This
is a welcome reprint of an important work
that first appeared in 1988 and has long
since been difficult to find .
Peter Simkins, who worked for over thirty-five
years at the Imperial War Museum, retired
as its Senior Historian in 1999. His book is
among those rare works that has both academic
rigour and plain-talking readability. Anyone
who has an interest in the war, the army, the
incredible expansion of military forces to
face the Germans, Austrians and Turks or the
units of the new armies will find much to delight
them here.
Kitchener was not alone in August 1914 in believing
that Britain would need to face a long war
on a huge continental scale but he alone was
in a position to do something about it. The
authorisation by Parliament of the raising
of 100,000 volunteers was
followed by further similar "waves" and ultimately
the army enlisted more than 5 million troops.
This was not only globally unprecedented: it
brought with it immense problems. The army
was short of everything for these men: officers,
NCOs, arms and equipment, accommodation, uniform,
food and supplies. The fact that all were arranged,
albeit often in a typically British improvised
fashion, in a short timeframe is one of the
forgotten triumphs of the war. Kitchener's
men were arriving in France from early 1915.
Peter Simkins takes us through it all, from
the official expansion of the "first hundred
thousand" of Kitchener's first army, K1, to
the unofficial raising of the many local, pals,
units. He explores the motivations for men
who joined up and in so doing challenges the
many myths that men of 1914 were simpletons, doing
what they were told in a fervour of misplaced
patriotism. Our grandfathers enlisted for a
whole variety of reasons, some positive
and some negative, such as escaping a prison
sentence or nagging wife. Factors such as the
huge unemployment that arose early in the war as
the peacetime economic machinery ground to
a halt are explored in vivid and fascinating
detail by reference to many individual cases. He
also tracks and analyses the recruiting trends
as initial enthusiasm wavered.
An excellent and essential work
of reference.
More
book reviews |
|