When the guns of august blew that began world war one, the tiny army of the British Empire was man for man the best army in the entire world. Unique among the great powers, the army was made up not of conscripts drafted for two or three years but of long service volunteer professional soldiers. Colonial ambitions around the world had lead to the average British 'Tommy' typically being the veteran of hard service overseas, indeed most of the NCO corps as well as the majority of the senior officer base had seen hard combat in the Boer conflict (1899-1902), the Sudan and many other colonial flashpoints. In the sixty years between the Crimean War and World War One the Bristish Army was involved in no less than 80 colonial conflicts and rebellions all over the world,many of them concurrently. Thus insured combat experiance of one form or another. Indeed the average private had served for four or more years active duty and the average corporal had upwards of twelve years service under his belt--many more than their counterparts in the conscripted armies of thier enemies and allies. The principal drawback of the type of military that its mobilized size was many degrees smaller than other modern armies of comparable countries.
The crown kept a peacetime army of 247,432 regular troops organized in four guards regiments, 68 infantry regiments and 33 of cavalry serving all over the world. The majority of the line infantry regiments had two battalions in the Regular Army one of which was usually overseas, and the other trained recruits in the United Kingdom. Most Regiments also had two battalions of reservists who were in their 30's and 40's. In August 1914, in addition to the regular army, there were three forms of reserves. The Army Reserve was 145,350 strong, the Special Reserve had another 64,000 men and the National Reserve had some 215,000. This totaled on paper a mobilized force of almost 700,000 men however only 150,000 men were able to be formed into the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that was sent to the continent. This 'contemptible little army' of six infantry divisions and one of cavalry was outnumbered by the Germans on the western front by a figure of more that ten to one. The Royal Flying Corps was included with the army until 1918 and at the outbreak of the war consisted of 84 air planes.
The royal army, having learned its lessons in modern warfare at the hands of the Boers at the turn of the century, had made several changes as a result. The typical Tommy was better dressed for tactical situations than most soldiers in a tan uniform with lots of pockets and the best web gear of any of the 1914 combatants. Ethnic Scottish Regiments wore took their traditional kilts into battle alongside blowing bagpipers. The 303 caliber short magazine lee Enfield rifle was arguably the best bolt action rifle of the war and its ten round magazine capacity was twice that of the German Mauser. The British regular was drilled to deliver 'ten rounds rapid' to break up enemy attacks and were able to accomplish this with devastating effect. When the Imperial German Army met the BEF for the first time at the Battle of Mons, German officers believed the British to have many times the amount of machine guns that they actually did due to the volume of fire that was produced by the British regulars and their Enfield rifles. Vickers machineguns proved deadly to the enemies of Britannia as did the hard hitting and easy to load Webley .455 revolver that armed its officers.
Four years of war saw conscription and Kitcheners call to arms placed 8,780,000 subjects of the British empire of all backgrounds into the khaki uniform of the Tommy. This figure includes more than a million and a half colonial troops drawn from all of the countries of the commonwealth. Particular mention should be given to India who provided 518,000 troops including ethnic Sikh, Pakistani Moslem, and Gurkhas regiments and to Australia who provided some 430,000 of their ‘diggers’ from down under. Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Jamaica among others also formed sizable national forces that were sent to fight the enemies of Britain complete with indigenous uniforms and commanded by their own officers as part of the empires army.
The graves of the western front, Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Salonika kept 662,000 official dead and another 140,000 marked as missing, presumed dead. Another two Million took home visible life changing wounds. The flower of the British Empire lay in the earth of the Flanders fields.
Join the Conversation