The British army was almost unique among the European armies of the Great War in that it did not suffer from a serious breakdown of discipline or collapse of morale. It did, however, inevitably suffer from disciplinary problems. While attention has hitherto focused on the 312 notorious "shot at dawn" cases, many thousands of British soldiers were tried by court martial during the Great War. This is a comprehensive study of discipline and morale in the British army during the Great War using a case study of the Irish regiments. It considers the wartime experience of the Irish regular and Special Reserve battalions and the 10th (Irish), 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Divisions. The book demonstrates that breaches of discipline did occur in the Irish regiments during the period but in most cases these were of a minor nature. Controversially, Timothy Bowman suggests that where executions did take place, they were militarily necessary and served the purpose of restoring discipline in failing units. The author also shows that there was very little support for the emerging Sinn Fein movement within the Irish regiments.
This book should be essential reading for military and Irish historians and their students, and should interest any general reader concerned with how units maintain discipline and morale under the most trying conditions.
- ISBN10 0719062845
- ISBN13 9780719062841
- Publish Date 1 September 2004 (first published 8 May 2003)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 25 April 2006
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Manchester University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English