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The British Army during the First World War was the largest military force that Britain had put into the field up to that point.On the Western Front, the British Expeditionary Force ended the war as the strongest fighting force, more experienced than the United States Army and its morale was in better shape than the French Army. [182] [c]
Perhaps the most famous fighter plane during World War 1 was the Fokker as it was the first to include a synchronized machine gun. [23] [24] [25] Towards the end of the conflict, aircraft carriers were used for the first time, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a raid to destroy the Zeppelin hangars at Tønder in 1918. [26]
Before World War II, the events of 1914–1918 were generally known as the Great War or simply the World War. [1] In August 1914, the magazine The Independent wrote "This is the Great War. It names itself". [2] In October 1914, the Canadian magazine Maclean's similarly wrote, "Some wars name themselves. This is the Great War."
The highly controversial introduction, in January 1916, of conscription for the first time in British history followed the raising of one of the largest all-volunteer armies in history, known as Kitchener's Army, of more than 2,000,000 men. [1]: 504 The outbreak of war was a socially unifying event. [2]
Beckett, Ian Frederick William (1985), A Nation in Arms: A Social Study of the British Army in the First World War, Manchester University Press 1985, ISBN 0-7190-1737-8; Beckett, Ian Frederick William (2006), Home Front 1914–1918: How Britain Survived the Great War, The National Archives, ISBN 978-1-903365-81-6
A military history of Britain: from 1775 to the present (2008) Chandler, David, and Ian Beckett, eds. The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army (1994) Colley, Thomas. Always at War: British Public Narratives of War (U of Michigan Press, 2019) online review; Fortescue, J. W. A history of the British army (19v 1899–1930) online; Higham ...
It has been acknowledged that British generals were often capable men facing difficult challenges and that it was under their command that the British army played a major part in the defeat of the Germans in 1918: a great forgotten victory. [17] Though these views have been discounted as "myths", [16] [18] they are common. They have dynamically ...
On 6 August 1914, less than 48 hours after Britain's declaration of war, Parliament sanctioned an increase of 500,000 men for the Regular British Army.The newly-appointed Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You', urging the first 100,000 volunteers to come forward.