New Army

New Army. The New Army, popularly known as **Kitchener's Army**, was a volunteer force of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom beginning in August 1914 following the outbreak of the First World War. It was raised by the Secretary of State for War, Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, who foresaw a long, large-scale conflict requiring massive new manpower beyond the existing British Expeditionary Force and Territorial Force. The formation of the New Army marked a decisive shift from Britain's traditional small professional army to a mass citizen army, with its units suffering heavy casualties during their first major engagements on the Western Front.

History

The concept for the New Army was initiated by Lord Kitchener immediately upon his appointment to the War Office in August 1914, diverging from the expectations of many in Cabinet and the Imperial General Staff who anticipated a short war. His famous recruitment campaign, centered on the "Your Country Needs You" poster, appealed directly to patriotic fervor. The first hundred thousand volunteers, forming the K1 battalions, were enlisted within weeks, followed by subsequent groups known as K2, K3, and so on. These new formations were initially organized into entire divisions, such as the 9th (Scottish) Division and the 10th (Irish) Division, which trained separately from the regular army. Their deployment was delayed due to critical shortages of arms, equipment, and trained officers, leading to the Shell Crisis of 1915. The New Army's first significant combat test came at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, where they sustained severe losses. Their most famous and costly engagement was on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, where Pals battalions from towns like Accrington and Grimsby were decimated. Following the Military Service Act 1916, which introduced conscription, the distinct volunteer identity of the New Army was gradually absorbed into the wider British Army structure.

Organization

The New Army was organized along the same lines as the regular British Army, with the infantry division as its primary large formation. A typical New Army division comprised three infantry brigades, each containing four battalions, alongside supporting units of artillery, engineers, and medical services. Many battalions were raised by local initiative, often through Parliamentary Recruiting Committees, Lord Lieutenants of counties, and municipal authorities, leading to distinct regional units. Notable formations included the 36th (Ulster) Division, raised from the Ulster Volunteer Force, and the 16th (Irish) Division. The 11th (Northern) Division and 13th (Western) Division were among those that saw service in the Gallipoli campaign. The administrative burden of creating this parallel army structure was immense, leading to the establishment of new training camps and depots across Britain, including at Salisbury Plain and Aldershot Garrison.

Recruitment and training

Recruitment for the New Army relied entirely on volunteers, driven by widespread propaganda campaigns and patriotic posters featuring Lord Kitchener. The phenomenon of the Pals battalion was a hallmark, where men from the same cities, workplaces, or sports clubs enlisted together, with examples including the Grimsby Chums and the Sheffield City Battalion. Initial training was severely hampered by a lack of resources; recruits often drilled with wooden rifles and wore civilian clothes due to uniform shortages. Training was conducted at hastily built camps like Catterick Garrison and Ripon, with instruction provided by a mix of retired officers and NCOs from the regular army. The Sandhurst and Officers' Training Corps were expanded to produce the necessary junior officers. The pace and scale of training were criticized by figures like Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig, who felt the new troops were unprepared for modern warfare, a concern tragically validated at the Somme.

Equipment and uniforms

Initially, New Army units faced dire shortages of standard equipment, as British industry was unprepared for mass mobilization. Early volunteers trained in their own clothes, later receiving a basic uniform of a khaki service dress tunic and trousers, often with the distinctive Brodie helmet not being widely issued until 1916. They were armed with the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield rifle, though supplies were initially so low that many trained with obsolete Lee–Metford rifles or mock weapons. Supporting arms were similarly under-equipped; artillery batteries lacked modern guns like the QF 18-pounder, and there were insufficient Vickers machine guns and Lewis guns for infantry battalions. The Ministry of Munitions, created under David Lloyd George in 1915 after the Shell Crisis, eventually standardized and increased production. By mid-1916, New Army divisions were largely equipped comparably to regular units, with standard webbing, gas masks, and steel helmets.

Role and deployments

The primary role of the New Army was to provide the mass infantry forces required for the large-scale, attritional battles that characterized the Western Front after 1914. Their first major deployment was at the Battle of Loos in 1915. The following year, they formed the bulk of the assault forces for the Battle of the Somme, a campaign intended to relieve pressure on the French Army at Verdun. Several New Army divisions were also deployed to other theatres, including the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli and the Salonika front. The 29th Division, though composed of regular army units, often fought alongside New Army formations. Following the bloodletting of 1916 and the introduction of conscription, the surviving New Army units were increasingly integrated with conscript drafts and regular battalions, losing their distinct volunteer character but remaining crucial to the Hundred Days Offensive and the final victory in 1918.

Category:British Army in World War I Category:Military units and formations established in 1914 Category:1914 establishments in the United Kingdom