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History of the British Army
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The history of the British Army spans over three and a half centuries and numerous European wars, colonial wars and world wars. From the early 19th century until 1914, the United Kingdom was the greatest economic and Imperial Power in the world, and although this dominance was principally achieved through the strength of the British Royal Navy, the British Army played a significant role.
In peacetime, Britain has generally maintained only a small professional Volunteer army, expanding this as required in time of war, due to Britain's traditional role as a sea power. Since 1745, the army has played little or no role in British domestic politics, and, other than in Ireland, has seldom been deployed against internal threats.
The Army has been involved in many global international conflicts, including the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the two World Wars. Historically, it contributed to the expansion and retention of the British Empire. The 1990s saw the Army become increasingly involved in multi-national peacekeeping work and this has continued into the 21st century.
The British Army has long been at the forefront of new military developments. It was the first to develop and deploy the tank, and what is now the Royal Air Force had its origins within the British army. At the same time the Army emphasises the continuity and longevity of several of its institutions and military traditions.
Origins
The British Army came into being with the merger of the Scottish Army and the English Army, following the unification of the two countries' parliaments and the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated existing English and Scottish regiments, and was controlled from London.
Before this event, the essential nature of the British army as a body which was entirely at the service of the Government and not involved in the appointment of that Government, had been determined by prolonged conflict and argument within both countries.
Tudor and Stuart organisation
Prior to the English Civil War in 1642, there was effectively no standing army in Scotland. In England, the monarch maintained a personal Bodyguard of Yeomen of the Guard and the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms or 'gentlemen pensioners', and a few locally raised companies to garrison important places such as Berwick on Tweed or Portsmouth (or Calais before it was recaptured by France in 1558). Troops for foreign expeditions were raised upon an ad-hoc basis in either country by its King, when required. This was a development of the feudal concept of fief (in which a lord was obliged to raise a certain quota of knights, men-at-arms and yeomanry, in return for his right to occupy land).
In practice, noblemen and professional regular soldiers were commissioned by the monarch to supply troops, raising their quotas by indenture from a variety of sources. A Commission of Array would be used to raise troops for a foreign expedition, while various Militia Acts directed that (in theory) the entire male population who owned property over a certain amount in value, was required to keep arms at home and periodically train or report to musters. The musters were usually chaotic affairs, used mainly by the Lord Lieutenants and other officers to draw their pay and allowances, and by the troops as an excuse for a drink after perfunctory drill.
After the English Tudor queen, Elizabeth I, died childless, the Scottish Stuart, King James VI, found himself also King James I of England, and moved to London. His heir, Charles I, found himself embroiled in war over his attempt to rule England without a Parliament. Ultimately, the quarrel led to the English Civil War. Initially, both King and Parliament attempted to make use of the existing Militia or Trained bands, but except for the London Trained Bands which Parliament could usually count upon as an important trained reserve, these pre-existing organisations were superseded by regiments raised and organised on the pattern of the Dutch or Swedish military system as used in the Thirty Years War on the Continent.
Civil War, Commonwealth and Restoration
After two years of ruinous but indecisive military campaigning, Parliament created the New Model Army, the first professional standing army in British history. From its foundation, the Army adopted social and religious policies which were increasingly at odds with those of Parliament. The Army's senior officers (the "Grandees") formed another faction, opposed both to Parliament and to the more extreme radicals (Levellers and dissenting Nonconformist sects) within the lower ranks. (To an extent, Parliament had brought about this situation by enacting the Self-denying Ordinance, by which members of both Houses of Parliament were deprived of military office, a measure originally introduced to replace some high-ranking officers who were suspected of disloyalty or defeatism.) After the English Civil War ended with the defeat of the Royalists, Parliament tried to reassert its control over the Army but could not sustain its authority. The Army mutinied, and started to march on London, the seat of power.
In 1648, the Second English Civil War began, the New Model Army routed English royalist insurrections in Surrey and Kent and in Wales before crushing a Scottish invasion force at the Battle of Preston.
In the aftermath of the war, Parliament was made subservient to the wishes of the Army Council — whose leading political figure was Oliver Cromwell — by excluding from Parliament, members of the House of Commons opposed to the Army Council, in an episode known as Pride's Purge. The resulting Rump Parliament passed the necessary legislation to have King Charles I tried and executed by beheading and to declare England a commonwealth.
When the Scots proclaimed his son, also named Charles Stuart, King of Scots on 4 February 1649, the Third Civil War was ignited. The New Model Army under the command of Cromwell invaded Scotland in an attempt to depose Charles. The Scots were beaten at the Dunbar but while the New Model Army was subduing Scotland north of the River Forth, Charles II led a Scottish army south into England. Cromwell left some forces in Scotland, to continue to pacify the country, and followed Charles South. Both armies gained reinforcements as they moved south. Charles gained only a fraction of the Royalists he had hoped for and when Cromwell attacked him at the Battle of Worcester his army was decisively beaten, those Scots who surrendered were shipped to English colonies in America, effectively as slaves, and Charles himself only escaped to France after several weeks on the run as a fugitive in England.
Scotland was annexed into the English Commonwealth under the terms of the Tender of Union, and when Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament in on 20 April 1653, ending the first English Commonwealth and ushering in the Protectorate Scotland and Ireland remained under military occupation. From August 1655 – January 1657 Cromwell instituted the Rule of the Major Generals for England and Wales. The impact of military rule under the Major-Generals varied from region to region, they were successful in curbing security threats to the Protectorate, but the repressiveness of enforced moral reform was widely unpopular.
Following Cromwell's death, the Restoration of Charles II saw the immediate reconstitution of England, Scotland and Ireland as separate realms, and the disbandment of the New Model Army. Both factions in the Cavalier Parliament expressed a distaste and distrust of a standing army. The Whigs (the descendants of the parliamentarians) feared that the monarch might use it as an instrument of tyranny while the Tories (the descendants of the cavaliers) remembered that the New Model Army had forced through a social revolution and had confiscated their property. It was felt that there was no need for a standing army, for the first line of defence was surely the Royal Navy, and the second the militia. These prejudices dominated domestic politics until the early 19th century.
From the Restoration to the "Glorious Revolution"
However, some kind of professional force soon reappeared. On January 26, 1661 Charles II issued the Royal Warrant that created the genesis of what would become the British Army, although the Scottish and English Armies would remain two separate organisations until the unification of England and Scotland in 1707. The small force was represented by only a few regiments. One was the Royal Scots (now part of the Royal Regiment of Scotland), which had its genesis in the force that served his father, and recruited from Scots soldiers formerly in service with the Swedes and French. This was the oldest infantry regiment in the British army (known as "Pontius Pilate's Bodygard"). Other regiments were raised to garrison Tangiers, which was the Queen's dowry.
After Charles died, it was feared that Charles's brother James was attempting to use the Army to retain power in the face of Parliamentary opposition and even impose Roman Catholicism. In the event, the Army's officers sided with the common feeling, and took no action to prevent the accession of William of Orange. In an effort to control the powers of the monarch, the English Parliament passed the Bill of Rights 1689 to prevent a standing army in peacetime without the consent of Parliament. (To this day, annual continuation notices are required for the British Army to remain legal. On paper, this also guarantees representative government, as Parliament must meet at least once a year to ratify the Order in Council renewing the Army Act (1955)[1] for a further year.)
The effect of these constitutional developments was to ensure that the Army was under the control of the Government. The Monarch might be titular Commander in Chief, but could not order the army to perform any unconstitutional act. (The last King to lead his troops into battle was George II at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743.) As another measure to avoid a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of any one person, responsibility for the various branches of the army and its administration were deliberately assigned to different high officials.
Eighteenth century
Organisation
By the middle of the century, the army's administration had developed the form which it would retain for almost a century. Ultimately, the main bodies responsible for the army were:
- The War Office was responsible for day-to-day administration of the army, and the cavalry and infantry;
- The Board of Ordnance was responsible for the supply of weapons and ammunition, and also administered the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers;
- The Commissariat was responsible for the supply of rations and transport. It occasionally raised its own fighting units, such as "battoemen" (armed watermen and pioneers in North America).
None of these bodies were usually represented in the Cabinet, nor were they responsible for overall strategy, which was in the hands of the Secretary of State for War (an office later merged into the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies). The resulting tangled lines of control often greatly hampered efficient operation through and beyond the Napoleonic Wars.
In the field, a commander's staff consisted of an Adjutant General (who handled finance, troop returns and legal matters), and a Quartermaster General (who was responsible for billeting and organising movements). There were separate commanders of the Artillery, and Commissary Officers who handled the supplies. In the field as in peacetime, the conflicting lines of responsibility often caused problems.
Infantry and cavalry units had originally been known by the names of their colonels, such as "Sir John Mordaunt's Regiment of Foot", but in 1751 a numeral system was adopted, with each regiment gaining a number in accordance with their rank in the order of precedence, so John Mordaunt's Regiment became the 47th Regiment of Foot.
The later Jacobite risings were centred in the Scottish Highlands. From the late seventeenth century, the Government had organised independent companies in the area from among clans which supported the Hanoverians or the Whig governments, to maintain order or influence in the Highlands. In 1739 the first full regiment, the 42nd Regiment of Foot, was formed in the region. More were subsequently raised. For many years, highland regiments were to be the most colourful and distinctive units in the British Army, retaining as much as possible of traditional highland dress such as the kilt.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the battalion became the major tactical unit of the army. On the continent of Europe, where large field formations were usual, a regiment was a formation of two or more battalions, under a colonel who was a field commander. The British Army, increasingly compelled to disperse units in far-flung colonial outposts, made the battalion the basic unit, under a lieutenant colonel. The function of the Regiment became administrative rather than tactical. The Colonel of a regiment remained an influential figure but rarely commanded any of its battalions in the field.
Many regiments consisted of one battalion only, plus a depot and recruiting parties in Britain or Ireland if the unit was serving overseas. Where more troops were required for a war or garrison duties, second, third and even subsequent battalions of a regiment were raised, but it was rare for more than one battalion of a regiment to serve in the same brigade or division.
Strategy and Role
From the late seventeenth century onwards, the British army was to be deployed in three main areas of conflict, one of which was effectively ended in 1746. The major theatre was often the continent of Europe. Not only did Britain's monarchs have dynastic ties with Holland or Hanover, but Britain's foreign policy often required intervention to maintain a balance of power in Europe (usually at the expense of France).
Within England and especially Scotland, there were repeated attempts by the deposed House of Stewart to regain the throne, leading to severe uprisings. These were often related to European conflict, as the Stuart Pretenders were aided and encouraged by Britain's continental enemies for their own ends. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, these rebellions were crushed.
Finally, as the British empire expanded, the army was increasingly involved in service in the West Indies, North America and India. Troops were often recruited locally, to lessen the burden on the Army. Sometimes these were part of the British army, for example the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot. On other occasions (as in the case of troops raised by the British East India Company), the local forces were administered separately from the British Army, but cooperated with it.
Troops sent to serve overseas could expect to serve there for years, in an unhealthy climate far removed from the comforts of British society. This led to the army being recruited from among the elements of society with the least stake in it; the very poorest or worst-behaved. The red-coated soldier, "Thomas Lobster", was a much-derided figure.
Seven Years War
The Seven Years' War, which took part from 1755 to 1763, has sometimes been described as the first true world war, in that conflict took part in almost every continent and on almost all the oceans. Although there were early setbacks, British troops eventually were victorious in every theatre.
Britain's main enemy was France, as was usual. The war can be said to have started in North America, where it was known as the French and Indian War. The early years saw several British defeats. The British units first despatched to the Continent were untrained in the bush warfare they met. To provide light infantry, several corps such as Rogers' Rangers were raised from among the colonists. (A light infantry regiment, Gage's light Infantry, was created as the 80th in seniority in the British Army, but subsequently disbanded). During the war, General James Wolfe amalgamated companies from several regiments into a ad hoc unit, the Louisbourg Grenadiers.
There were also disagreements between high-ranking British officers and the North American colonists. It was laid down that even the most senior Provincial officers were subordinate to comparatively junior officers in the British Army. The first concern of the colonists' representatives was the protection of the settlers from raids by Indian war parties, while the British generals often had different strategic priorities. Partly through the naval superiority gained by the Royal Navy, Britain was eventually able to deploy superior strength in North America, winning a decisive battle at Quebec.
Similarly in India, the French armies and those of the most powerful Indian rulers were defeated after a prolonged struggle, allowing the steady expansion of British-controlled territory.
In Europe, although Britain's allies (chiefly Prussia) carried the main burden of the struggle, British troops eventually played an important role at the decisive Battle of Minden.
Aftermath
The result of this war was to leave Britain as the dominant imperial power in North America, and the only European power east of the Mississippi (although it would return southern Florida to Spain). There was increasing tension between the British government and the American colonists, especially when it was decided to maintain a standing army in North America after the war. For the first time, the British Army would be garrisoned in North America in significant numbers in a time of peace.
With the defeat of France, the British government no longer sought actively to curry the favour of Native Americans. Urgued by his superiors to cut costs, Commander in Chief General Jeffrey Amherst initiated policy changes that helped prompt Pontiac's War in 1763, an uprising against the British military occupation of the former New France. Amherst was recalled during the war and replaced as commander in chief by Thomas Gage, who would serve as commander in chief in North America from 1763 to 1775.
American War of Independence
For the British Army, the American War of Independence had its origins in the military occupation of Boston in 1768. Tensions between the army and local civilians helped contribute to the Boston Massacre of 1770, but outright warfare did not begin until 1775, when an army detachment was sent to seize colonial munitions at Lexington and Concord.
Reinforcements were sent to America to put down what was initially expected to be a short-lived rebellion. Because the British army was understrength at the outset of the war, the British government hired the armed forces of several German states, referred to generically as "Hessians", to fight in North America. As the war dragged on, the ministry also sought to recruit Loyalist soldiers. Five American units (known as the American Establishment, formed in 1779) were placed on the regular army roster, though there were many other Loyalist units.
When the war ended in 1783 with defeat and the independence of the United States, many of the Loyalists fled north to Canada, where many subsequently served with the British Army. The Army itself had established many British units during the war to serve in North America or provide replacements for garrisons. All but three (the 23rd Dragoons and two Highland infantry regiments, the 71st and 78th Foot) were disbanded immediately after the war.
The Army was forced to adapt its tactics to the poor communications and forested terrain of North America. Large numbers of light infantry (detached from line units) were organised, and the formerly rigid drills of the line infantry were modified to a style known as "loose files and an American scramble". While the British defeated the colonists in most of the set-piece battles of the war, none of these had any decisive result, whereas the British defeats at the Battle of Saratoga and Siege of Yorktown adversely affected British morale, prestige and manpower.
Napoleonic Wars
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Organisation
Although the rigid parade-ground tactics were reintroduced after the end of the American War of Independence, by the turn of the 19th century, the Army was beginning to embrace new technology and new tactics. Experience in the American wars led to the introduction of light infantry units and riflemen. These skirmishers allowed a field Army to act in a fluid manner, rather than as rigid formations, which was still the predominant method of fighting during that period.
The first light infantry regiments (the 43rd and 52nd Foot) were converted in 1803, though they were still armed with muskets. An Experimental Corps of Riflemen was formed in 1800, armed with the Baker rifle. It was brought into the line as the 95th Regiment of Foot in 1802 (The Rifle Brigade from 1816). Other rifle-armed units were the 5th Battalion of the 60th Regiment, and some of the light units of the King's German Legion. The rifle-armed units saw extensive service, most prominently in the Peninsular War where the mountainous terrain saw them in their element.
Another new arm introduced in 1794 was the Royal Horse Artillery, created to give artillery support to cavalry formations, and often used to provide an artillery reserve to the army.
During the wars, many émigré units were formed from refugees from countries occupied by France. The largest corps was the King's German Legion. Other units included the Royal Corsican Rangers, further battalions of the 60th Regiment, and two battalions of Greek Light Infantry. The Army also saw service in the War of 1812 against the new United States of America. The Canadas became one of the main theatres of war, and several regular units and full-time militia units were raised in Canada.
Considerable numbers of Irish soldiers also served in the British army during the Napoleonic conflict after the Penal laws were relaxed in 1793.
In some respects the British Army retained its unique characteristics, acquired during its previous experience of campaigning. In others, it borrowed heavily from continental influences. For example, many light cavalry replaced the practical uniform previously used in North America with the fantastic hussar dress common in European armies.
Operations
In 1795 The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany took command of the regular British Army, including the Ordnance Corps, the Militia, and the Volunteers[1], and immediately declared
that no officer, should ever be subject to the same disadvantages under which he had laboured
reflecting on the Netherlands campaigns of 1793-94.[2] The Duke of York's participation in the Anglo-Russian invasion of North Holland in 1799 made a strong impression on him, and he was the single most responsible person in the British Army to institute reforms that created the force which later was able to serve in the Peninsular War, as well as the preparations for the expected French invasion of United Kingdom in 1803.
The French Revolutionary Wars saw the Army take part in many campaigns against the French and countries conquered by them. Although a British army which fought on the continent was defeated after being shown to be inadequately prepared (an episode which may have led to the unwarranted derisory children's rhyme, The Grand Old Duke of York), and another force suffered severe losses to yellow fever and other diseases in the West Indies, British troops captured important overseas territories in the Caribbean and the Indian sub-continent (including Ceylon). A British army also fought a successful campaign in 1801 to expel invading French troops from Egypt.
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
After a brief interlude, the Peace of Amiens, the Napoleonic Wars began in 1803. As in the previous war with France, the Army saw service in many campaigns, including the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa, an abortive (initially unauthorised) invasion of Spanish South America and further wars and campaigns in the Indian sub-continent and Caribbean.
The most important campaign the Army fought during the conflict was the Peninsular War in Portugal and Spain. After the French had invaded Portugal and Spain, the British landed in Portugal to help them in their uprising against the French in 1808. The British were commanded by Lieutenant-General Arthur Wellesley (later 1st Duke of Wellington). He achieved a number of important victories over the French but was nevertheless superseded as commander by more senior, though often less capable, officers.
After Sir John Moore was killed at the Battle of Corunna in January 1809, Wellesley returned as Commander-in-Chief. With the help of the Portuguese and Spanish (including guerrillas), the British fought many bloody battles against the French. French invasions of Portugal were repelled but the British also had to retreat from Spain a number of times. Eventually, in May 1813, a renewed offensive saw the French pushed back in Spain, and the British successfully entered France itself in October 1813.
With the British now firmly in France and the French experiencing defeats elsewhere, Napoleon was forced into exile in April 1814. A year later, he returned to France and regained power, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815 by a British, German, Belgian, Dutch and Prussian force under the command of the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blücher.
The War of 1812 against the United States was not directly related to the Napoleonic Wars, but was brought about largely by their disruption of American trade. The British government diverted few resources from the war against Napoleon. For the first part of the war against the Americans, the few British regular units in Canada performed well against the hastily expanded American army and the States' militias. After the first abdication of Napoleon, large reinforcements were sent to North America (incidentally precluding their appearance at Waterloo), but by this time, the American troops had improved in quality under successful leaders. The overall result of the fighting was indecisive, and it was recognised that Britain was unable to strike any blow which could compel the Americans to make peace on British terms. The Treaty of Ghent formally acknowledged the existing status quo.
Aftermath
The British Empire had increased in size during the war, through the capture of French and Dutch colonies (some of which were returned), and was continuing to do so. After the end of the war, the Government nevertheless implemented heavy cuts in the Armed Forces. All the emigre units were disbanded (although many of the exiles wished in any case to return home after the downfall of Napoleon), as were the units raised in Canada. Many of the higher-numbered regiments were also disbanded but the cuts proved too severe and a number of new regiments were raised.
Four regiments of Lancers were introduced in emulation of the French and other continental armies. Three of them were converted from light dragoon regiments and one raised to replace a disbanded Irish regiment of dragoons. (Later, another regiment of light dragoons would be converted and another transferred from the British East India Company's Army.
The later nineteenth century
Organisation
From the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the outbreak of the Crimean War, the British army's organisation, and to an extent its personnel, remained largely unchanged. The Duke of Wellington remained as Commander-in-Chief until 1852 (except when serving as Prime Minister). His successors were men who had served him closely, such as Sir Henry Hardinge. None of them saw any need for reform of the existing systems, dress or tactics.
Soldiers enlisted either for life, or for a period of ten or twelve years, at the end of which most soldiers were so little skilled for civilian life that they immediately re-enlisted. The long-term effect of this was to produce regiments with a large number of veteran soldiers, but no reserves which could be called upon to reinforce the regular army. At the same time, the system of Sale of commissions (and abuses of it) worked against either the proper training of officers or any consistently applied career structure.
In addition to highlighting many shortcomings, The Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny (1857-58) greatly stretched the army, to the extent that Canadian volunteers raised a regiment for the British Army, titled the 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadians) Regiment of Foot, for service in India; it did not, however, see service there.
In the aftermath of the Rebellion in India, control of India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown. The so-called "European" regiments of the East India Company, consisting of three cavalry and nine infantry regiments, were transferred to the British Army. Many troops and batteries of the Company's artillery also became incorporated into the Royal Regiment of Artillery. There were objections, later termed the "White Mutiny" by East India Company troops who objected to the measure. These were suppressed without difficulty.
Following the disbanding of most of the Indian units of the Company's armies, a British Indian Army was raised mainly from communities outside the mainstream of Indian culture, the so-called Martial Races. The British personnel of the Indian Army were restricted to officers and a few technical specialist NCOs. Although the British and Indian Army officers both trained at the Royal Military College and frequently served together, there was rivalry between the two institutions.
Volunteer movement
At the peak of the British Empire, the middle and upper classes were often 'militaristic', usually seeking to join the armed forces to increase their social standing, especially the Yeomanry regiments. In 1858, there was an assassination attempt on Napoleon III, ruler of France, by Felice Orsini which was linked to Britain. In spite of the fact Britain had only just been in a war against Russia with France as its ally, there was now an increased fear of war breaking out.
This saw a surge in interest in the more affluent communities in creating volunteer units, known as 'Volunteer Rifle Corps'. There were many such corps formed all over the United Kingdom. One of the most prominent was the Artists' Rifles (originally known as the 38th Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps) established in 1860 by the art student Edward Starling.
Cardwell and Childers reforms
In the early 1870s, the Cardwell reforms, named after the Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell, saw radical reforms of the armed forces implemented in the aftermath of the inadequacies uncovered during the Crimean War. An Enlistment Act saw a change in the terms of enlistment, which could at last produce some trained reserves and also made soldiering a more tempting career. A Localisation Scheme resulted in the pairing of single-battalion regiments via administrative depots on a county-based system.
Administrative reforms included the abolition of the purchase of commissions, replacing it with advancement by seniority and merit, and the end of barbarous disciplinary measures and other anachronistic practices.
The Childers reforms, which came into effect on 1 July 1881, continued the earlier reforms which strengthened regiments' county affiliations by discarding the numeral system and combining most of the single-battalion regiments into two-battalion regiments with, for the most part, county names in their titles. This created a force of 69 Line Infantry regiments, consisting of 48 English, 10 Scottish, 8 Irish, and 3 Welsh regiments.
Another aspect of the reforms included the further integration of the militia into the regular regimental system, becoming additional numbered battalions of the regiments, and the establishment of a reserve force. These changes, and the others that were implemented, bore the Army in good stead for the two World Wars it would experience in the 20th century.
For a list of the regiments that were established on 1 July, see List of British Army regiments (1881).
Army leadership
For almost half a century from the end of the Crimean War, the Commander in Chief of the Army was Queen Victoria's cousin, the Duke of Cambridge. Although not an absolute reactionary, his generally conservative principles and snobbishness were often to provide an easy target for critics and satirists.
Much of the actual conduct of operations (both in its planning at the War Office and in the field) was carried out by General Garnet Wolseley, the Adjutant General from 1871 onwards. Although he supported the Liberal governments' reforms of the army, he was bitterly opposed to their foreign and imperial policies, which he believed to be indecisive and ineffectual.
Wolseley was instrumental in promoting a circle of officers, the Wolseley ring, or "Africans" to positions of influence. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, there was increasing rivalry and tension between the Wolseley ring and the rival Roberts ring or "Indians", proteges of General Frederick Roberts and whose experience was largely gained with the British Indian Army or with British units in India. The quarrel between the factions was perhaps never resolved, until most of the officers involved had retired from the army.
Dress and equipment
Although British troops have often been portrayed in films as toiling in hot climates in heavy scarlet serge uniforms, officers from the end of the Crimean War onwards generally took a far more practical approach. Wolseley had lightweight grey linen uniforms purpose-made for his expeditions in Ashanti and Sudan. In India, almost all troops soon copied the neutral Khaki (an Urdu word meaning "dust") uniforms first adopted by Indian irregular units on the North-West Frontier. The last battle in which British troops wore scarlet was the 1885 Battle of Gennis in the Sudan. Khaki became the official colour for campaign dress in 1902, but scarlet (and even rifle green) had been superseded long before that date.
Likewise, faced with campaigns in harsh environments far from any convenient lines of communication, British leaders insisted that the primary quality of any equipment should be robustness. Sometimes, this resulted in the British army apparently lagging behind its contemporaries in Europe. Nevertheless, new rifles, guns and technical equipment such as field telegraphs were steadily introduced; sometimes the issue of a weapon was not even complete before it was superseded by another model.
Haldane reforms
The Second Boer War (1899-1902) provided further impetus for the expansion of the Army -- which had already been expanding in size during the last years of the 19th century -- including the creation of the Irish Guards in 1900 in honour of the distinguished service of Irish regiments during that conflict, and the Royal Garrison Regiment, created to fill the void of units departing for South Africa.
After the end of the war, further reforms took place, known as the Haldane reforms after Secretary of State for War Richard Burdon Haldane. These included the formal establishment of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in anticipation of a war on the European continent. A part-time volunteer organisation, known as the Territorial Force, was also created, encompassing the reserve units of the Army with militia units being transferred to the newly created Special Reserve.
Re-equipment with up-to-date weapons and equipment followed the increasing pace of technology. An Air Battalion was formed in the Royal Engineers in 1911, becoming the Royal Flying Corps the following year. The RFC remained part of the Army until 1918 when it was separated to form the Royal Air Force.
Operations
India
For the first half of the nineteenth century, most of Britain's wars involved expansion in India, and as a result of conflicts on India's borders, into Burma. In the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the East India Company finally broke the Maratha Empire which had resisted the British for almost half a century. Only the Sikh Kingdom of the Punjab could pose a threat to the British, and its ruler, Ranjit Singh, maintained a wary friendship with Britain.
A persistent feature of British policy was a nervousness amounting almost to paranoia about Russian expansion in Central Asia and influence in Afghanistan (see The Great Game). Obsessed with the idea that Afghanistan's Emir Dost Mohammed Khan was courting a Russian presence, the British sent an expedition to replace him with Shuja Shah Durrani, who was in exile in British India. This triggered the First Anglo-Afghan War, in which the expedition successfully captured Kabul and other fortresses. Dost Mohammed Khan surrendered himself and the complacent British commanders then withdrew many of their garrisons even as they were faced with growing popular resistance. The result was the Massacre of Elphinstone's Army. The next year, British and Indian forces recaptured and looted Kabul, but Dost Mohammed was restored and the British withdrew from Afghanistan having stored up resentment and disorder.
A short campaign secured the conquest of Sindh. In 1839, Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Punjab, had died. The Punjab fell into disorder, and a war between the East India Company and the powerful Sikh Army, the Khalsa, became almost inevitable. The First Anglo-Sikh War in 1845 resulted in the defeat of the Khalsa and a British takeover of much of the administration of the Punjab. There had been some desperate fighting and some near-defeats, from which the British army under Sir Hugh Gough were spared by self-interest or treachery among the top leaders of the Khalsa.
The Sikhs remained restive under British control, and a rebellion broke out in 1848. The British army sent to suppress it was once again commanded by Gough, and once again suffered several reverses, before crushing the revolt at Multan and Gujarat. The annexation of the Punjab left no independent Indian state capable of withstanding the East India Company.
The Great Mutiny
Within a year of the end of the Crimean War, the Indian soldiers of the East India Company's Bengal Army rebelled. Their loyalty had been under threat for years, as they feared that British reforms and modernisation were striking at their society and religion. The uprisings sparked widespread rebellion and unrest. They were marked with attacks on British officers and administrators and their families, and some massacres.
Because the rebels lacked coordinated leadership, it was possible for the British to suppress revolts in some parts of the country early, and also defend some vital positions such as Laknao. Another vital success was the capture of Delhi, in which British troops were greatly aided by Gurkha, Punjabi and Sikh troops. As British reinforcements arrived in India, the rebellion was steadily suppressed, sometimes with great brutality.
The North West Frontier
Once the rebellion had been crushed, the only opposition to British rule came from the Pahktun inhabitants of the North-west Frontier Province adjacent to Afghanistan. In the late 1870s, a Russian diplomatic mission was installed in Kabul. The British demanded that they also have a mission in Kabul, and when this was refused, British armies once again invaded the country. Once again, after initial successes, troops were withdrawn only for popular rebellions to threaten the remaining garrisons. On this occasion however, the Army under Lord Roberts repelled the attack, then made an epic march to relieve another beleaguered garrison in Kandahar. Having installed Abdur Rahman Khan as Emir, the British once again withdrew.
For the rest of the century, there were several uprisings on the frontier, as the British extended their authority into remote areas such as Gilgit and Chitral.
China and Burma
There were several major expeditions launched around the Far East, in which India was the logistic base and provided substantial numbers of troops. Persistent clashes on the borders between Burma and Bengal and trade and sovereignty disputes resulted in the First Burmese War. The resulting treaty ceded some territory to Britain but left the Burmese kingdom intact.
The Second Anglo-Burmese War, launched in 1852 with little pretext, further truncated Burma. Finally, in 1886, disputes over the treaties led to the Third Anglo-Burmese War, in which the country was finally annexed to Britain. In all three wars, British troops had faced extremes of heat and humidity, and widespread disease, for which they were not properly prepared.
In the early nineteenth century, British traders reported increasing hostility from Chinese authorities. For their part, the Chinese were angered that the East India Company was selling vast amounts of opium to the Chinese, with harmful effects to China's society and economy. Finally, when it appeared that the traders were to be expelled by force, British troops engaged and defeated the outdated Chinese armies in several coastal provinces during the First Opium War. The resulting peace treaty ceded Hong Kong to Britain, and damaged the Chinese Emperor's prestige.
Further disputes led to the Second Opium War. Once again, the Chinese were forced to concede an unequal treaty.
Crimean War
'Charge of the Light Brigade', Painting by Richard Caton Woodville (1825-1855)
Britain's first major war in Europe since Waterloo, the Crimean War, began in 1854 after Britain and France declared war on Russia in alliance with Turkey, fearing Russian domination of the Mediterranean and encroachments in Central Asia. Throughout the war there were evident shortcomings in the army's administration, logistics and leadership. The army suffered heavy casualties from disease and exposure, and in actions such as the Battle of Balaklava and the failed storming of Sevastopol.
In the immediate aftermath of the war the Victoria Cross, which became the highest award for bravery in the face of the enemy, was created.
Africa
There were several campaigns in Africa before the end of the 19th century, during a period of time known as the "scramble for Africa". There was a punitive expedition in 1868 to Abyssinia and another to Ashanti in 1874.
South Africa
In 1879, the Anglo-Zulu War began, signifying further British expansion in southern Africa. The early days of the war saw a disaster at the Isandlwana, redeemed in the view of many by a famous defence at Rorke's Drift. The war ended with the defeat and subjugation of the Zulus. Shortly afterwards, the Boer republic of the Transvaal gained its independence after the First Anglo-Boer War, after defeating a British force at the Battle of Majuba. The Boers nearly always had the advantage of defence, were not constrained by military formations and proved skilled marksmen, but many British soldiers (including Wolseley) were left eager for revenge for their humiliation.
Egypt and Sudan
In Egypt, Britain was concerned to retain control over the Suez Canal, vital for links to India. A political crisis, the Urabi Revolt, led Britain to intervene. After crushing the dissident force at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, Britain established control over much of Egypt's policy. This also forced Britain to intervene in Egypt's nominal dependency, the Sudan. Originally sent to superintend a withdrawal, General Charles George Gordon chose instead to defend Khartoum against the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmed. A relief expedition across the deserts of northern Sudan arrived too late.
Several years later, having constructed railways and fleets of Nile steamboats, the British again advanced into the Sudan under General Kitchener. The forces of the Khalifa Adbullah, successor to the Mahdi, were bloodily defeated at the Battle of Omdurman.
The Second Boer War
The Second Anglo-Boer War began in 1899 after tension between the British and the two Dutch Boer republics culminated in the Boers declaring war against the British. Though it was a relatively minor war in comparison to what awaited the British in 1914, the British Army gained experience of tactics, technology and equipment which would stand them in good stead. However, future inadequacies had been discovered in the Army during the war, and like the Crimean War, most of the Army's deaths were due to disease.
The war also saw the present and future Dominions — Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand and South Africa — become increasingly independent and assertive, all having had troops fight the Boers. The British eventually withdrew from all of these countries and the Dominions' forces took over their duties. The Army garrisons in Australia and New Zealand had already been withdrawn in 1870. The last British battalion to leave Canada was the 5th Battalion, The Royal Garrison Regiment in 1905 when it departed Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Other
There were many other small wars that the Army took part in just before WWI, nearly all being in Africa, with the exception of the Boxer Rebellion (1900) and an expedition to Tibet in 1904.
World War I (1914-18)
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Organisation
At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the British Army was a small, professional force of 247,000 soldiers, over half of which were posted overseas in garrisons throughout the British Empire. The regular Army was supported by 224,000 reservists and 269,000 soldiers of the Territorial Force. The size of the Army was in stark contrast to the Royal Navy which was the largest navy in the world, while many of the Army's continental counterparts, such as the French and German Armies (both of whom employed conscription) numbered nearly 1 million troops and were part of highly militarised societies.
Under the Entente Cordiale, the British Army's role in a European war was to embark soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), arranged in four infantry and five brigades of cavalry. [3] The British Indian Army was called upon to assist the numbers, and of the 9610 British officers in France 20 percent were from the Indian army. The 76,450 of the other ranks 16 percent were from the Indian army. [4]
Kaiser Wilhelm was famously dismissive of the BEF, on 19 August issuing his order to "exterminate... the treacherous English and walk over General French's contemptible little army." — in later years the survivors of the regular army dubbed themselves "The Old Contemptibles". By the end of 1914, after the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, the Aisne and Ypres, the old regular British Army had been effectively wiped out, but was extremely effective at stopping the German advance.
As the regular Army's strength declined, the numbers were made up, first by the Territorials, followed by the volunteers of Lord Kitchener's New Army, known as Kitchener's Army. By the end of August 1914, he had raised six new divisions, rising to 29 divisions by March 1915. The Territorial Force also expanded, raising second- and third-line battalions and forming eight additional divisions in addition to its peacetime strength of 14 divisions. By January 1916 when conscription was introduced, 2.6 million men had volunteered for service and a further 2.3 million were conscripted before the end of the war.
A prominent feature of the early months of volunteering was the formation of Pals battalions, whole units recruited from the same town or workplace, such as the Grimsby Chums. Many of these pals who had lived and worked together, now joined up and trained together, only to die together on the first day on the Somme, leaving entire communities shattered.
During the war, most new infantry battalions were raised within existing regiments; the Northumberland Fusiliers were most prolific, fielding 51 battalions. However, some new regiments were created, such as the fifth regiment of the Foot Guards, the Welsh Guards, created in 1915 to honour the distinguished actions of the Welsh regiments in the war.
The army would change drastically over the course of the war, reacting to the various changes, from a mobile war to the static trench warfare up to 1917. The Cavalry of the Expeditionary force would represent 9.28 percent of the army, but by July 1918 would only represent 1.65 percent. Infantry would also change from 64.64 percent in 1914 to 51.25 percent in 1918, while the Royal Engineers would increase from 5.91 percent to 11.24 percent in 1918. [5]
The war also saw the British having an increasing reliance upon the Dominion and Empire troops, many of whom volunteered to serve in the British Army out of a perception that Britain was the 'Motherland'. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment and British West Indies Regiment were both formed in 1915, the latter of which was made up of volunteers from the Caribbean who had arrived in Britain. Both regiments were disbanded in 1919. There were also existing regiments like the West India Regiment and West Africa Regiment (both disbanded by the end of the 1920s). At various times on the Western Front, Australia, Canada and India provided corps, New Zealand a division and South Africa a brigade, all of which were attached to British armies.
In August 1914, the Army's Royal Flying Corps dispatched 63 aircraft to France in support of the BEF. The aggressive doctrine of RFC commander, General Hugh Trenchard, and periods of technical inferiority such as the Fokker Scourge of 1916 and Bloody April in 1917 resulted in high casualty rates amongst aircrews. At the start of 1918, the RFC numbered nearly 4,000 aircraft, including capable fighters such as the Sopwith Camel and S.E.5a. On 1 April 1918, the RFC merged with the Royal Naval Air Service, forming the independent Royal Air Force.
Equipment
The British Army were pioneers in many aspects of military technology, having adopted the first machine gun, the Maxim, in 1889 and by 1912 it possessed the Vickers machine gun. Both infantry and cavalry were equipped with the Lee-Enfield rifle (first introduced in 1895) with which the professionals of the regular Army could fire 15 aimed rounds per minute. The British Army that started the war in 1914 was not the same type of army that ended the war. The mix of arms the army possessed in 1914 was more suited to the mobile conditions of the early war, but was not suitable for the environment of trench warfare of 1915 to 1917 or to the set piece tactics of 1918. [6] Artillery suffered from a shortage of shells and initially supply only improved at the expense of quality. The Army adopted chemical weapons, usually in response to German innovations, and often lagged markedly, taking over a year to deploy their own mustard gas agent.
The British Army reacted to these shortcomings, introducing the Mills bomb as the standard grenade, producing over 70 million in the final three years of the war, and the versatile Stokes mortar, the predecessor the modern mortar. The role of the machine gun expanded throughout the war, dramatically increasing the firepower to the infantry. Platoons were equipped with the light Lewis gun while the independent machine gun companies of the Machine Gun Corps, established on 22 October 1915, operated the heavy Vickers. As the war progressed, the artillery grew in sophistication, employing the creeping barrage for protection of advancing infantry, developing sound-ranging and flash-detection techniques for counter-battery fire, and learning how to predict the fall of shells without needing to register the guns on their target.
The Army pioneered the use of the tank; operated by the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps, the Mark I tank first saw service on the Somme in September 1916. In July 1917, the Tank Corps was formed from the Heavy Branch and was the only corps created in the war to survive past the 1920s, becoming the Royal Tank Corps in 1922, then Royal Tank Regiment in 1939.
Operations
The most important theatre was the Western Front but the British Army fought in almost every theatre of the First World War. In the four years of the war, the British Army had suffered nearly 2.5 million casualties; 662,000 men killed, 140,000 missing and 1,650,000 wounded.
Western Front
Under the command of Field Marshal Sir John French, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) began to deploy to France within days of the declaration of war. The first encounter with the Germans came at Mons on 23 August 1914 after which the Allies began the Great Retreat, not stopping until at the outskirts of Paris. The BEF had small role in halting the German advance at the Marne before participating in the Aisne counter-offensive which was followed by a period known as the "Race to the Sea" during which the BEF redeployed to Flanders. For the BEF, 1914 ended with "First Ypres" which marked the beginning of a long struggle for the Ypres salient. In four months, the BEF had suffered nearly 90,000 casualties and of the 64 original 1,000-strong battalions that had travelled to France in August, on average only one officer and 30 other ranks remained. On Christmas Day, the steadily expanding BEF was reorganised into two armies; the First Army under General Sir Douglas Haig and the Second Army under General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien.
Trench warfare prevailed in 1915 and the BEF, as the junior partner on the Western Front, fought a series of small battles, at times coordinated with the larger French offensives; at Neuve Chapelle in March, Aubers Ridge and Festubert in May and at Givenchy in June. On 22 April 1915, the Germans launched the Second Battle of Ypres, employing poison gas for the first time on the Western Front and capturing much of the high ground that ringed the salient. By September 1915 the British Army had grown in strength, with the first New Army divisions entering the line, and as part of the Third Battle of Artois, the Army launched a major attack at Loos utilising their own newly developed chemical weapons for the first time. The result was another costly and disappointing failure and marked the end for Field Marshal French; on 19 December 1915, General Sir Douglas Haig became Commander-in-Chief of the BEF.
For the British Army, 1916 was dominated by the Battle of the Somme which started disastrously on 1 July. The first day on the Somme remains the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army when over 19,000 soldiers were killed and a nearly 40,000 were wounded, all for little or no gain. There followed nearly five months of attrition during which the Fourth Army of General Henry Rawlinson and the Fifth Army of General Hubert Gough advanced about five miles (8 km) for a cost of 420,000 casualties. Despite the losses, the British Army under Haig had grown in size and experience such that it was now an equal partner with the French Army on the Western Front.
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