ACLS Humanities E-Book: "The infantry cannot do with a gun less": the place of the artillery in the British Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918

"The infantry cannot do with a gun less": the place of the artillery in the British Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918

Sanders Marble

Year: 2008, c2002.

Publisher: Columbia University Press.

For full access to this item, please Login

table of contents

Title Page

List of Illustrations

Figures

Maps

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

1: Introduction

[Intro]

Elements of Battle

Focus of the Study

Two Schools of Thought?

Why not Revolutionaries?

Source Material

Other Technical Branches

A Combat Arm?

New Ideas

2: Background through the end of 1914

Introduction

The Legacy of the Boer War

Postwar Reforms

Foreign Influences

Organizational Structure

Chain of Command

Aggressive Use of Artillery

Field Artillery Tactics

Field Artillery Equipment

The Royal Garrison Artillery

Siege Artillery in the Field

Conclusions: The Pre-war Artillery

1914: The Test of Battle

3: Preparing the Attack: Part I, 1914-1916

Introduction

1914

The First Trench-warfare Attack

1915: Neuve Chapelle

Another View on Tactics

The Next Attacks: Aubers Ridge and Festubert

Loos

The Search for a Formula

GHQ's Role

Haig Takes Over

1916: The Somme: Planning

Density of the Bombardment

Wire-cutting

Ammunition Supply

Course of the Battle

Conclusion

4: Preparing the Attack, Part II: 1917-1918

Introduction

Arras: The Planning

Arras: The Battle

Messines Ridge

Third Ypres: Planning

Third Ypres: The Battle

Smaller Operations

Cambrai

Reviewing 1917

1918: Early Attacks

1918: Amiens

1918: The Hundred Days

Conclusion

5: The "Counter Blaster" and Counter-Battery Work

Introduction

Pre-war Conditions

1914: Experience from Battle

1915: Shortage of Materiel

1916: Grappling with Organization

1917: The Problems Solved

1918: Maturation of the System

Conclusion

6: Supporting the Attack: Barrages and Direct Fire

Introduction

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

Conclusion

7: Artillery in Defense

Introduction

1914

Trench Warfare, 1914-1916

1917

1918

Conclusion

8: Training and Schools

Introduction

Before the War

Initial Wartime Problems

Training Officers

What to Teach

Larkhill

Within the System

Conclusion

9: Command and Staff Arrangements

Introduction

The Battery

The Brigade

The Division

The Corps

Corps Heavy Artillery

Army Level Artillerymen

Gunners at GHQ

Conclusion

10: Conclusion: The Artilleryman's Place

Appendices: Archival Documents

[Intro]

Appendix 1: Record of work carried out by the Artillery Branch of the Headquarter Staff, South African War

Appendix 2: "Practice Camps, 1912, and the Lessons to be Learnt from Them"

Appendix 3: "Lessons to be Learnt from the 1913 Practice Camps"

Appendix 4: GHQ Notes on Artillery in the Present War

Appendix 5: Memorandum on the Possibility of Undertaking Offensive Operations

Appendix 6: 1st Army Methods for the Attack, 13 April 1915

Appendix 7: SS24, "Object and Conditions of Combined Offensive Action," June 1915

Appendix 8: CDS 50, Tactical Notes, July 1915

Appendix 9: CDS 93, Report on Experimental Firing with 18-pr. Shrapnel and H.E. at Calais, November 1915

Appendix 10: Minutes of MGsRA Conference, 24 December 1915

Appendix 11: SS98/4, Artillery Notes Number 4, Artillery in Offensive Operations, April 1916

Appendix 12: SS109, Training of Divisions for Offensive Action, May 1916

Appendix 13: Notes on Artillery, June 1916 (Compiled by the General Staff.)

Appendix 14: Report on Visit to III Corps, c. June 1916

Appendix 15: Artillery Notes Number 5, Wire Cutting, June 1916

Appendix 16: Letters from Major General Birch, June-July 1916

Appendix 17: Birch's report on the Somme Bombardment, 9 July 1916

Appendix 18: Artillery Lessons Drawn From The Battle Of The Somme, c. December 1916

Appendix 19: SS139/4, Artillery in Offensive Operations, March 1917

Appendix 20: SS157, Report on the Overseas Artillery School, Salisbury Plain, May 1917

Appendix 21: Internal GHQ memo on limited attacks, 26 June 1917

Appendix 22: Attack Barrages As Modified By The Enemy's Latest Tactics, 25 August 1917

Appendix 23: General Principles on which the Artillery Plan will be drawn, August-September 1917

Appendix 24: SS592, Catechism for Heavy and Siege Artillery Subalterns, October 1917

appendix

Appendix 26: Lessons from the 1917 Battle Fighting of the Fifth Army from an Artillery Point of View, December 1917

Appendix 27: Remarks on "Notes on the work of a Counter Battery Office," c. late 1917 (XV Corps)

appendix

Appendix 29: Fifth Army winter artillery guidelines, 1917-18, 27 December 1917

Appendix 30: Birch's Report on Artillery in Defense, 10 February 1918

Appendix 31: SS139/3, Artillery Notes Number 3, "Counter-Battery Work," February 1918

Appendix 32: SS139/7, Artillery Notes Number 7, "Artillery in Defensive Operations," February 1918

Appendix 33: Extract from the report on the Organization etc. of the IX Corps Artillery during the Operations from 10th to 21st April, 1918; May 1918

Appendix 34: Fourth Army Artillery in the Battle of Amiens, 26 August 1918

Appendix 35: Fourth Army Artillery in the Attack on the Hindenburg Line, c. October 1918

Appendix 36: "The Development of Mobile Artillery, 1914-1918," 1919

Appendix 37: Anon., "Artillery and the General Staff," 1919

Appendix 38: "Artillery Development in the Great War," October 1920

Appendix 39: C. N. F. Broad, "Artillery Intelligence and Counter Battery Work," 1922

Appendix 40: "The Coming of the Creeping Barrage," 1931

Appendix 41: Memo from MGRA at GHQ for Haig's conference with Army Commanders, 9 June 1918

Appendix 42: Draft memo from MGRA, GHQ to GS, GHQ, 23 August 1916

Notes

1: Introduction

2: Background through the end of 1914

3: Preparing the Attack: Part I, 1914-1916

4: Preparing the Attack, Part II: 1917-1918

5: The "Counter Blaster" and Counter-Battery Work

6: Supporting the Attack: Barrages and Direct Fire

7: Artillery in Defense

8: Training and Schools

9: Command and Staff Arrangements

10: Conclusion: The Artilleryman's Place

Appendix 1: Record of work carried out by the Artillery Branch of the Headquarter Staff, South African War

Glossary of Useful Terms

Bibliography

Unpublished Primary Sources

Public Record Office, Kew

Churchill College, Cambridge

House of Lords Record Office

Imperial War Museum

Liddell Hart Centre, King's College London

National Army Museum

Royal Air Force Museum

Royal Artillery Institution

Staff College, Camberley

Published Primary Sources

Books

Articles

Other Journals

Secondary Sources

Links

Chronological Index

About the Author

reviews

No reviews available

catalog record

Title:

"The infantry cannot do with a gun less" : the place of the artillery in the British Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918 / by Sanders Marble.

Author:

Marble, Sanders

Extent:

XML encoded text

E-Distribution Information:

University of Michigan Library, Scholarly Publishing Office
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Permission must be received for any subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact info@hebook.org for more information.

Source Version:

"The infantry cannot do with a gun less" : the place of the artillery in the British Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918 / by Sanders Marble.
Marble, Sanders
New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, c2002.

URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.99014

Subject Headings:

• Great Britain. -- Army. -- British Expeditionary Force -- History -- World War, 1914-1918
• Artillery -- Great Britain -- History
• World War, 1914-1918 -- Great Britain

Notes:

• Caption title; description based on screen of 2008-10-06.
• Originally published by Gutenberg-e: www.gutenberg-e.org.
• Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of London, 1998.
• Electronic access restricted ; authentication may be required

Encoding Description:

Project Description:
	Header created via MARC-to-XML-to-TEI transformation on 2011-06-23
Editorial Declaration:
	This electronic text file was created via XML encoding. No corrections have been made to the text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through automated and manual processes using the recommendations for Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.