The Army and The Challenge Of War 1914–1918

Abstract

Abstract At the start of the First World War, Britain did not have an army capable of fighting a major war on the Continent. Hence, on 4 August 1914, the regular British army, not including reservists, consisted of only 247,432 officers and men, about one-third of whom were in India. In contrast, after four and a half years of war, on 1 November1918, British troops in France, not including colonial troops, amounted to 1,497,198 officers and men, while the British army everywhere at the same date totalled 2,075,275, again not including colonial troops. To this should be added another 1,383,311 British officers and men stationed at home in November 1918, for a total of 3,458,586. Thus the British army had multiplied in size fourteen times over during the period of the war, and so the history of the British army in the First World War is a history of tremendous change and adaptation.