British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

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Kingfish
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British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#1

Post by Kingfish » 17 May 2020, 11:59

1) How much of a difference did the disbandment of the British 59th ID make to the depleted ranks of 2nd army? In 'No Holding Back' Brian Reid describes how the Brit 51st (H) division had to restructure it's infantry battalions due to the manpower shortage. Did the cadre from the 59th ID allow a return to the old TO&E or something close to it?

2) What other measures were taken to provide more men? In the Italian theater the 2nd NZ division was able to create a fourth brigade by converting the LAA, MG and assorted other units into infantry battalions. Did the divisions in 2nd army adopt a similar approach?
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wwilson
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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#2

Post by wwilson » 17 May 2020, 12:15

This is an interesting topic. I've read the British infantry divisions in Italy went to three rifle companies per battalion vice the usual four.

I also recall reading some Royal Artillery units were fielded as infantry brigades and used on lines of communication duty in 1945.


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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#3

Post by EwenS » 17 May 2020, 15:56

In both theatres different battalions from the same Regt were sometimes merged. One that immediately comes to mind, albeit an armoured unit, was the 3rd and 4th County of London Yeomanry.

4th CLY was part of 22nd Armd Bde in 7th Armd Div in Normandy and suffered significant losses. On 1 Aug it was merged with 3rd CLY in the independent 4th Armd Bde to form the 3rd/4th CLY for the remainder of the war.

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#4

Post by Gary Kennedy » 17 May 2020, 16:40

It's a big subject and the way that units contract and reorganise themselves to function under strength is one that interests me too. Unfortunately I've never seen a study or a contemporary analysis that gives detailed answers (which I know doesn't mean there isn't one, just highlights my limitations).

In British Inf Bns it was a fairly common approach to disband C Company if there were insufficient personnel to fill out all four Rifle Coys adequately. That is detailed as having been the case in units of 51st Div during Totalize. It was also done elsewhere in 21AG and did not mean that the relevant C Coy would never be reformed. That is one aspect I don't think is much dealt with, how long contractions in unit size lasted for. An Inf Bn could be run with three Rifle Coys without it being severely hamstrung, though it reduces the ability to rotate troops.

As I recall when 59th Div was disbanded its RA and RE units joined Army resources, while its infantrymen were used to offer immediate replacements for casualties in other units. When 50th Div was brought back to the UK I'm pretty sure without looking that its RA units stayed in theatre.

There were tactical reorganisations in Italy as well as disbandments. 6th Armd Div acquired a second Inf Bde by the redistribution of Motor Bns in theatre, while the Cdn 5th Armd Div did something similar by re-tasking Mot, Recce and LAA units. The NZ and SA Divs converted Recce, Mot and MG units in early 1945 to enable an extra Inf Bde to be formed.

Gary

Tom from Cornwall
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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#5

Post by Tom from Cornwall » 17 May 2020, 16:58

Kingfish wrote:
17 May 2020, 11:59
1) How much of a difference did the disbandment of the British 59th ID make to the depleted ranks of 2nd army? In 'No Holding Back' Brian Reid describes how the Brit 51st (H) division had to restructure it's infantry battalions due to the manpower shortage. Did the cadre from the 59th ID allow a return to the old TO&E or something close to it?
As Gary says, it is a big subject and I haven't seen an analysis of what happened to all infantrymen from 59 Infantry Division - just snippets here and there. For example, 7 Somerset Light Infantry lost a complete company during the crossing of the Seine in late August but on 1 September 1944 they received a draft of 94 all ranks from the South Staffordshire Regiment from 59 Infantry Division as a replacement.

As you read the infantry battalion histories, though, you see that there was a relatively consistent pattern of merging companies which had suffered heavy casualties and then reforming them as reinforcements arrived - at least until the next bout of heavy fighting.

This is from the war diary of 7 South Staffs (WO171/1379):
13 August 1944
Unit in process of disbandment.
Draft 6 Offrs 149 ORs sent to 6 N Staffs.
Draft 7 Offrs 139 ORs sent to 7 R Norfolks.

14 – 16 August 1944
[No entries]

17 August 1944
Unit in process of disbandment.
Draft 2 Offrs 94 ORs sent to 7 Black Watch.
Regards

Tom

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#6

Post by Sheldrake » 17 May 2020, 19:36

Kingfish wrote:
17 May 2020, 11:59
1) How much of a difference did the disbandment of the British 59th ID make to the depleted ranks of 2nd army? In 'No Holding Back' Brian Reid describes how the Brit 51st (H) division had to restructure it's infantry battalions due to the manpower shortage. Did the cadre from the 59th ID allow a return to the old TO&E or something close to it?

2) What other measures were taken to provide more men? In the Italian theater the 2nd NZ division was able to create a fourth brigade by converting the LAA, MG and assorted other units into infantry battalions. Did the divisions in 2nd army adopt a similar approach?
The British were running very short of infantry manpower. Infantry divisions were around 4,500 infantrymen in rifle companies and 10,000 other soldiers. The British knew they did not have enough British manpower to maintain all their Divisions. But they needed a large number of divisions for Britain to be seen to be pulling its weight in the alliance. So they knew that they would have to disband some divisions at some point.

The infantry loss rates in Normandy were much higher than expected, even higher that in Ypres in 1917. During 1944, infantry reinforcements were found from all manner of sources. The Royal Marines were combed through. The RAF Regiment was disbanded and its gunners turned into infantrymen. AA troops constituted a manpower reserve, as many of the Light AA units formed in the war were originally raised as infantry. During the second half of 1944 around 5,000 Light AA gunners were reassigned as infantry.

Some artillery units were reassigned en mass as infantry. One artillery brigade in Italy became a front line unit. Its Light AA became infantry and the Heavy AA the field and anti-tank artillery. The towed batteries of 21 Anti tank Regiment, became infantry. 21 Anti tank Regiment became an extra battlegroup in the Guards Armoured Division, with a mix of SP Anti tank guns and infantry mounted in M14s. One of the Gun sergeants was awarded an MM or DCM as a section commander.

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#7

Post by Gary Kennedy » 17 May 2020, 20:16

Tom,

While on the subject, do you know if the war diaries offer much on the strength of individual Rifle Coys at all? I think about 100 Br Inf Bns served in the formations of 21AG, and I've tended to think their war diaries would offer the best commentary on the manpower situation. However I don't know if Inf Bns routinely recorded their Coy strengths or simply a Bn strength. I know that the detail in WDs varies a bit, depending on who was writing it. I would hope the dissolution and reformation of certain Rifle Coys, and the actual fate of the Carrier and Atk Pls, might warrant a mention in even the most vague entry.

Gary

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#8

Post by Tom from Cornwall » 17 May 2020, 20:41

Hi Gary,

The unit field returns only give overall unit numbers - not per company. In most good (I.e. fuller) war diaries there are mentions of coys amalgamating and then reforming and the same goes for the better (i.e. more detailed regimental histories). What neither would give you though is confidence that those sources alone would suffice to provide data for all units and at all times during the campaign.

And some war diaries are very brief - which must have infuriated the regimental history committee members!

Regards

Tom

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#9

Post by Gooner1 » 18 May 2020, 12:45

Kingfish wrote:
17 May 2020, 11:59
1) How much of a difference did the disbandment of the British 59th ID make to the depleted ranks of 2nd army? In 'No Holding Back' Brian Reid describes how the Brit 51st (H) division had to restructure it's infantry battalions due to the manpower shortage. Did the cadre from the 59th ID allow a return to the old TO&E or something close to it?
Filled the infantry ranks for a while, but not for long, 50th Division was returned to England as a training division in November and most of its (recent) infantry posted to other battalions.
2) What other measures were taken to provide more men? In the Italian theater the 2nd NZ division was able to create a fourth brigade by converting the LAA, MG and assorted other units into infantry battalions. Did the divisions in 2nd army adopt a similar approach?
Amongst other measures LAA Regiments saw a (belated) reduction in battery size from 3 troops to two troops. Anti-Tank Regiments typically saw a reduction in Troop size from 4 to 3 guns.

A report from November 1945 available here https://www.backtonormandy.org/support- ... nuary-1945 is interesting.

"The provision of officers and men to bring infantry divisions in 21 Army Group up to establishment continued to be a problem, and by October there was an acute shortage amounting to 970 officers and 11,900 ORs.

As it was apparent that the War Office would not be able to make up these deficiencies from manpower resources in UK, it was decided to disband 50 Division and to post the infantry personnel thus made available to other formations. These postings remedied the OR position in infantry battalions to the extent that the deficiency noted in October had been turned into a small surplus of 2,000 by the end of December, but at that date 520 officers were still required to bring formations up to their establishment. With a likelihood of heavy casualties in the coming Spring operations, it was clear that drastic measures would have to be taken to provide infantry officers. It was therefore decided to disband various RA regiments which had been part of 50 Division and to post back to UK for infantry training the officers who thus became surplus.

Additional measures taken were to send to the UK for the same purpose a large number of RASC and pioneer officers and to request War Office to reduce establishments at home as much as possible, so as to render surplus potential infantry officers, and, finally to send out category and elderly officers to this theatre to release younger extra-regimentally employed officers for posting to infantry units.

This last measure was only partly successful, because of the reluctance of commanders to lose, at this stage, their trained and practised staff Officers, however, great the need of the units might be.

The deficiency in infantry officers was never, in fact, completely made up. On the other hand the measures taken prevented the shortage becoming so serious as to render formations or units ineffective.
<>
OPERATION VERITABLE

The following special arrangements were made, before the start of this operation, to deal with the possibility of high casualty figures. Each infantry battalion was posted from 50 to 100 ORs surplus to its WE before the opening of the operation.
<>

The supply of OR reinforcements was, generally speaking, maintained during the last months of the campaign, although there were some shortages, but only in those trades and categories of which there was a World shortage.

The War Office exceeded its commitments before operation PLUNDER started, in giving 21 Army Group sufficient drafts to build up a total of about 12,000 infantry reinforcements, against the authorised holding of 8,000.

The position as regards officers was, however, as unsatisfactory as that of the OBs was reasonable.

Strenuous measures were taken in the Army Group and by the War Office to make the maximum number of officers available, particularly for infantry, but even so, there was a heavy deficiency when operation PLUNDER started. In actual fact, it never became necessary to break up formations or units through shortage of officers, but this would have been necessary if casualties had been sustained at the estimated rate."

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#10

Post by Aber » 18 May 2020, 14:53

NB - as shown above the real shortage was infantry officers, not men.

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#11

Post by Tom from Cornwall » 18 May 2020, 20:35

Aber wrote:
18 May 2020, 14:53
NB - as shown above the real shortage was infantry officers, not men.
Well, on 30 Sep 44 21 Army Group A Branch reported:
(a) Deficiencies as at 27 Sep

Inf (Rifle) - 439 Offrs and 5515 ORs
Gds (Rifle) - 18 Offrs and 367 ORs
I'd say that was a "real" shortage of men too!

Regards

Tom

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#12

Post by Gooner1 » 19 May 2020, 15:17

Sheldrake wrote:
17 May 2020, 19:36
The RAF Regiment was disbanded and its gunners turned into infantrymen. AA troops constituted a manpower reserve, as many of the Light AA units formed in the war were originally raised as infantry.
The RAF Regiment wasn't disbanded. It surrendered 2,000 men to the Army just before Overlord, who went mostly to the Guards battalions, but thereafter remained more or less intact until March 1945 when 5,000 more men were 'given' to the Army.
The RAF Regiment still ended the war in North West Europe with 6 Armoured Car Squadrons, 28 LAA Squadrons and 41 Rifle Squadrons on the Continent.

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#13

Post by Sheldrake » 19 May 2020, 15:30

I stand corrected. Is that a personal interest?

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#14

Post by Gooner1 » 19 May 2020, 16:43

Not really. Though I know the 'Rock Apes' are well capable of defending themselves I can't help but see a divisions worth of infantry in their rifle squadrons.

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Re: British manpower reduction in infantry divisions

#15

Post by Sheldrake » 19 May 2020, 16:59

Gooner1 wrote:
19 May 2020, 16:43
Not really. Though I know the 'Rock Apes' are well capable of defending themselves I can't help but see a divisions worth of infantry in their rifle squadrons.
80% of casualties were incurred by the rifle companies in the infantry divisions, C. 3,600 reducing to 2.700 men. 41 squadrons could provide 4,000 infantry. There was about a division and a half worth of replacements on a three rifle company basis. Enough to sustain one major operation.

The RAF were also milked for surplus pilots. The author of Lancaster Target and Mosquito Victory survived a tour of duty with Bomber Command and volunteered for a tour with Transport command. He found himself undertaking infantry training having been drafted into the Glider Pilot Regiment.

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