January 2006

 

THE BROTHERS

byJ.P-Lethbridge

 On 25 October 1917 the Birmingham Post reported the following tribunal case. A thirty-five year old jobbing builder and plumber had been passed as B1 ie fit for garrison duty abroad. Although garrison troops were out of the front line they might well see action in emergencies. He was married and had five children.

The builder had eight brothers. Four had already been killed in action and four more were serving soldiers in combat units. On this basis the builder and plumber asked for exemption from conscription.

Did the tribunal: (a) Grant a permanent exemption? (b) Grant a temporary exemption and if so for how long? (c) Reject the man's claim altogether?

For answer see overleaf.

THE MAD MINUTE

The rapid rile fire of the Old Contempibles is legendary and as it was matched by the soldiers of no other army, it is relevant to ask how that standard was reached. I would suggest that the answer lies in history, the weapon and in training.

The British Army's harsh experience in the South African War had taught it the importance of small arms fire in modem warfare. It therefore decided that it wanted six machine guns per battalion but financial stringency meant that it had to settle for two, which was the same SCALE as in the German army. It was therefore decided that this deficiency must be made good by superior musketry, as the use of the rifle was then known.

The Army was fortunate in being armed with a weapon ideally suited for this purpose, the .303 Short Magazine Lee Enfield or SMLE. This was a shortened version of the 'Long' Lee Enfield, a measure suggested by field experience in South Africa. The SMLE was therefore not only a more convenient weapon for the infantry but handy enough for use by the cavalry (Continental cavalry went to war with a more or less useless carbine, derided as a pop gun).

The SMLE had a ten round magazine which could be reloaded by pressing two five round clips down into it - it was not necessary to remove it from the rifle for this purpose. Most other armies had only five round magazine rifles although the French Lebel had an eight round magazine but the rounds had to be inserted one at a time.

Then the bolt action was superb. In a quick flick of the wrist, the bolt was unlocked, pulled to the rear thereby extracting the empty cartridge case from the breach, allowing the next round to rise ready to be rammed into the breach by the bolt coming forward and locking. This bolt action could be done several times whilst this paragraph is being read. Men were trained to do this with the rifle still in the shoulder thus maintaining the aim. During training and in the field, great stress was placed on keeping the working parts 'clean, bright and slightly oiled'. In the absence of oil, as happened at one stage during First Ypres, rapidity was affected.

The SMLE was accurate enough for general service but not good enough for sniping.

Daily strengthening and quickening exercises were performed throughout the soldier's service with the Colours, usually seven years. The strengthening exercises consisted of using the rifle much like an Indian Club. Quickening exercises were done with dummy ammunition, each soldier being isued with two clips of five: naturally they had to be polished.

 Stress was always placed on the rounds being accurately aimed. This was checked by the rifleman in the lying position aiming at a hole in a disc held up to the eye of the instructor who could see if the aim was correct while rapid fire was being practised. Perhaps it is unnecessary to say that the man holding the disc was required to personally satisfy himself that the rounds being loaded were indeed practice rounds.

Its is a testament to the effectiveness of the training that such a high standard was reached despite the fact that financial stringency limited the amount of live practice ammunition available. In order to qualify for efficiency pay a soldier had to fire an annual qualifying course which consisted of several tests at firing points at various distances from the target: grouping; snap shot; moving and so on. He had to be able to fire fifteen aimed round a minute with accuracy, but many managed considerably more, even as many as thirty.

It is interesting to note that fortunately the cavalry had also been trained up to this standard, against the wishes of some who believed that the sword and the lance were the only weapons for the true cavalryman. Dismounted cavalry saved the day on many occasions during the early months of the war.

As trench warfare dragged on, the grenade tended to replace the rifle as the infantryman's personal weapon. In any case war time training was necessarily shorter and less thorough than in a peace time professional army and in 1918 the skill of the Old Contemptibles was sorely missed

'DIG OR DIE To some trench warfare epitomised military incompetence, but should the generals on either side have foreseen it or avoided it? They certainly did not intend it: their pre-war plans resulted in a war of vast movement, a phase that ended some time about the Battle of the Aisne. The American Civil War and the Russo -Japanese War should have made it clear that the railways had made it possible to mass large armies at the front and that modem fire power greatly favoured the defence. Thus, when the roughly equal German and Allied armies met, the attackers would almost certainly have to retreat, manoeuvre, dig in or perish. This is what happened on the Western Front when the 'Race to Sea' meant that, unlike on the Eastern and some other fronts, there was no longer room to manoeuvre. So, was there ever a complete breakthrough on the Western Front?

ANSWER. The answer is (b). The plumber and builder was granted three months exemption. This was a harsh decision but by this time Passchendaele (Third Ypres) was nearing its close.

 

. BOOK OF THE MONTH:77ie Old Contemptibles The British Expeditionary Force. 1914 by Robin Neillands. This is the latest addition to the branch library so I cannot give its list number. The author gives a good summary of the activies of the BEF in the opening months of the war. However the ground that he covers will be well known to many of you but I can recommend it as a very good introduction to the subject. There are a couple of minor errors in it regarding the ranks of some generals. One illustration purports to show troops on the march before the Battle of Mons but their equipment clearly fixes the date as late 1915 or early 1916 - the camera may not lie but the caption can. Don't let me put you off this readable book: Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bulletin of the Birmingham Branch of the WFA

Compiled by Bob Butcher