und Deserteure im deutschen und britischen Heer 1914–1918 (Gottingen, 1998). See also G. Oram, ‘“The administration of discipline by the English is very rigid”: British Military Law and the Death Penalty 1868–1918’, in Crime, histoire et sociEtés/Crime, History and Societies 2001, V, no. 1, pp. 93–110.Google Scholar
- 107.There are 2634 trials for desertion on the Western Front recorded in the courtsmartial registers for the period November 1917 to August 1918. In 1178 of these cases (44.72%) a final conviction of absence has been recorded. Only 33 cases were found not guilty (approximately 1.25%). What these statistics hide, though, is the increased incidence of downgrading during the Spring of 1918 when 177 cases out of 309 (or 57.3%) were found guilty of absence rather than desertion. Figures collated from PRO W0213/19–23 inclusive.Google Scholar
- 108.Figures compiled from courts-martial registers. PRO WO 90/6 — 8& 92/3–4. Official statistics put the number at 43, which omits those tried for other offences as well as desertion. Even if analysis is confined to the official figure the rate of’downgrading’ (37%) remains comparatively low.Google Scholar
- 109.Radzinowicz and Hood. See also Oram, ‘The administration of discipline’.Google Scholar
- 110.J. M. Beattie, Crime and Courts in England, 1660–1800 (Oxford, 1986), pp 424–30. Clive Emsley, Crime and Society in England 1750–1900, 2nd edition (London, 1996), pp. 185 and 197.Google Scholar
- 111.The Petition of the Corporation of London Uanuary 25, 1819), cited in Louis Blom-Cooper QC and Gavin Drewry (eds), Law and Morality (London, 1976), p. 44.Google Scholar
- 112.Cited in Blom-Cooper and Drewry, Law and Morality, p. 47.Google Scholar
- 113.Extracts from General Routine Orders issued to the British Armies in France by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Part I (London, 1918), p. 59.Google Scholar
Copyright information
© Gerard Christopher Oram 2003