THE GROWTH OF THE TANK CORPS ORGANISATION
The word “Reorganisation” is a word which will never be forgotten by
any member of the Tank Corps Headquarters Staff; it was their one
persistent companion for over two years. It dogged their steps through
all seasons, over training areas and battlefields in sleuth-hound
fashion from the earliest days; and its pace was never stronger or its
tongue more noisy than when, on November 11, 1918, it was temporarily
shaken off with the armistice. Depressing as this perpetual change
often was, reorganisation is, nevertheless, an extremely healthy sign,
for it shows that the Tank Corps, a young formation, was not afraid to
grow, and that it refused to stand still; and, when all is said and
done, should not every organisation be dynamic, should not it move with
the times, expand, grow, and absorb difficulties rather than push them
aside or ignore them? Whatever, in the eyes of others, the Tank Corps
may have been, throughout the Great War it was an intensely virile
formation.
In this chapter the organisation and reorganisation of the Tank Corps,
first known as the “Heavy Section,” and later as the “Heavy Branch” of
the Machine Gun Corps, will be dealt with in its entirety; for unless
we lay this spectre in a chapter of its own it will never leave us in
peace, but will haunt our steps right through this brief history, as
was its wont when the incidents now related were taking form in France
and England.
In June 1916 the Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps was organised in
six companies--A, B, C, D, E, and F. Each company consisted of four
sections, each of six tanks with one spare tank per company--in all
twenty-five machines, thus absorbing the 150 machines ordered.[19]
Each section consisted of 3 male and 3 female tanks, subdivided into
three sub-sections of 1 male and 1 female each.
The crew of a tank was 1 officer and 7 other ranks, the total personnel
of a section being 6 officers and 43 other ranks. For every two
companies was provided a Quartermaster’s establishment of 1 officer and
4 other ranks, and a workshop of 3 officers and 50 other ranks.
A few days after the Heavy Section had made its debut on the
battlefield of the Somme, a suggestion was put forward to organise
it on the lines of the Royal Flying Corps, which, eventually, in the
main was adopted. This was undoubtedly a sound suggestion, as every
new weapon requires an organisation of its own to nurse it through its
infancy.
On September 29, Lieutenant-Colonel H. J. Elles, D.S.O., who, as we
have seen, first came into contact with tanks in January 1916, was
appointed Colonel Commanding the Heavy Section in France, and on the
same day that his appointment was sanctioned it was decided that 1,000
tanks should be built, and that certain improvements in the existing
design of machine should be introduced. At this time the Headquarters
of the Heavy Section were located in one small hut in the centre of
the square of the village of Beauquesne, and as this village was not
considered suitable for a permanent Headquarters, Bermicourt was
selected instead--a small village just north of the Hesdin-St.-Pol
road. At this village the Headquarters remained until the end of the
war, expanding from three Nissen huts to many acres of buildings.
On October 8 a provisional establishment for the Headquarters was
approved. It consisted of--a Commander (Colonel), one Brigade Major,
one D.A.A. and Q.M.G., one Staff Captain, and one Intelligence Officer.
These appointments were filled by the following officers: Colonel H. J.
Elles, Captain G. le Q. Martel, Captain T. J. Uzielli, Captain H. J.
Tapper, and Captain F. E. Hotblack.
At about this time it was proposed to form the Heavy Section into
a Corps, giving it an Administrative Headquarters in England and a
Fighting Headquarters in France, and of converting the four companies
in France into four battalions, and raising five new battalions in
England on the nuclei of the two remaining companies. Though the
formation of the tank units into a Corps was not sanctioned at the time
the other proposals came into force on October 20, Brigadier-General
F. Gore Anley, D.S.O., being appointed Administrative Commander of the
Tank Training Centre, Bovington Camp, Wool, in the place of Colonel
Swinton, with Lieutenant-Colonel E. B. Mathew-Lannowe as his G.S.O.1.
Under this organisation the 9 battalions were eventually to be formed
into 3 brigades each of 3 battalions, a battalion consisting of 3
companies, each company of 4 fighting sections and a headquarters
section. A fighting section consisted of 5 tanks and the headquarters
section of 8. In all the battalion was, therefore, equipped with 72
machines.
On November 18, the day on which the approved establishments were
issued, the companies, which had continued in the area of operations,
were moved to the area round Bermicourt and, ceasing to exist as
companies, became A, B, C, and D Battalions Heavy Branch Machine Gun
Corps. They were located at the following villages:
A Battalion Humières, Eclimeux, Bermicourt.
B „ Sautrecourt, Pierremont, St. Martin-Eglise.
C „ Erin, Tilly-Capelle.
D „ Blangy.
These battalions were eventually formed into the 1st and 2nd Tank
Brigades: the 1st Brigade, consisting of C and D Battalions, on January
30, 1917, under the command of Colonel C. D’A. B. S. Baker Carr,
D.S.O.; and the 2nd Brigade, of A and B Battalions, on February 15,
under that of Colonel A. Courage, M.C. Later, on April 27, in view of
the expected arrival of two battalions from Wool, approval was given
to the formation of the 3rd Brigade Headquarters under the command of
Colonel J. Hardress Lloyd, D.S.O.
Meanwhile, in England, the whole question of future production was
being strenuously dealt with by Lieutenant-Colonel Stern, who, on
November 23, assembled a conference in London at which the future
production of tanks was explained as follows:
That at the time of the conference there were 70 Mark I machines in
France, and it was hoped to deliver improved types of this tank as
follows: 50 Mark II tanks by January; 50 Mark III tanks by February 7;
Mark IV tanks at the rate of 20 per week from February 7 to May 31.
Further, that Mark V tanks would be available in August and September
1917, and that a new light tank, called Mark VI, would be ready for
trial by Christmas 1917.
Unfortunately, on account of the difficulty of production and the
constant changes demanded in design, the above programme never
materialised, and though Mark II tanks were sent out to France, no Mark
IV machines arrived there until after the battle of Arras had been
fought and won.
Early in the new year the battalions of the Heavy Branch underwent a
further reorganisation: they were slightly reduced in size and the
number of their machines was cut down from 72 to 60; each company,
theoretically consisting of 20 tanks, was divided into 4 sections of
5 tanks each; for practical purposes, however, it was found that a
section could not deal with more than 4 tanks, so the number of tanks
was reduced to 48, of which 36 were earmarked as fighting and 12 as
training machines.
In March 1917 General Anley was appointed Administrative Commander
Heavy Branch Machine-Gun Corps with his headquarters in London,
Brigadier-General W. Glasgow taking over the command of the Training
Centre at Wool. In May he was succeeded by Major-General Sir John
Capper, K.C.B., and the Tank Committee under his chairmanship was
formed to systematise and strengthen co-operation between the Army and
the Ministry of Munitions. On the 1st of this month, Colonel Elles was
gazetted Brigadier-General Commanding the Heavy Branch in France.
The experiences gained during the battle of Arras, in April 1917,
resulted in proposals being put forward for the expansion of the Heavy
Branch from nine to eighteen battalions, nine to be equipped with
heavy, and a similar number with medium machines.[20] These proposals
mark an important stage in the development of the Heavy Branch and they
were destined to be the subject of many discussions.
On June 28, the above expansion was authorised, and the personnel for
new units was assembled at the Training Centre at Wool. A month later,
however, the call for manpower became so urgent that the expansion of
the Heavy Branch had to be suspended. It was on the 28th of this month
that the Heavy Branch became known as the Tank Corps.
During the following months, August and September, the question of
the Tank Corps expansion was held in abeyance. On October 6 it was
once again revived, and a revised establishment for the contemplated
expansion to eighteen battalions was submitted. The outstanding feature
of these establishments was the abolition of Battalion Workshops and
the substitution of Brigade Workshops in their place. This resulted in
a considerable economy of man-power, and was rendered possible by the
higher training of the tank crews; each tank with its crew thus tended
to become a self-contained unit.
On November 27 these establishments received official approval, and
exactly one week later, on December 4, arising out of the overwhelming
success gained by tanks at the battle of Cambrai (November 20), two
new organisations were put forward, the first known as the Lower, and
the second as the Higher Establishments. The Lower Establishments were
eventually decided upon, and they consisted in a revised edition of the
former establishments with various additions, which the experiences
gained at the battle of Cambrai had shown to be necessary. These
establishments, though made out, were never approved, and the German
offensive in March 1918 found the Tank Corps still organised on the
lines agreed upon in October.
In April, on account of the pressing needs for infantry reinforcements,
the Tank Corps expansion was temporarily suspended, two of the three
remaining battalions in England being reduced to cadre units, and the
third converted into an Armoured Car Battalion. In July and August the
astonishing successes gained by tanks on various sectors of the Western
Front once again brought forward the need of increasing the British
tank battalions, and the suspension was removed, the two remaining
battalions of the expansion of October 1917 proceeding to France in
September 1918.
In January 1918, from the experience gained by now in the time
necessary to carry through a reorganisation, proposals were put
forward for 1919. These were eventually discussed at the Inter-Allied
Tank Committee, an assembly of representatives of the various allied
Tank Corps, which first met at Versailles in April. The German spring
offensive, however, absorbed so much attention that it was not
possible at the time to do more than work out, as a basis, the number
of tanks required for a decisive tank attack the following year. As
the position of the Allies in France stabilised the question first
discussed at Versailles was in July retaken up, with the result that
an expansion to thirty-four battalions was decided on and completely
new establishments called for. In order to bring this work more
closely under the War Office it was also decided, at about this time,
to dissolve the Tank Directorate, first created in May 1917, and to
replace it by a new sub-branch of the Directorate of Staff Duties. This
change took place on August 1, when a new branch known as S.D.7 was
added to the Directorate of Staff Duties at the War Office to deal with
the administration of tanks generally, and the 1919 tank programme in
particular.
At the same time the Tank Committee was abolished, its place being
taken by the Tank Board, which was constituted as follows:
Major-General the Right Honourable J. E. B. Seely, C.B., C.M.G.,
D.S.O., M.P., President (Deputy Minister of Munitions).
Sir Eustace Tennyson D’Eyncourt, K.C.B., Vice-President (Director
of Naval Construction).
Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O. (Controller
Munitions Inventions).
Major-General Sir William Furse, K.C.B., D.S.O. (Master General of
Ordnance, representing the Army Council).
Major-General E. D. Swinton, C.B., D.S.O.
Major-General H. J. Elles, C.B., D.S.O. (Commanding Tank Corps,
France).
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Albert Stern, K.B.E., C.M.G. (Commissioner
Mechanical Warfare, Overseas and Allies Department).
Colonel J. F. C. Fuller, D.S.O. (D.D.S.D. Tanks: representing
General Staff, War Office).
Mr. J. B. Maclean (Controller of Mechanical Warfare).
Sir Percival Perry (Inspector of Mechanical Traction).
Captain A. Earle, Secretary.
The constitution of the Board is interesting as it enabled expert
naval, military, and industrial knowledge to be concentrated on the
one subject--the application of naval tactics to land warfare. The
work accomplished by this Board was considerable, it was carried out
in a high co-operative spirit and with great good-fellowship, and
it would, undoubtedly, have proved a factor of no small importance
in the complete destruction of the German armies in 1919, which was
practically fore-ordained by a tank programme of some 6,000 machines,
had the war continued.
September was a month of great activity at the Training Centre at Wool,
and an extensive building programme was commenced under the direction
of Brigadier-General E. B. Mathew-Lannowe, D.S.O., who had taken over
the command of the Training Centre on August 1 from Brigadier-General
W. Glasgow, C.M.G.
On October 22 the new establishments were received at the War
Office, and were approved of and returned to G.H.Q. four days later.
Considering that these establishments covered ninety-six pages of typed
foolscap it may be claimed that the last reorganisation the Tank Corps
experienced during the Great War was carried through in record time.