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The Military Press, perhaps the epitome of the "Mom and Pop" on-demand publishing phenomenon, has for years been producing a variety of noteworthy WWII-related books, many focusing on OB and TOE material. Most of these projects are organized into a number of multi-volume series covering British, French, German, and American armed forces. These multiple titles of multiple series appear at frequent but irregular intervals, sometimes making it difficult for devoted readers (and reviewers) to keep track of all the new releases.
That's the case with one interesting series, The British Army 1939-1945: British Expeditionary Force Organisation and Order of Battle 10th May 1940, which first appeared in 2005. We're just now getting our hands on the two most recent volumes, five and six, despite their original publication back in 2007. Sometimes the Atlantic Ocean seems wide and perilous!
In any event, we're glad to get a look at these two sequels, having previously reviewed the first volume in 2006. At that time there seemed little doubt—with, according to our 2006 review, equipment lists extending practically down to the level of individual buttons and rolls of toilet paper—that Philson had compiled a serious mountain of TOE data, albeit one that might be close to toppling into an avalanche of informational overkill.
The newer books, on the other hand, move the series in a different direction, one likely to find favor among a slightly different audience. Instead of TOEs, volume five consists of daily histories of BEF units in the 1940 campaign.
Here's what Philson has to say about his sources for the unit histories:
[t]he histories are based entirely on the contents of the surviving War Diaries and accounts of each division and brigade and are focused at that level, although individual battalions will often appear in the text where an individual brigade action requires it. While senior commanders get an occasional mention in the text, in general, personalities have been left out as have stirring tales of heroism as these would need a history in itself. Nor have I entered into any judgement of the performance of units or their commanders as quite simply I am not qualified to do so.
In order to build a daily picture of each division or brigade it has often been necessary to refer to the individual battalion War Diaries and the published histories of the regiments involved. While these can contain detailed accounts which amplify and clarify brief entries in the higher formation diary, equally they can be vague which suggests that much information has now been lost forever.
The daily chronologies cover these units:
- 6th Infantry Division
- 48th Infantry Division
- 50th Infantry Division
- 51st Infantry Division
- 52nd Infantry Division
- Beauman Division
- 1st Armoured Division
- Canadian 1st Infantry Division
- GHQ armoured units, including 1st Army Tank Brigade, etc
- GHQ and corps artillery, including AA brigades, etc
- Miscellaneous units, including 20th Guards Brigade, 30th Infantry Brigade, etc
The chapter for each unit begins with a familiar organigram. After the organizational diagram for the unit, Philson writes a day-by-day chronology of that unit's operations. Each of these chronologies begins, with a few exceptions, on 10 May and continues until the formation is no longer in action on the continent. For each date until the end of its role, approximately a paragraph of text describes the daily ops.
Here are some typical entries, these for 48th Infantry Division:
10th-12th May
Prior to the 10th the primary role of the division was to act against any attempted parachute or air landing operations in the rear area of the BEF. When the warning order was received its role under Plan D was to provide anti aircraft protection, traffic control and frontier guards at key points used by the other divisions of I Corps on their move forward into Belgium. Only 143rd Brigade and 53rd Anti Tank Regiment were involved in this duty and they moved to join the forward divisions on the evening of the 10th.
13th May
With the forward divisions and corps troops now well on their way to the Dyle the division was warned to be ready to advance to the area south east of Brussels and take up position in the Foret de Soignes where they would be in reserve to I Corps, for the move forward 115th Army Field Regiment and 1st Army Tank Brigade would be under command.
14th May
Shortly after midnight the division began its advance into Belgium and soon after departure new orders arrived for it to hold a defensive position on the corps reserve line from the Foret de Soignes to the Bois de Hal and then along the line of the River Senne. The division would be holding the old battlefield of Waterloo, although this time they would be holding it against the Germans with French support.
15th May
The move forward was completed without any delays as the refugee problem had yet to become acute. Some minor harassment from air attacks had taken place but there were no casualties to vehicles or personnel and 53rd Anti Tank Regiment claimed six enemy aircraft shot down during the move. Reconnaissance of the positions to be held started during the morning but in the afternoon news came through that the front of 2nd North African Division (2nd DINA) on the Dyle had been broken and its neighbour to the north, 2nd Division, had lost touch with it. 144th Brigade was placed under command of 2nd DINA and moved off to the south where they were held in reserve ready to relieve the French battalions if required.
16th May
144th Brigade took up position on a line from Ohain south to Glabais under command of 2nd DINA, 145th Brigade arrived in the Waterloo position and began digging in covered by 12th Lancers. 143rd Brigade after completing its traffic control duties was on its way forward to rejoin the division.
As Philson indicates in his Introduction, he's careful to avoid "stirring tales of heroism" as well as "judgement of the performance of units or their commanders," so these are rather cut-and-dried paragraphs without a great deal of color or vigor, but nevertheless quite informative.
The appendices add much further detail, including casualties and equipment losses, such as 97 Matilda Mk I tanks and 29 Matilda Mk II. Indeed, while many histories blandly note how the campaign cost the British Army most of its tanks, guns, and vehicles, the numbers in Philson's tables quantify the full extent of those losses. The appendix for losses, by the way, also includes daily tallies of RAF aircraft written off, broken down by model. The appendix for evacuation figures takes into account not only Operation Dynamo (Dunkirk), but also the subsequent evacuations from St Valery, Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, and elsewhere. Finally, the author provides a complete list of unpublished sources used to compile all the volumes of the series as well as an index of units for the entire series.
The sixth volume requires relatively little explanation, consisting of maps only. Of them Philson says this:
The map sections...illustrating the positions of divisions, brigades and battalions are taken from the General Staff Geological Survey 4042 series 1 :250,000 scale, 1 inch to 3.94 miles, GSGS 4040 and GSGS 4250 series 1 :50,000 scale, 1 inch to 0.79 miles. Where possible the 1938-1939 editions which were the ones used during the campaign have been used but in some cases several sheets of these editions were not available and later editions had to be used.
Fifty-one maps are provided on a unit-by-unit basis, mostly division-by-division. For example, the first four maps cover 1st Infantry Division:
Positions on the Dyle, 12th to 15th May
Positions on the Escaut, 19th to 22nd May
Positions on the Frontier, 22nd to 26th May
Positions in the Dunkirk perimeter, 30th May
Each page contains one map, and the maps generally take up most of the page. The base maps are all full color and quite detailed, looking rather like Michelin maps for motorists. Upon the base maps someone—the author?—has superimposed straight black lines and captions indicating the positions of British units, usually at battalion level. No sign of other friendly or enemy forces. These are not spectacular by any means—the somewhat crude additions to the original base maps look amateurish at best—but they are for British deployments far more detailed than the charts found in the British official history.
Here's one of the maps, reduced in size for this illustration:
With the maps of the sixth volume concluding the series, what is the sum of the six individual books? The author gives us very detailed TOE data for virtually every formation in the BEF. For all the major (and some not-so-major) units he also provides daily chronological entries. And he supplies an assortment of very useful maps. Nowhere is any of this tied together with any over-arching commentary or narrative. The reader is simply left to his own devices to study the individual components—TOEs, war diaries, and maps—as he sees fit. In that sense, although it goes well beyond the "Organisation and Order of Battle" of the title, the series can't be considered a history of the BEF on the continent in 1939 and 1940. However, Philson's work should prove extremely valuable to anyone who already understands the campaign and wants to delve into some of the underlying historical details. The books should also prove exceedingly handy to anyone who wants to design a wargame on the subject.
What about volumes five and six in particular? We're big fans of OB and TOE material, and that from Philson's earlier titles is quite well done. (If anything, overdone.) Nonetheless, the subsequent volumes of the series—such as these two—with war diaries and maps appeal to us even more than the TOE tomes, and are likely to find increased favor among readers and collectors. Very solid and attractive stuff.
For fans of detailed archival data—whether or not favorably impressed by the dense TOEs of the first few books of British Expeditionary Force Organisation and Order of Battle 10th May 1940—these volumes are definitely worth a look.
Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from The Military Press.
Thanks to Military Press for providing these review copies.
Reviewed 22 August 2010
Copyright © 2010 by Bill Stone
May not be reproduced in any form without written permission of Stone & Stone
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