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The British Army during World War I fought the largest and most costly war in its long history. Unlike the French and German Armies, its units were made up exclusively of volunteers—as opposed to conscripts—at the outset of the conflict. Furthermore, the British Army was considerably smaller than its French and German counterparts.

Posted by volchonok on Jan 14th, 2012

More than a year has passed since the previous update of the British army. And that means - time for a new update on British army.

During the war, there were three distinct British Armies. The 'first' army was the small volunteer force of 400,000 soldiers, over half of which were posted overseas to garrison the British Empire. Together, they formed the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), which was formed for service in France and became known as the Old Contemptibles. The 'second' army was Kitchener's Army, formed from the volunteers in 1914–1915 destined to go into action at the Battle of the Somme. The 'third' was formed after the introduction of conscription in January 1916, and by the end of 1918, the army had reached its maximum strength of 4,000,000 men and could field over 70 divisions.

The British Empire responded to the British call for troops for the Western Front and major formations of the British Indian Army, Canadian Army, Australian Army, New Zealand Army and the South African Army all served in France, Gallipoli and Middle East.

The British Army was armed with the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III (SMLE Mk III), which featured a bolt-action and large magazine capacity that enabled a trained rifleman to fire 20 to 30 aimed rounds a minute.
The lighter Lewis gun was adopted for land and aircraft use in October 1915. The Lewis gun had the advantage of being about 80-percent faster—in time to build than the Vickers; it was also far more portable.

British infantry in 1916-1918 -

Highlanders -

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that was formed in Egypt in 1915 and operated during the Battle of Gallipoli.

Scout sniper in a ghillie suit

The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled .303 inch (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army.

The Ordnance QF 18 pounder, or simply 18-pounder Gun, was the standard British Army field gun of the World War I era. It formed the backbone of the Royal Field Artillery during the war, and was produced in large numbers.

The Ordnance QF 4.5 inch Howitzer was the standard British Empire field (or ‘light’) howitzer of the First World War era. It replaced the BL 5 inch Howitzer and equipped some 25% of the field artillery.

The Stokes Mortar was rapidly developed when it became clear that some type of weapon was needed to provide artillery-like fire support to the infantry. The weapon was fully man-transportable yet also capable of firing reasonably powerful shells at targets beyond the range of rifle grenades.

The Mark I tank, a British invention, was seen as the solution to the stalemate of trench warfare and it first saw service on the Somme in September 1916. The development of tank didn't stop during whole war and there were many variants of tank from Mark I to Mark X.

MK-IV male tank:

The Medium Mark A Whippet was a British tank of the First World War. It was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines.

The Lanchester Armoured Car was a British armoured car produced during the First World War. In 1914, the Lanchester was the second most numerous armoured car in service after the Rolls-Royce.