Page 28 - History of War - Issue 30-16

SOMME
1916 2016
THE PALS

BATTALIONS WORDS TOM GARNER
A massive propaganda drive and feverish patriotism saw communities join
the British Army, but it would end tragically in a hail of machine-gun i re

Pals of the East Yorkshire Regiment
cheerfully wave to the camera before
marching into the trenches, before
the Battle of the Somme

ut of all the destruction of State for War, Lord Kitchener, thought workmates or friends was replicated across
of 1914-18 there was differently and devised a plan with General Sir the whole country and Lord Derby coined the
Oa unique trauma that Henry Rawlinson and Lord Derby to raise large term ‘Pals Battalions’ in a speech to recruits
was borne out of a wave of ‘New Armies’. Kitchener envisioned that the war in Liverpool on 28 August: “We have got to see
public patriotism: the formation would be decided by the last million men that this through to the bitter end and dictate our
of the ‘Pals Battalions’. The Britain could throw into battle and Rawlinson terms of peace in Berlin if it takes every man
story of how large groups of felt that men would be more willing to enlist if and every penny in the country. This should be
men joined up with their friends and family to they were serving alongside people they knew. a battalion of pals, a battalion in which friends
serve Britain is one of the most poignant of the A call was issued for 100,000 volunteers, from the same ofice will ight shoulder to
war. A disproportionate amount of those who aged between 19-30, at least 1.6 metres tall shoulder for the honour of Britain.”
volunteered died on the irst day and whole and a chest size greater than 86 centimetres. This meant that battalions from all social
communities were devastated. The response was impressive with 30,000 classes, professions and backgrounds were
When Britain declared war on Germany on 4 men enlisting every day by the end of August formed. The Glasgow Tramways Battalion
August 1914, its army was unique among the 1914 and by mid-September over 500,000 had shared an employer, the Hull Commercials an
European powers for being manned by voluntary joined. At the end of the year another 500,000 occupation, and the Tyneside Irish a common
professionals, as well as its small size: the had been added. ancestry. However, individuals enlisted for
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that was Although the Pals Battalions became different reasons. Men volunteered because it
sent to France numbered only 120,000 men. associated with working-class men from was considered patriotic to enlist, particularly in
Compared with the millions of conscripts in the northern industrial towns, inanciers who the wake of continuous rumours about German
French and German armies this was puny and worked in the City of London formed the very atrocities in ‘plucky little Belgium’. Some saw
it soon became apparent that the BEF was not irst battalion on 21 August 1914. This unit enlistment as an opportunity for travel in an
big enough for the conlict that was unfolding. became the 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers but age when most Britons could not afford to do
A popular assumption was that the war would it was commonly known as the ‘Stockbrokers so and they were bolstered with the general
be over by Christmas 1914, but the Secretary Battalion’. This principle of enlisting with assurance that the war would not last long.
In many cases, army life was an escape
“WE HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS THROUGH TO THE BITTER END AND from crippling poverty as military service
offered regular pay, proper food and clothing,
DICTATE OUR TERMS OF PEACE IN BERLIN IF IT TAKES EVERY MAN plus accommodation. Areas dominated by
heavy industry provided a disproportionate
AND EVERY PENNY IN THE COUNTRY” supply of recruits, but many volunteers were
rejected on medical grounds thanks to poor

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