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British official historian Brigadier James Edward Edmonds, in 1925, recorded that "The British Army of 1914 was the best trained, best equipped and best organized British Army ever sent to war". [58] This was in part due to the Haldane reforms , and the Army itself recognising the need for change and training.
The British Army was different. Its divisions consisted of three brigades, with each brigade having slightly over 4,000 men in four battalions, plus support troops, under the command of a brigadier general. [13] The 1914 British infantry brigade comprised a small headquarters and four infantry battalions, with two heavy machine guns per battalion.
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the six divisions the British Army sent to the Western Front during the First World War.Planning for a British Expeditionary Force began with the 1906–1912 Haldane Reforms of the British Army carried out by the Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War (1899–1902).
The Oxford History of the British Army. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285333-3. Edmonds, J. E. (1993) [1932]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1916: Sir Douglas Haig's Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial ...
The British Army during the First World War was small in size when compared to the other major European powers. In 1914, the British had a small, largely urban English, volunteer force [ 74 ] of 400,000 soldiers, almost half of whom were posted overseas to garrison the immense British Empire.
The First Army was part of the British Army during the First World War and was formed on 26 December 1914 when the corps of the British Expeditionary Force were divided into the First Army under Lieutenant-General Sir Douglas Haig and the Second Army under Horace Smith-Dorrien. [1] First Army had the Ist, IVth and the Indian Corps under command ...
List of military divisions — List of British divisions in the First World War. This page is a list of British divisions that existed in the First World War. Divisions were either infantry or cavalry. Divisions were categorised as being 'Regular Army' (professional), 'Territorial Force' (part-time) or 'New Army' (wartime).
During the First World War the British Armed Forces was enlarged to many times its peacetime strength. This was done mainly by adding new battalions to existing regiments (the King's Royal Rifles raised a total of 26 battalions). Although sometimes identified by shoulder titles, generally the new battalions could not be identified from appearance.