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Bully Beef, Bullets and Boots...
Logistics on the western Front...
It has been said, that an 'Army Marches on its Stomach'. which is correct but an efficient and superior army is only as good as it's supply systems. From the 1914 when the first troops landed in France a system was created to deliver everything from ammunition, weapons, food and clothing and a million other things to the fighting troops in the 'Front Line' and then to bring back Casualties and Repairable items from vehicles to artillery pieces.
Many people when studying the Great War, choose to look at the battles that took place with the myriads of statistics from the number of shells used, casualties created, and ground gained but all those 'Fighting Men' could not 'Fight' without hundreds of thousands more men (and women) supplying the means to enable them to fight effectively.
By 1915 on the Western Front the supply and logistics systems of the British Army were becoming clogged and inefficient using mainly ad hoc methods of requesting and delivering supplies to wherever needed within a short time frame.
In 1916 it was finally realised that Logistical Support, as we know it today, had to be set up in such a way that the supply of matériel was constant and correct.
Sir Eric Geddes a railway engineer was drafted in to reset the system, enabling it to function an efficiently and reliably supply the ‘fighting’ units to carry out those tasks it was given. Given that this static period of warfare allowed goods yards, track and signalling to be created and maintained.
What was created was the above (much simplified obviously). Starting all the way back in Britain the matériel of the Army on the Western Front and indeed other Fronts, was created by various Ministries who created and placed orders with manufacturers, across the UK and indeed the rest of the world.
By 1916 the whole of Industry within the UK was now in a position of production solely for the prosecution of the war, this so called ‘total War’. Once the goods had been produced, they would be sent by rail mainly to embarkation points around the southern ports of England, Dover, Folkestone, Southampton, Newhaven and others.
Each port was designated to supply specific items such as Food, Fuel, Ammunition, Men and so on. On the other side of the Channel on the French coast similar ports had been set up to receive these goods and from what became each Base Havre, Calais, Boulogne and Dieppe, vast stores and warehouses were created to hold and then despatch these goods to where it was required.
(Q 10020) Interior of a hanger, Case Goods Depot of the Base Supply Depot, Vendroux.
Each commodity would be sent on specified railway routes, from the ‘Base’ up to the ‘Front Line’. Initially the French Army Command controlled these routes but by 1916 the British had been granted control of the routes from the coast up to the areas where the BEF were.
(Q 1766) A vast, mountainous stacks of boxed rations at a British Army supply depot in Rouen, 15th January 1917. As can be seen here, the number of Stores at these Bases were vast. These would be broken down into ‘bulk supplies’ allocated to each of what were now Five British Armies on the Western Front.
All goods would initially be sent by Rail, along one of two 'Lines of Communication' that had been established, one North for the Armies in the Belgian Flanders area and South for the Armies in the French Picardy region. The trains would first run through a 'Regulating Station' which by 1916 was using a method devised for identifying each Division within each Corp, so as these bulk supplies arrived at what were now huge marshalling yards, they would be broken down into 'Pack Supplies'.
The complete train would then be dispatched along a designated route to arrive at a specific 'Railhead' being used by that particular Division the supplies were designated for. (IWM/Q 2478) shows British troops drawing rations from the railhead, Ecuires, 28th June 1917. (IWM/Q 25909) Horse and motor transport drawing supplies from a railhead.
On arrival at the Railhead, it would be martialled into specific Divisional areas, from where it was unloaded resorted into Divisional loads and taken away usually by motorised transport.
like this (IWM/Q 3934) Royal Artillery shell dump near Fricourt.
Photograph possibly taken during the Battle of Somme. (IWM/Q 9937) of a petrol dump at Beaurainville, 27 May 1918.
(IWM/Q 852) Drawing rations at an Army Service Corps dump at Acheux, June 1916.
Showing how each transport column carrying the stores designated for a specified Division would be collected. Which would then make its way to a specified 'Refilling Point for that Division.
On arrival at the divisional 'Refilling Points' the supplies would again be broken down into supplies designated for each Brigade of that Division and would be moved, this time because it was close to the fighting lines, by horse and mule transport for issue to each Battalion Quartermaster. (IWM/Q5795) As we see here, with a group of pack mules passing field kitchens on the roadside, near Hamel, 24 November 1916.
Each time the supplies reached its destination, they were successively broken down into items required by the various Quartermasters of each Brigade.
From Brigade dumps, the supplies would then be sent to individual Battalions, where they were divided again into Company lots, as seen here near Becordel.
(IWM/Q 4047) As we see here Company Quartermaster-Sergeants of the Seaforth Highlanders, dividing up rations near Becordel July 1916.
(IWM/Q 2245) As we see a ration party of a Scottish regiment passing along a muddy road through the ruins of Beaucourt, 26 May 1917.
Finally, the supplies would be taken by these ‘Supply Parties’ detailed by the Infantry Line Companies would then carry everything from the Battalion Reserve area up through the maze of Communication Trenches to a Company Trench Dump,
where it would be then issued by the Company Quartermaster Sergeant, the ‘Q Bloke’ as most Tommie’s knew him.
Before eventually reaching the Platoon Sergeant who would then issue the supply items, which would then end up in the hands of the person needing it in the ‘Line’…
(IWM/Q 4594) Like these troops of the Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham and Derbyshire) Regiment cooking their 'Pork and Beans' ration in dixies, near St. Pierre Divion, November 1916.
(IWM/Q 1580) Eventually reaching these British soldiers eating hot rations in the Ancre Valley during the Battle of the Somme, October 1916.
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