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dependency upon the part of other ranks was equally part of the
conditioning of the army 17 . However, there is still much to explore
in the area of morale and discipline. Julian Putkowski’s monograph
on disorders is eagerly awaited, while Alf Peacock’s preliminary
sampling of the newly-released official files at the Public Record
Office on courts martial suggests that this will be as significant a
source, as was indicated by Doron Lamn’s similar sampling of
personnel files then still at Hayes. Indeed, Tim Bowman is
completing a doctoral thesis at the University of Luton on the
morale and discipline of Irish regiments, that draws heavily on the
new disciplinary sources. The surviving personnel files of other
ranks were opened in November 1996 and the personnel files of
officers in February 1997. They offer enormous potential for
illuminating not only discipline and morale but, of course, remaining
mysteries concerning patterns of enlistment 18 .
One aspect of Gary Sheffield’s findings is to suggest that,
whatever the feelings of regulars with regard to the likely
performance of conscripts, the means by which an individual
enlisted did not in itself affect combat performance. This brings us
neatly to the actual conduct of operations. John Terraine was quite
right, while reviewing A Nation in Arms, in remarking that «at times
one has the feeling that something essential is escaping - the war
itself, in tact». Similarly, Peter Simkins was also correct in pointing
out in 1991 that «all too few military historians in this country
possess intimate knowledge of the tactical and sociological factors
affecting the conduct of units in battle» 19 . His call, therefore, was
for more operational studies and one clear development since 1984
has been a new emphasis upon the actual conduct of combat on the
Western Front.
The wider context of British strategy has been well served by
the continuing investigations of David French, with an important
article on the «meaning» of attrition in 1988 providing a foretaste of
the final volume of his trilogy on war aims and strategy, The
Strategy of the Lloyd George Coalition, published in 1996. Useful
overviews have also been provided by Trevor Wilson, John Bourne,
David French himself in the edited compilation, Britain and the First
World War and, perceptively, in Paul Kennedy’s contribution to the
Great War volume of Military Effectiveness. The particular problems
of partnership with France and Belgium have also been examined
17 John Fuller, Troop Morale and Popular Culture in the British and Dominion Armies, Oxford, 1990;
Gary Sheffield, British Military Police and their Battlefield Role, 1914-18, dans «Sandhurst Journal of
Military Studies», N° 1/1990, p. 33-46; Idem, Officer-Man Relations: Morale and Discipline in the
British Army, 1902-22, Unpub. Ph.D., London, 1994.
18 Al Peacock, Sentenced by Court Martial: Some Notes, dans «Gunfire», vol. 29, 1994, p. 2-21; Doron
Lamn, British Soldiers of the First World War: Creation of a Representative Sample, dans «Historical
and Social Research», vol.13, 1988, p. 55-98; Ian Beckett, Service Records of the Great War and the
Military Historian, Archives (forthcoming)
19 John Terraine, Compte rendu dans «The Daily Telegraph», 21 juin 1985; Peter Simkins, Everyman at
War, dans Brian Bond (ed.), The First World War and British Military History, Oxford, 1991, p. 312.
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