War Diaries Talk

officers

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    Is it normal that all but one the officers of a battery are 2nd lt's?

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    I notice that this link for B Battery 168th Brigade dated 1-7-1917 has a Major, Captain and Lt, as well as 2nd Lts. I suppose at the time it depended on circumstances and what Officers were available for the different Batteries. There could be quite a few reasons why the Officers in the different Batteries changed.

    Link: https://zooniverse-static.s3.amazonaws.com/www.operationwardiary.org/subjects/standard/5a60bda19cccfc003e004a0d.jpg

    By the way Eric, I see you are doing a lot of good work on all these nominal rolls.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator in response to erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be's comment.

    I found this description of the personnel of a battery here: http://royalfieldartilleryww1.blogspot.com/2013/06/british-i-corps-and-composition-of-rfa.html The author of the blog took it from the old version of The Long, Long Trail and the link is no longer active. The revised Long, Long Trail does not seem to have the same information anywhere, but I think this blog post is reasonably accurate.

    It appears that this battery was short of a captain or lieutenant to act as second-in-command. Possibly 2/Lt. Robinson filled that role.

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    At this stage in the war, there would have been a lot of replacement officers coming through as well. The usual establishment would have got a bit mixed up, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those 2nd Lieutenants had been promoted in a few month's time.

    Posted