The Attacks on the Trench Warfare Department. Eric Geddes’ Memorandum.
The first formal criticism of the Trench Warfare Department was in a memorandum from Mr Booth, the Deputy-Director General of the Departments of Munitions Supply, questioning the anomalous position of the trench warfare department within the ministry.
When Dr Addison rejected his arguments, the cudgels were taken up by Eric Geddes, who amplified Booth’s more diplomatic criticisms and supported his own memorandum with criticisms of the Trench Warfare Department from other departments that it normally interacted with. His memorandum is included here as it indicates the range of activities undertaken by Jackson’s department in late 1915.
Eric Geddes’ Memorandum.[1]
TRENCH WARFARE DEPARTMENT
With reference to what passed in the recent meeting with Dr Addison on the subject of the Trench Warfare Department: I would like to put my views in writing because I feel that, as time goes on, the disadvantages of the present arrangement will become more apparent.
When Mr Lloyd George first became Minister, he divided the work of Supply into two Branches:
(i) Everything but explosives.
(ii) Explosives.
At that time General Jackson was employed (if I am correctly informed) in the Department of the Director of Fortifications and Works at the War Office, and was concerned in the supply of improvised methods of Trench Warfare, such as Smoke and Gases, or crude forms of Hand Grenades, Catapults etc., some little time after the creation of the Ministry you transferred it into it, and the Department of Trench Warfare was set up.
As far as my recollection serves me, the idea then was that he should continue to deal for the Ministry with matters of the kind I have indicated. Whereas, generally speaking, the supply at work of the Ministry was divided and, indeed, it seems to be the only logical division possible, into Divisions, Branches, and Sections, based on the class of article to be supplied, the Trench Warfare Department has its duties designated by the use to which the article is put.
At the time I do not think serious consideration was given to the fact that, if the title of the Trench Warfare Department were intended to signify that it should deal with the supply of all articles which were used in a Trench, it would become, apart from Explosives, the main supply Department of the Ministry, only such articles as Heavy Artillery, Aeronautics, Transport, etc., being outside such a designation.
Efforts are now being made, however, to make its title a justification for allocating to it a variety of articles, in no way related to the functions which General Jackson brought with him. This demand embraces articles which have, in fact, no more to do with Trench Warfare than a rifle, or a pair of boots, and as such a claim is not made with respect to other articles of the kind particularly connected with Trench Warfare, the result is somewhat whimsical. In addition, an uncertainty as to their tenure of responsibility, with its consequent disadvantages, is created in the minds of those Officers responsible for supplying various articles of munitions.
I attach, in appendix A, a statement with notes illustrating these points.
I would also mention that the Trench Warfare Department is not self-contained in anything like the extent as the Branches of the Directors General of Munitions Supply, and Explosives, here again, there is a disadvantage in organisation as the D.G.M.S. is not in a position to issue instructions to the Trench Warfare Department on matters of general procedure or organisation; and the utilisation of Departmental services of general utility, such as the Railway Branch, Raw Materials Branch, Machine Tools Branch, Area Organisation, Inspection Department, the Royal Ordnance Factories, methods of dealing with the War Office and the Railway Executive Committee, and so forth. This causes unnecessary trouble to the Departments, etc., concerned, and cannot, I ventured to think, be best in the interests of the Ministry so far as the supply of Trench munitions is concerned. There is a further direction in which the Trench Warfare Department differs from other Supply Branches.
It is an Experimental, as well as a Supply Department, and it does not (as is the case with the rest of the Supply Branches of the Ministry) confine itself to supplying an article of accepted pattern and to an accepted specification but undertakes a supply on its own initiative to patterns which it devises. It does not (so far as my information goes) conform to the regulations and procedures adopted for the Supply Branches of the D.G.M.S.’s Department in-so-far as Contracts, Inspection, etc., are concerned, and the result has been, and still is, unsatisfactory to those Branches, as well as to the Contractors and the War Office.
To summarise, therefore, my opinion is as follows:
(1). On account of the interpretation which it is now sought to give to the title ‘Trench Warfare Department, and the consequent roving commission over possibly 90 per cent of the items of supply of the Ministry which may be involved, there is created an uncertainty as to the scope of that Department which is most undesirable, both in the interests of the Ministry and of the War Office, and it is therefore necessary to press for a specific list of the articles with which the Trench Warfare Department is to deal.
(2). That on account of its detached situation, both geographically and in organisation, the Trench Warfare Department does not conform strictly to the procedure in dealing with other Branches of the Ministry, and with the War Office, etc., that is laid down for Supply Branches of the D.G.M.S. This causes loss of valuable time, efficiency, and may cause friction.
(3). That in-so-far as it is Experimental, in order to conform to our constitution, it should be clearly divorced from the Supply Section. I therefore suggest for consideration and, if you think well, for a conference:
(1(a) That the scope of the Supply Branch of the Trench Warfare Department should have a specific range to cover such items as : Smoke Gas Liquid Fire Catapults and similar specified improvised and crude munitions, as part from highly exact technical productions of the kind usually associated with Armaments work and manufactured by firms of the class contracting with this Department.
(1(b) That all other items of supply with which it is now dealing, such as: Hand Grenades Bombs Trench Mortars Trench Mortars Ammunition should be transferred to the appropriate Branch of the D.G.M.S.
(2) That the Supply Branch of the Trench Warfare Department, as above defined (1(a) ante) should be transferred to the D.G.M.S., and should be located in his Offices. It would thus automatically come under the procedure followed in all general matters.
(3) That the Experimental Branch of the Trench Warfare Department should be transferred to the Comptroller of Munitions Inventions, where, I venture to suggest, it properly belongs. Were the Trench Warfare Department a new Department coming over to the Ministry to-day, I feel little doubt that a division somewhat on the lines I have suggested would be adopted.
From what I hear on all sides, practically all Departments, not only of the Ministry but also in the War Office and outside, find that the detached position of the Trench Warfare Department and its somewhat anomalous combined functions of Experiment and Supply, creates difficulties and friction and unnecessary trouble in working. The trouble will, I think, grow, because of the way in which these who act for the Trench Warfare Department are interpreting as a roving commission the scope of their functions, as defined by their title.
G Geddes. D.D.G. (C) 10.11.15.
The Outcome.
Dr Addison rejected this criticism, pointing out that the managers Geddes had consulted when preparing his memo had not even bothered to inform themselves about the actual work done by the Trench Warfare Department or how successful it was compared to the other Supply departments. He rather forcefully reminded the managers of the Departments of Munitions Supply that the organisation of manufacturing developed by the Trench Warfare Department, where one Section Head was responsible for supervising all stages in the development of a munition, was proving to be more efficient in achieving production targets than the methods used elsewhere within the Ministry. On those grounds alone, he saw no justification for transferring work from a department that was delivering a much higher output in a shorter time to the Departments of Munitions Supply, where some departments had a history of failing to meet their production targets. He concluded that it would be a highly unjustifiable and unfair proposal to take work away from zealous men who are doing it under difficult conditions, with a good measure of success. Their dealings at times with others may have been tactless and dealt with better, but that applies to us all.[2]
[1] TNA: MUN5/41/263.6/4. Papers relating to the early attempts to reorganise the Trench Warfare Supply Department. November 1915.
[2] Ms Addison c72 folio 167-172.