Product Description

This book sets out the true role of British Corps (and their commanders) and crucially their control of artillery, which led to their becoming the principal operational level of command on the Western Front in the BEF. At the start of the Great War, the corps functioned as a postbox, there to help GHQ manage its divisions. From early 1916 onwards, corps took control of both heavy artillery and divisional artillery and, vitally, the counter-battery role. In 1917, building on the lessons of the Somme via the SS series of pamphlets, and especially SS135, corps increasingly became the level of command which organised attacks and orchestrated the artillery effort and divisions' infantry plans. In 1918, learning lessons in open warfare, the BEF was sufficiently flexible for corps to co-ordinate only when a set piece was required, and devolve command forward to divisions if circumstances permitted it. This book also examines the decision making process in the BEF and concludes that at the Army and corps level it was neither "umpiring" nor unduly authoritarian. This is the first book ever to carry out an examination of how Great War British generals actually carried out their role - how corps commanders commanded their corps on a day-to-day basis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #406376 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 308 pages

About the Author
0The author: (Location: London) has produced two previous books on popular treatments of the Western Front experience and generalship as well as contributing articles and chapters to edited volumes. This is his first book based entirely on primary sources and the first book on corps command and as such, by far his most original.

Customer Reviews

Corps Management Explained
This book is a continuation of the case developed by the author and others in recent years supporting the evolutionary improvement of the BEF into a very effective continental army, more than a match for its opponents.
With any organisation, rapid growth creates problems of management and control that must be solved, and the British Army between 1914 and 1918 demonstrated all of the problems that would be expected. The author examines how the Corps changed from a virtual post box between Army Command and Divisions, to a vital function in exerting maximum resources to where they were most needed. Indeed it clearly identifies the growing importance and understanding amongst the generals and politicians that the war needed long term solutions for victory. The Corps became the medium to deliver this enhanced force, but at the risk of being seen as remote from Divisions from which most soldiers took their allegiance.
This book is thought provoking and sits well in the Gary Sheffield and Paddy Griffith schools of thought which have increasingly become mainstream and in doing so have buried the `Lions led by Donkeys' lobby. Proof that scholarly research eventually triumphs over emotion.
Any serious student of The Great War will want this valuable research tool on the bookshelf.


Michael McCarthy
Editor, "The Battle Guide"
Guild of Battlefield Guides.