Infantry Divisions on the Western Front, 1914

Arguably, the most important military operation of the past century or so was the opening campaign of the First World War in France and Belgium, which insured that the Great War would be long, bitter, and devastating, with consequences that are still echoing across the world.

In 1914 the contemporary way of calculating military power was in terms of divisions, and specifically infantry divisions.  The table summarizes the number of infantry divisions available to each of the Western Front combatants at the start of each week from the onset of mobilization to the end of December, by which time trench warfare had set in.  All types of infantry divisions have been included here, active, reserve, territorial, and militia formations. In addition, the table excludes three Belgian garrison divisions (Antwerp, Liege, and Namur) and six division-sized German Ersatzheer (replacement corps), which did end up at the Front.  There were also many independent brigades, none of which had any support services or artillery: Germany had 27 Landwehr (territorial) or Landsturm (militia) brigades, while France had five independent regular brigades and Britain one.  Forces not present in the theatre of operations are omitted.  Thus, the table does not include forces in the United Kingdom and the empire until they arrived in northwestern Europe, nor French forces in North Africa or on the Italian frontier, until they were committed on the main Front.  

The influence of the so-called “Schlieffen Plan” on German deployments is evident in the figures for the first few weeks of the campaign, during which the proportion of the Imperial Army committed to the West was greatest.  But even then, the German Army did not even approach parity with Allied forces, getting no closer than 87.7 percent, and that only in the opening week of the campaign.

Changes in the numbers of divisions are due to a variety of factors.  Increases reflect the activation of new units or their arrival of divisions out-of-theatre, while decreases may be due to the movement of formations overseas --the French had to replace active army formations in North Africa with territorials-- or the administrative dissolution of a division. Belgian fortress divisions aside (not counted here), no divisions were destroyed in combat during this period.  As these are net figures, although the French raised two new divisions in the week ending of August 30, they also disbanded two, with the result that no change appears in the number of divisions.

"Second Class Boy"

Until well into the twentieth century most ships’ crews, warships and merchantmen alike, included boys working as servants or apprentices.  For example, during the eighteenth century boys (and the occasional girl passing as a boy), often as young as ten, comprised nearly 10 percent of the crew of the typical British warship.

The custom of sending young boys to sea was a very old one, and officers were encouraged to take on “servants” with financial rewards (they got to pocket most of the boy’s pay).  But abuses abounded.  For example, some ship’s captains would carry their sons, or the sons of friends or kinsmen, often as young as age five or six, on their crew lists in order to give the boys a “paper trail” of service at sea, which presumed experience, and thus gave them a leg up in securing a commission.

To prevent this sort of corrupt practice, and to help keep very young children out of the service, in 1794 the Royal Navy replaced the traditional system of recruiting boys with a more formalized one.

• First Class Boy: “Gentlemen” or “volunteers” as young as 11, seeking a commission, to be instructed in seamanship, mathematics, geography, and so forth, before ascending to midshipman, were paid £6 a year (about £6,250 in today’s currency).
• Second Class Boy:  Older boys, of 15 to 17 year, seeking a career before the mast in the navy, presumed to have some experience and serving regular watches, were paid £5 a year (about £5,200 today).
• Third Class Boy:  Lads of 13 to 15, presumed to have no experience, performing basic duties while learning the basics of seamanship, for which they were paid £4 a year (about £4,150 in today’s money).

With appropriate changes, including pay increases, basic educational requirements, formalized training programs, and so forth, this system formed part of the Royal Navy’s manpower policies until the middle of the twentieth century.  For example, Admiral Sir John Forster "Sandy" Woodward, who commanded the British task force that retook the Falkland Islands from the Argentine invaders in 1982, had entered the Royal Navy as an officer cadet at the age of 13.