The Great War - WW1
Kitchener's New Armies
Before 1914 Britain had not possessed a mass army of the continental type. But Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, had the insight to grasp at the outset that the war would last for several years. Victory over Germany would require men, and lots of them.
Kitchener launched a personal appeal to British manhood. Everywhere his stern face stared out from posters, declaring 'Your Country Needs You'. The response was overwhelming. In the next twelve months, 2.3 million men joined what became known as 'The New Army'. Thereafter, with the flow of volunteers drying up, conscription was introduced for men between the age of 18 and 45.
The immediate result was to leave Britain's industry short of skilled men, a factor in the shell shortage of 1915. So quickly had the New Army been formed that it had no uniforms, arms or equipment. Training bore little relation to the trench warfare being waged in France. The men of the New Armies got their first experience of the real thing in 1915, and were committed to action at the Battle of Loos in September of that year. The New Army's inexperience had a baleful effect on British planning for the offensives of 1916. The New Army provided 97 of the 143 battalions which went over the top on the 1st of July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Their commanders had no faith in their abilities. When the attack went in, no more was expected of them than a uniform parade-ground advance in successive waves across 'no man's land'.
Joining-up recruitment post in London's Trafalgar Square. Many who flocked to join were under age. One young volunteer recalled 'The sergeant asked me my age, when I told him, he replied "Clear off son, come back tomorrow and we'll see if your 19, eh" So I turned up the next day and gave my age as 19'.