A Hard Won Learning Experience: Developments in Battlefield Performance and Brigade Operations in the British Expeditionary Force 1916-18

By Heathcliffe Bowen

A pioneering comparative study of a British Territorial infantry brigade's evolution and battlefield performance on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918.

Drawing on extensive primary and secondary sources, including much unpublished material, A Hard Won Learning Experience is a ground-breaking comparative study of the development of battlefield performance, seen through the combat experiences of a British Territorial infantry brigade in three engagements on the Western Front between 1916 and 1918. From an examination of the sources, it is clear the brigade learnt valuable lessons from its actions on the Somme in early September 1916, around the Passchendaele Ridge in October 1917 and then during the 'Hundred Days' offensive the following year. The research also shows the brigade contributing to the process of post-battle analysis and the evolution of combined arms warfare, which proved crucial to the victory of the Allied armies in 1918. The effects of casualties, changes of command, morale, training and the use of new tactics provides the means of assessing the battlefield performance of the brigade, and re-evaluates the British Army's approach to warfare on the Western Front. A Hard Won Learning Experience adds to the extensive scholarship on the development of the BEF during the war and examines the pivotal role played by brigade formations in the operational and tactical improvements which took place between 1916 and the end of the war.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 180451537X
• ISBN13: 9781804515372
• Release Date: August 2024
• Publisher: Helion & Company
• Length: 192 Pages