British Infantry Divisions (1914-1915) (VII)

Armies of the First World War

Shortly before the first of the Territorial Force divisions began to cross the English Channel, the War Office began a three-stage program to balance the field artillery establishments of the divisions then serving in France and Flanders. The first step in this reform redistributed the 18-pounder field guns of Regular Army divisions, with four divisions of the original Expeditionary Force providing one six-gun battery apiece for the sake of the two Regular Army divisions (the 27th and 28th Divisions) that had been making do with substandard field gun establishments. (In other words, each division that gave up a six-gun battery saw its field-gun establishment reduced from fifty-four to forty-eight, while each division that received a pair of those batteries saw its establishment increase from thirty-six to forty-eight.) The second step in the homogenization of field artillery establishments was a complex reshuffling of howitzer units that involved six-piece batteries from Regular Army divisions, four- piece batteries from New Army divisions, and non-divisional howitzer units sent out from the United Kingdom.¹ The last step in this program was a simple one-for- one exchange of 18-pounder field guns for the 13-pounder guns of horse artillery batteries of the 7th and 8th Divisions, took place in June 1915.² At the end of this process, which began in February 1915 and was complete by the middle of August of that year, most divisions of the Expeditionary Force possessed forty-eight 18-pounder field guns and twelve 4.5-inch field howitzers.

                                 Types of Regular Army Field Artillery Brigade 
                                                  January 1915 – June 1915 

Equality of overall strength did not necessarily equate to uniformity of organization. The end of the first twelve months of the war still found five different field artillery establishments in use by British Empire divisions serving on the Western Front. In fact, where the internal structure of field artillery brigades of Regular Army divisions was concerned, the reform carried out in the first half of 1915 resulted in a temporary decrease in uniformity. (Prior to the reform, there were four different types of Regular Army field artillery brigade in France and Flanders. Afterwards, there were five different types of Regular Army field artillery brigade serving on the Western Front.) Nonetheless, the fact that most of these differences were internal to field artillery brigades helped to reduce the practical difficulties of employing, shifting and supplying infantry divisions.

The reform of divisional artillery that took place in the first half of 1915 established the New Army field artillery structure as the predominant standard for the entire Expeditionary Force. Though the first eight Regular Army divisions to arrive in France were granted an official dispensation to retain their six-piece batteries, all other divisions serving on the Western Front would either be formed with a New Army-pattern field artillery establishment or converted to the New Army organization as soon as resources permitted.³

In August 1915, for example, the newly created Guards Division received a divisional field artillery made up of brigades that had originally been formed for New Army divisions.⁴ In February 1916, Territorial Force brigades in France started to receive the additional batteries that they would need in order to reach the New Army standard of twelve field gun batteries and three howitzer batteries. Most of these batteries were formed “from scratch” in the United Kingdom.⁵ Three, however, were provided by divisions of the original Expeditionary Force that had managed to retain more than their fair share of field batteries.⁶

The reform of the artillery of Territorial Force divisions, which was complete by the middle of May 1916, thus had the effect of reducing the number of distinct field artillery establishments on the Western Front from four to two. This arrangement, however, would only remain in place for a few weeks. Beginning in May 1916, the British Army launched the second major reform of the field artillery establishments serving on the Western Front.

The first step in this reform was the abolition of the distinction between howitzer brigades and field gun brigades. This measure, which anticipated the provision of a fourth howitzer battery to each division, resulted in the conversion of all field artillery brigades into “mixed brigades.” (Each of these consisted of three field gun batteries and a single howitzer battery.)⁷ The second step of the second great reform was the recasting of all four-piece field artillery batteries as six-piece units. Ironically, this measure was inspired by the same desire to economize on experienced field artillery officers that had motivated the earlier shift to the four-piece battery. This time, however, the officers being husbanded so carefully were not the old captains and majors who had learned their trade in the long years of peace, but the young battery commanders who had proved their abilities in the course of the war. ⁸

This is the last article in this series. Previous pieces in the series can be found by means of the following links.

British Infantry Divisions (1914-1918) (I)

British Infantry Divisions (1914-1918) (II)

British Infantry Divisions (1914-1918) (III)

British Infantry Divisions (1914-1918) (IV)

British Infantry Divisions (1914-1918) (V)

British Infantry Divisions (1914-1918) (VI)

1. Becke, Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 1, pp. 37, 45, 53, 61, 69, and 77 and Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 3A, pp. 7, 31, 49, 57, 75, 91 and 99 and War Diary, 118th Howitzer Brigade, Royal Field Artillery and War Diaries, Second Army, Administrative Branches of Staff, AC, RG9 Militia and Defence (III-D-3), Volume 5068, Reels T-11131 and T-11132

2. Becke, Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 1, pages 101 and 109

3. The field artillery brigades of the Indian Corps, which had already been earmarked for transfer to Mesopotamia, did not participate in the second phase of the field artillery reform of 1915. Perry, Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 5B, pp. 53 and 89

4. Becke, Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 1, pages 28-29

5. Becke, Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 2A, pages 64-65, 72-73, 80-81, 88-89, 96-98, 104-105, and 136-137

6. Becke, Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 1, pp. 52-3 and 76-77.

7. The idea of forming mixed brigades was far from novel. A discussion of the composition and employment of various types of mixed field artillery brigades, for example, took place at the General Staff Conference of 1913. Conference of General Staff Officers at the Royal Military College, TNA, WO 279/48 and Headlam, The History of the Royal Artillery, Volume II (1899-1914), pages 229-30.

8. Alan F. Brooke, “The Evolution of Artillery in the Great War,” Journal of the Royal Artillery, 1925, page 371.