separate companies, the corps was reorganized in the winter of 1917-8
on a battalion basis. Eventually one machine-gun battalion was
attached to each division, and other battalions were army troops.
A battalion comprised 4 companies, and a company consisted of
4 sections each of four guns (total 64 guns). A portion of this
corps eventually became the nucleus of the Tank Corps.
Tank Corps. In June 1916, the heavy section of the Machine- Gun Corps in France was organized in six companies as the nucleus of the Tank Corps. Each company consisted of 4 sections, each of 6 tanks, three " male " and three " female," with one spare tank per company. The crew of a tank was one officer and seven other ranks. In Sept. of the same year expansion was decided upon. An adminis- trative branch was to be formed in England and a fighting branch in France, consisting* of 4 companies designed to become 4 battalions as the tanks became available. At the same time 2 companies were formed in England with the intention of their development into 5 battalions. By Nov. 1916, the first 4 battalions in France were grouped in 2 brigades, and in April 1917, the 3rd brigade of 2 bat- talions was transferred there from England. Expansion continued, and in June 1917, the title of " Tank Corps " was definitely be- stowed on the corps.
In April 1918 -after various vicissitudes and delays, due some- times to difficulties of manufacture and sometimes to shortage of personnel a portion of the corps was formed into armoured car battalions; and at the time of the Armistice plans were in hand for an establishment of 6,000 tanks in 1919. The original Tank Com- mittee which had handled the design and manufacture of tanks was replaced early in 1918 by a Tank Board including official representa- tives of the Ministry of Munitions, Admiralty and War Office and individual experts, thus ensuring for the new arm a concentration of expert naval, military and industrial knowledge.
Medical. On the outbreak of war steps were taken to prohibit the export of drugs and to encourage the manufacture in Great Britain of certain drugs which before the war were largely imported from Germany. Elaborate arrangements were made to meet very large demands for medical and surgical stores, and there was no lack of the essential remedies and appliances required for the treat- ment of the sick and wounded. The Army Medical Stores at Wool- wich were expanded and depots were established throughout the country for the supply of medical stores to home hospitals. The use of certain acids, etc., for medicinal purposes was either stopped or restricted and substitutes employed so that these substances might be available for the manufacture of explosives. Stocks of quinine were commandeered to meet heavy demands, and during the early part of the malarial season of 1917 the average monthly issues of this drug were over 5^ tons. A total of 1,088,000,000 tablets of compressed drugs were supplied, and some 34,000,000 doses of various vaccines and sera were issued for the prevention and treatment of disease. Practically all the vaccines were manufactured in the laboratory of the Royal Army Medical College. An army spectacle depot was established in London for the supply of spectacles, etc., to the troops, and this depot eventually supplied all the artificial eyes and ophthalmological apparatus required. Over 350,000 pairs of spectacles and 22,386 artificial eyes were supplied, and 528 X-ray outfits of various types were issued. Splint-making shops were established in France, Egypt and Salonika, the output of which was supplemented by the supply from Great Britain to the armies in the field of 1,675,000 standard splints. Enormous quanti- ties of surgical dressings were issued during the war, including over 108,000,000 bandages, over 87,700 m. of gauze and over 7,250 tons of cottonwool and lint. At the beginning of Aug. 1914, hospital accommodation in the United Kingdom amounted to approximately 7,000 beds, distributed in some 200 hospitals of varying sizes. On the mobilization of the Territorial Force the hospital accommodation was increased by 11,960 beds in 23 general hospitals (subsequently increased to 25) which were rapidly established in buildings which had been earmarked previously for the purpose, chiefly in university towns. The permanent military hospitals, with the 23 Territorial Force general hospitals, formed the nucleus of the war hospital accommodation in the United Kingdom. This accommodation was expanded as occasion demanded by means of hospitals organized by Voluntary Aid Detachments or private effort, by the conversion of asylums, poor-law institutions, and other large public and private buildings into temporary military hospitals, and by the allocation of beds in civil hospitals and the erection of large nutted hospitals in the various training centres. At the time of the Armistice the hospital accommodation in the United Kingdom had been expanded to a total of 364,133 beds in 2,426 hospitals and there were then 333,- 074 patients in these hospitals. During the period Aug. 28 1914 to July 31 1919 there were received from overseas and distributed to hospitals in the United Kingdom 2,640,650 sick and wounded. One hundred hospital ships was the maximum number ever em- ployed, and 56 fully equipped and extemporized ambulance trains were in use at home. In 1914 the strength of the R.A.M.C. was i ,068 officers, 3,895 other ranks, 463 nursing sisters; while at the time of the Armistice its strength had risen to 13,045 offi- cers, 131,361 other ranks, 12,769 nursing sisters, and 10,897 V.A.D.'s
Dental Service. Prior to the war no dental treatment was pro- vided for in the military organization, necessary work being carried
out by contracts with civil dental surgeons. The reduction of the standards for enlistment necessitated by the war resulted in a small organization being formed, and later the introduction of com- pulsory service increased the needs for dental treatment enormously, and the lack of sufficient army personnel to cope with the work at one time seriously affected the preparation of drafts for overseas. In 1918 it was calculated that 70% of slightly over 1,000,000 men at home required dental treatment before being dispatched overseas, and in July 1918 it was found necessary to call up for service all civil dental surgeons who were liable and to employ them profes- sionally with the troops. The number of dental surgeons commis- sioned for professional work rose from 36 in 1915 to 850 in Nov. 1918. Army Service Corps (renamed Royal Army Service Corps on Nov. 27 1918). From 1910 until the close of the war extensive development and expansion of the Army Service Corps took place, the former being a process of slow evolution during the four years preceding the outbreak of war; the latter being necessarily rapid, and the direct result of the war itself. The strength of the corps in 1914 was 498 officers and 5,933 men; and on Armistice Day 1918 it had grown to 11,564 officers and 314,824 men. The creation of the new armies in 1914 necessitated a large and rapid increase of Army Service Corps officers; and a number of " direct " temporary com- missions were granted to applicants whose experience in civil life was such as to fit them for the miscellaneous duties of the corps. The numbers obtained were so great that transfer to the fighting arms was encouraged, and later, for younger men, insisted on. The trans- fers totalled 1,200. Similar steps were taken as regards other ranks 82,000 being replaced in the Army Service Corps by men of other services who had become unfit for the trenches, by women and by coloured personnel. The sub-division of the duties of the Army Service Corps into animal transport, mechanical transport, and supplies continued. As regards animal transport, although the period from 1910 to 1914 showed a decrease, owing to the gradual introduction of mechanical propulsion, the expansion of animal transport during the late war was both colossal and varied, in that horses, mules, camels, donkeys, bullocks, reindeer, and dogs were all utilized to meet the divergent requirements of the various theatres. In France the Army Service Corps were responsible for the provision of personnel and the upkeep of all divisional trains, reserve parks, auxiliary horse transport companies, and horsed ambulances; and they even extended their scope in that in their advanced horse transport depots, in addition to maintaining their own formations, they held complete turn-outs for every arm of the service, technical and non-technical. In Egypt and Palestine, in addition to extensive employment of normal horsed transport, 40,000 camels and 8,000 donkeys were used. In E. Africa also, as far as animal transport was possible in that theatre (owing to tsetse), in addition to the horsed transport, bujlock transport and carrier transport were largely used ; and in north Russia the horse and mule were largely substituted by reindeer and dogs drawing sleighs. The outstanding feature, prior to the war, was the growth of mechanical transport, and during the war the intensive use of the internal- combustion engine in place of steam propulsion. The expansion of the mechanical-transport branch of the Army Service Corps can best be appreciated by the fact that in 1910 the total number of mechanical vehicles was approximately 175; in 1914, 248 four- wheeled vehicles and 24 motor-cycles; and in 1918, 86,837 four- wheeled vehicles and 34,865 motor-cycles. Concurrently with the large increase in vehicles, a corresponding development had of necessity to take place to ensure their maintenance. Mobile repair units were established in the field, light repair shops in the advanced areas and heavy repair shops at the bases. Advanced mechanical- transport store depots were likewise formed in the forward areas, also main mechanical transport depots at the bases. At the com- mencement of the war a portion of the large number of vehicles required were obtained through the medium ofa subsidy scheme dur- ing peace, but, as the subsidy scheme was in its infancy, the major portion had to be obtained by impressment, the result being that vehicles were a heterogeneous collection of condition and makes. The resources of the United Kingdom were developed to their maximum, and had of necessity to be supplemented largely through purchases abroad. Every endeavour was made to standardize the vehicles in each formation, and to eliminate non-standard makes at the earliest possible date; and the efficiency of the mechanical transport was largely due to the thoroughness with which this was carried put. In the case of supplies, prior to the war the soldier at home received a daily issue of bread and meat only, the remaining items com- prising his ration being provided by means of a daily cash allowance expended under regimental arrangements. On the outbreak of war the troops both at home and abroad passed automatically to the " field " scale of rations, and the Army Service Corps was at once responsible for the provision and .distribution of all the items com- prised therein, as well as for many categories of medical comforts for hospital use, and, in addition, the provision of forage and petrol. As the armies increased in size, and included many different na- tionalities among their personnel, special treatment in diet was re- quired, so that a remarkable diversity of commodities had to be provided ; the number of these at the cessation of hostilities amounted to approximately 500 different articles, mostly perishable, as com-
