The efficiency of the Veterinary Service is of great importance to prevent waste of horseflesh.
This Service is under its Director, who has a Veterinary Officer to assist him. A Veterinary Officer is allotted to each Division and to the L. of C. Each of the above officers has one clerk. A Veterinary Officer is attached to each mounted unit to treat its horses. He is assisted by the Farriers in his work, and is provided with a pack horse to carry his veterinary equipment.
Hospitals for sick horses unavoidably left behind are formed at the Advanced Bases, and at the Base, where there is also a depôt of Veterinary Stores. The necessary personnel for these hospitals is provided by six Veterinary Sections, each of 2 Officers and 32 other ranks, with 83 horsekeepers. A Section can take charge of 250 sick horses. Horses when cured are transferred to the Remount Depôt.
Veterinary Officers are also allotted for duty at places where horses are landed, and with the Remount Depôts. They are also charged with the duty of inspecting cattle before slaughtering.
The total number of horses in the Field Force is nearly 70,000, and it is estimated that twice as many more will be required to keep up this strength for twelve months of war.
The Remount Service is formed to supply the “remounts,” or fresh horses continuously required to replace those expended in war. The Head of this Service is the Deputy Director of Remounts.
Remount Depôts are formed at the Base and the Advanced Bases, where all animals procured for the use of the Army are taken charge of, trained, and distributed to the Units. The Base Remount Depôt can receive 1,000 animals. It is managed by a personnel of 11 Officers and 337 other ranks. The strength of an Advanced Remount Depôt is 4 Officers and 112 other ranks, and each is adapted to receive 300 animals.
Stores of all sorts, except medical and veterinary, are supplied to the Army by the Ordnance Services. The supply of ammunition is the most pressing service, but troops require a variety of other stores—tools and explosives, boots, clothing, equipment, and arms. Workshops are required for repairs of all sorts, especially to vehicles and harness.
The Ordnance Services are controlled by the Director of Ordnance Stores and his Deputy, under the Inspector-General of Communications, each with two Ordnance Officers as assistants. The organization consists of Ordnance Depôt units—10 at the Base, 7 at Railhead, and 2 at each Advanced Base—which form Ordnance Depôts at those places. Each unit consists of 2 Officers and 69 clerks, storemen, and artificers, with as much civil labour as may be required.
The main duty of the Ordnance Services is forwarding ammunition to the front, where it is taken over by the Fighting Units, at places called the Refilling Points, which are generally about a day’s march in rear of the fighting line. One Auxiliary Transport Company of 100 wagons is allotted per Division for carrying ammunition to these points. To ensure an adequate supply at the front demands careful organization and good administration of the Ordnance Services, as ammunition is expended at uncertain dates, and in amounts which cannot be forecast.
The amount provided for the Field Force is as follows:
1,000 rounds per Field or Horse Artillery gun; 500 per Howitzer and Heavy gun. About half of this is carried by the Fighting Troops; the rest is in Ordnance charge on the L. of C.
With regard to the amount of ammunition required in the field, it should be noted that the quantity of Gun Ammunition that may be expended with quick-firing guns is very great. In Manchuria, both Russian and Japanese Batteries have been known to fire 500 rounds per gun in one day. The amount of Gun Ammunition carried in the French Army is 2,000 rounds per gun—i.e. 500 rounds with Batteries and Ammunition Columns, and 500 in the Army Ammunition Park, the Army Park, and in depôts on the L. of C., respectively.
As to Rifle Ammunition, the Japanese found that the 270 rounds carried by each man ran out, and they consider that each man should have 350 rounds available with his Regiment, and 150 more in Ammunition Columns. This makes a total of 500 with the Fighting Troops, which the British allowance of 450 nearly approximates.
The efficiency of the service of the railways which generally form the Lines of Communication is of the utmost importance to the Army, as on it depends the issue of supplies and ammunition to the troops at the front, and consequently their ability to move and fight.
The control of the Railway Services is laid on the Director of Railways, who is responsible to the Inspector-General of Communications, and works under the supervision of the Quarter-Master-General’s Branch of the Staff.
The work of the Railway Services comprises the maintenance and working, as well as the repair (and sometimes the construction), of railways in the theatre of operations. The personnel of the Railway Services consists of two entirely separate bodies. One is termed the Technical Railway Personnel, and the other the Railway Control Establishments.
The Technical Personnel is provided in a friendly country by the civil railway companies, but in a hostile country by the Royal Engineers, when it is organized in a Central Railway Establishment, two Railway Districts, and three Railway Companies of Engineers. There is allotted also, from the two Lines of Communication Telegraph Companies, a Railway Telegraph Section for the exclusive use of the Railway Service.
The “Central Railway Establishment” and the two “Railway Districts” are organized in branches for the following purposes: Management, Traffic, Engineering, Locomotive, Accounts, Stores. The total strength of these Units is 51 Officers and 854 other ranks.
The total strength of three “Railway Companies” is 12 Officers and 732 other ranks.
The Railway Control Establishments are the medium of communication between the troops and the Technical Personnel. Officers of this body are posted at the chief stations to facilitate the traffic, arranging all details with the troops, providing meals at certain stations, and supervising the movement of men, animals, and stores.
The personnel of the “Railway Control Establishment” is 7 Officers and 10 clerks and checkers, distributed to each important station.
The Director of Railways and his personnel have no responsibility for the technical security of the railway; for this the “Commander of the Line of Communication Defences” is responsible.
The Director of Works carries out all Engineer services (apart from Railways and Telegraphs) required on the Lines of Communication. One Company of Engineers, without transport, is allotted for these services, and is supplemented by civil artisans and unskilled labourers, who are either brought from home, or hired locally.
The works on the Lines of Communication are described in Chapter II. Many are required at the Base in connection with the heavy work involved in landing troops, supplies, and stores, and sending them up to the front. For these purposes existing works may have to be adapted, or new ones constructed. All have to be maintained, and any plant required kept running. Works at the Base have to be of a semi-permanent character, in view of possible lengthy operations.
In addition, the Engineer Company provides workshops, and depôts of stores and material, which are established at the Base, the Advanced Bases, and at Railhead, for the use of the Engineers at the front.
A military organization is needed with an Army in the field, so as to ensure regular postal communication to and from home. This is a modern innovation in war, but one of importance to the comfort and spirits of the troops, and is a service demanded by their friends at home and by the nation in general.
This service is controlled by the Director of Postal Services, who is attached to Head-Quarters of the Inspector-General of Communications.
A chief Post Office is established at the Base, where all incoming or outgoing mail is dealt with. It has a personnel of 85 of all ranks, furnished by the “Army Post Office Corps.”
Smaller Post Offices are established at the Advanced Bases, and others, each of four men, are allotted to posts on the Lines of Communication, and to Head-Quarters of Brigades and Divisions in the field.
The Accounts Department is responsible for Finance, Accounts, Audit, and the disbursement of cash for the Army in the field. It is under the Financial Adviser at Head-Quarters with three Assistant Advisers.
The personnel of the Department consists of Accountants, Cashiers, and Field Paymasters.
The Accountants are in the Accounts Offices at the Base, which are manned by three Accounts Units, each with a personnel of 43 Accountants and Cashiers, with their servants, and 138 Writers.
Each “Base Accounts Unit” is organized to deal with the accounts of two Divisions, a Cavalry Division, and a Mounted Brigade. It is under a Chief Accountant, whose duties include dealing with Contracts, Store and Supply Accounts, the Accounts of the Troops, and Audit.
The Cashier Staff is usually at the Base, where the bills incurred by the various Services are paid, and any necessary issues of cash on imprest made.
The Field Paymasters are stationed at convenient places nearer the troops; they provide Commanding Officers with cash for paying the men, and pay bills incurred locally, if urgent.
At the Base is the Military Chest, holding the cash reserve of the Army. That it should be ample during the Campaign is of vital moment. Credit notes are a poor substitute for cash in an enemy’s, or even an ally’s, country. As von der Golz says, “a full exchequer may be worth an Army Corps, and a clever financier at the side of the Commander-in-Chief equal to a first-rate General.” Cash is required not mainly for the pay of the troops, but to purchase in the country what the Army needs, and to pay for the large amount of civilian labour which will be required on the L. of C. Cash is also needed to buy information, or reward inhabitants for services. The immense importance of having, without fail, ready money for these purposes—so essential for the operations of the Army—cannot be over-estimated.
The Records Branch supplies, on mobilization, one Section of clerks for each Division, and for each Cavalry or Mounted Brigade, to carry on the clerical work at Head-Quarters of Commands in the field. Artillery and Engineers supply their own clerks for their Head-Quarters.
A Record Office is established at the Base, to carry on all office work in connection with the personnel from which it is desirable the units in the field should be entirely freed, such as the soldiers’ attestations and medical history sheets, and their accounts. From this office, too, are sent to England reports, returns, war diaries, and lists of casualties. It also conducts the clerical work in connection with invaliding.
The Base Record Office consists of six Sections, or one for a Division and a Cavalry or Mounted Brigade. A Section comprises 3 Officers, 4 Staff Sergeants, and the Orderly Room Clerk of each Unit belonging to the Division or Brigade allotted to the Section. There are two divisions in each Section—one for Infantry Battalions, one for all other Units.
Base Depôts are formed to receive the personnel left by each Unit at the Base, which comprises its Band Sergeant, Master Tailor, and Storemen. The latter take charge of such part of the men’s equipment as is kept back at the Base, as not being required in the field, and must yet be available when needed.
The men of each Unit who form its “First Reinforcements” are also placed in the Base Depôt. These are calculated at the rate of 10 per cent. of the rank and file of each Unit in the Field, with an Officer for every party exceeding 40 men.
The above completes the picture of the Organization of the British Field Army for service abroad.
A brief account of the Territorial Force will now be given, followed by one of the Indian Army, as organized for service in the field.