The Disintegration of the Trench Warfare (Supply) Department.
The Department was not immune to the Ministry's reorganisation implemented by Winston Churchill. By bringing together the offensive and defensive aspects of chemical warfare in a new Chemical Warfare Department, the Trench Warfare (Supply) Department lost responsibility for the development and manufacture of chemical munitions.
This left it responsible for the manufacture of trench warfare equipment proper, with the addition of new or extended responsibilities for a range of other supplies, such as mines and mine-sinkers for the Admiralty, aircraft bombs, fireworks, and signal lights, and the development of a Telepher railway, an overhead railway, operating on principles similar to those of a cable car, and urgently required to move supplies from forward dumps to the front line across the crater fields created by previous battles, which in places, such as the Ypres salient, were several miles deep. Captain Leeming of the Trench Warfare (Supply) Department designed a successful model capable of moving 15 tons of supplies an hour, with the advantage that the supporting pylons and cables could be easily dismantled and laid on the ground during the day to escape enemy observation and destruction.
With the establishment of the Munitions Council in August 1917, Mr Haig, who had succeeded Sir Alexander Roger in October 1917 as Director-General of the Trench Warfare (Supply) Department, was given the new title of Controller of Trench Warfare Supply and, in April 1918, a further reorganisation saw the termination of the Trench Warfare (Supply) Department, its manufacturing sections dispersed among the Ministry of Munitions' main Supply Departments as trench warfare materiél, including munitions, were considered to have passed the experimental stage to become standard munitions.
Conclusion.
Today, the successes of the Trench Warfare Department, in its various guises, are practically forgotten or attributed to others. Dr Christopher Addison retained a soft spot for the department and its achievements, considering it his department, in that he was personally responsible for negotiating with Lord Kitchener its transfer into the Ministry of Munitions. After the war, Addison wrote, perhaps viewing the past through rose-tinted spectacles,
In later days, whenever I wanted cheering up a bit I used to go across to the Board of Education, where Roger and his happy and efficient group of engineers and experts were installed. Their alertness and energy acted like a tonic. The quiet and efficient E.V. Haig was the second in command, with Captain P.A. Cooper his deputy. Leeming, the outside engineer, was to be found there sometimes, and Captain F. V. Lister, who managed smoke clouds and all sorts of abominations. Lieutenant L.G. Shadbolt was responsible for chemical grenades, Captain H Moreland and Lieutenant F. W Bain for gas supplies, Mr J Mackintosh for helmets and many sundries; Mr Levers, Captain G. Elliot, Captain W.R. Ellison and others for mortars – altogether a splendid and cheerful band of men who formed an ideal working alliance with Jackson and his scientists and experts.[1]
[1] Christopher Addison, Politics From Within 1911-1918. Including Some Records of a Great National Effort. 2 Vols. (London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1924). pp.122-123