This book explores the British Army’s response on the Western Front to a period of seminal change in warfare and, in particular, examines the impact of the pre-war emphasis on worldwide garrison, occupation and policing duties for the Empire’s defence of the mindset of the Army’s leadership and its lack of preparedness for a continental war involving a massive, unplanned increase in men and materiel. British Generals, busy managing the army’s expansion and inexperienced in continental war, were slow to reform. Tardiness in learning from mistakes and improving performance resulted not from the social background of senior officers, although resistance to change was a factor, but from the small size and inexperience of the military elite which had to learn how to run a continental war. The reasons for the poor performance in the early years of the war, notably professionalism within the British Army, including poor staff work, ‘trade unionism’, careerism within the high command, and the tendency of an overconfident hierarchy to ignore the need for reform to tackle the tactical stalemate prior to 1916, are analysed. The high command rapidly learnt from the defeats of 1915-16 and performed much better in 1916-18, an especially formative period resulting in the promotion of a younger, more professional leadership and the development of the first truly modern system of tactics which has dominated wars ever since. During 1917-18 the Army’s commanders and staff evolved and improved these new methods; developing a doctrine of combined arms to overcome the tactical stalemate bedevilling Allied offensives in 1915-16 and an operational style of attack employing limited-objective set-pieces to overcome the German defences. These developments of 1916-18 provided the tactical and operational efficiency to defeat the formidable German Army and turn defeat into victory.
