This work examines the evolution of the British Expeditionary Force's (BEF's) logistic and administrative infrastructure in France and its impact on operations. In so doing, it challenges the popular notion of British generals as bungling incompetents by analyzing an all too often ignored, but crucial, facet of military campaigns. While the BEF may be found wanting in some areas, administration was not one of them. The British generals proved themselves to be thoroughly modern professional officers in the manner in which they solved the ongoing crises that attended the explosive growth of the BEF and its artillery-intensive style of warfare. This study reinvigorates the debate about World War I by examining the understudied field of logistics.
British Logistics on the Western Front: 1914-1919
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Brown's study will help students at the upper-division undergraduate level and above to better evaluate the work of the administrative staffs of the WWI British army.”–Choice
“This is a ground-breaking book which offers considerable food for though to scholars of military history. The book is well written and copiously illustrated with valuable statistical evidence. Its focus is on transportation and the provision of munitions of war, a focus in part dictated by the availabilty of evidence. This book is an important addition to the growing number of scholarly monographs published in recent years in which the traditional assessment of the British army's military performance on the western front in the First World War is being systematically reevaluted. It draws heavily and effectively on these important studies of the operational level of war, and takes then further in relating the operational to the administrative dimension of war. As such the book is essential reading for all serious scholars of the First World War. Equally important, it makes a significant contribution to the literature on battlefield logistics, the missing dimension of modern war.”–The Journal of Military History
“[A] comprehensive study that is based on the full range of primary documents.”–Canadian Military History
“An important study of a suprisingly neglected apesct of the Great War....The work is suprisingly readable, considering its subject matter, and the text is supplemented by more than two dozen tables and diagrams....Very useful for the serious student of World War II.”–NYMAS Newsletter
“It is rare to be able to open a review by declaring that the work in question fills a gap in existing scholarship and does so very well indeed, but such is the case here....This is an admirable book, and no student of the British army on the Western Front can afford to ignore it.”–Albion
“Dr. Brown gives us what we seldom see, but need to understand: the history of how the greatest army in Great Britain's history was supplied....In all, Brown's book reminds us why it is that amateurs argue tactics while professionals argue logistics.”–The Journal of the Western Front Association-Stand To!
“This is a ground-breaking book which offers considerable food for though to scholars of military history. The book is well written and copiously illustrated with valuable statistical evidence. Its focus is on transportation and the provision of munitions of war, a focus in part dictated by the availabilty of evidence. This book is an important addition to the growing number of scholarly monographs published in recent years in which the traditional assessment of the British army's military performance on the western front in the First World War is being systematically reevaluted. It draws heavily and effectively on these important studies of the operational level of war, and takes then further in relating the operational to the administrative dimension of war. As such the book is essential reading for all serious scholars of the First World War. Equally important, it makes a significant contribution to the literature on battlefield logistics, the missing dimension of modern war.”–
“[A] comprehensive study that is based on the full range of primary documents.”–
“An important study of a suprisingly neglected apesct of the Great War....The work is suprisingly readable, considering its subject matter, and the text is supplemented by more than two dozen tables and diagrams....Very useful for the serious student of World War II.”–
“It is rare to be able to open a review by declaring that the work in question fills a gap in existing scholarship and does so very well indeed, but such is the case here....This is an admirable book, and no student of the British army on the Western Front can afford to ignore it.”–
“Dr. Brown gives us what we seldom see, but need to understand: the history of how the greatest army in Great Britain's history was supplied....In all, Brown's book reminds us why it is that amateurs argue tactics while professionals argue logistics.”–
About the Author
IAN MALCOLM BROWN completed undergraduate and Master's degrees in History at the University of Calgary and holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from King's College London.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
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This review is from: British Logistics on the Western Front: 1914-1919 (Hardcover)
Many moons and stars have I seen. Few of them have been planets. Rarely have I felt like stout Cortez.But this is a brilliant book. It will not give you the information to create a tactical game of logistics on the western front. Should you wish to do that, still apply for the original sources. But, should you wish to have an in depth analysis of how it worked, why it failed, how it was fixed, just how flexible in it's choice of bods the establishment was, how it won, lost again (March 1918 by now) and won, finally to fall over a bit once it was all (hopefully) over, then read this book. It lacks the plot of a thriller but makes up for it with a continuous theme - the cold facts of Kiplng's six honest serving men, the what, why and when, and how and who and where. I am very impressed with this book. It is not all that I wanted when I bought it from the title alone; it is however more than I could reasonably have expected. Simon - simon@ecw.co.uk
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Of all Western European armies in 1914, the British had the most practical experience of wartime campaigning. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
diem restrictions, artillery usage, ordnance services, administrative lessons, rear area services, tactical methodology, railway situation, engineering stores, war diary, ammunition problems, inland water transport, administrative echelons, administrative excellence, railway personnel, light railways, motorized transport, ammunition expenditure, staff college, base ports, ambulance trains, internal school, direct loading Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
War Office, Field Service Regulations, Great War, Sir John, Western Front, Lloyd George, Neuve Chapelle, Director of Supplies, Robertson Papers, Director of Ordnance Services, New York, Fifth Army, Fourth Army, Boer War, First Army, Lieutenant-General Sir, Victorian Army, Explanatory Review, Second Army, Douglas Haig, Third Army, German Army, Sir Eric Geddes, Edmonds Papers, Royal United Services Institute New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Of all Western European armies in 1914, the British had the most practical experience of wartime campaigning. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
diem restrictions, artillery usage, ordnance services, administrative lessons, rear area services, tactical methodology, railway situation, engineering stores, war diary, ammunition problems, inland water transport, administrative echelons, administrative excellence, railway personnel, light railways, motorized transport, ammunition expenditure, staff college, base ports, ambulance trains, internal school, direct loading Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
War Office, Field Service Regulations, Great War, Sir John, Western Front, Lloyd George, Neuve Chapelle, Director of Supplies, Robertson Papers, Director of Ordnance Services, New York, Fifth Army, Fourth Army, Boer War, First Army, Lieutenant-General Sir, Victorian Army, Explanatory Review, Second Army, Douglas Haig, Third Army, German Army, Sir Eric Geddes, Edmonds Papers, Royal United Services Institute New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 67
books:
See all 67 books this book cites
2
books
cite this book:
- Lloyd George: Twelve Essays by A.J.P. Taylor on 8 pages
- Douglas Haig: The Educated Soldier (Cassell) by John Terraine on 5 pages
- Killing Ground by Elleston Trevor on 4 pages
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy on 4 pages
- Lifeblood of War by Julian Thompson on 4 pages
See all 67 books this book cites
- World War I In Photographs by Carlton Books in Front Matter, and Index
- The Western Front: Battleground and Home Front in the First World War (European History in Perspective) by Hunt Tooley in Back Matter
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