The British Army, the Royal Navy, and the ‘big work’ of Sir George Aston, 1904–1914

Abstract

This article re-examines the British record of inter-service cooperation in the decade before the outbreak of World War I. A fresh perspective is offered through the ideas, writings and experiences of Sir George Aston, a Royal Marines officer and contemporary analyst of what would today be called joint warfare. The article observes that, despite Aston's best efforts, the Army and Navy did not advance beyond a degree of mutual sympathy for each others operational needs, and did not address the underlying problems of integrated planning and unified command.

Key Words:

• joint warfare
• military doctrine
• World War I

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Professors Brian Bond and Andrew Lambert for their assistance during the original research upon which this article is based. Thanks are also due to Professor David French for his comments and encouragement during the preparation of this article.

Notes

²Hankey to Aston, 11 Oct. 1914, 6/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹Diary entries Oct. 1914 to Jan. 1915, 1/8-9, [copies of the] Aston Papers, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (LHCMA). The original papers are held by Royal Marines Museum (RMM).

³Earlier examples: Aston to Graham Greene [Secretary to the Admiralty], 21 Aug. 1910, 4/2; Aston to Hankey, 24 Aug. 1912, 6/11, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁴Colin Gray's introduction to Charles Callwell, Military Operations and Maritime Preponderance, 1905 (reprinted Annapolis: US Naval Institute 1996), xli.

⁵Tryon's dominant personality and his influence in naval circles: Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game – Jutland and British Naval Command (London: John Murray 1996), 193–214, 243–74.

⁶George Aston, Memories of a Marine (London: John Murray 1919), 180; Stephen Roskill, Hankey – Man of Secrets, Vol. I (London: Collins 1970), 33.

⁷Aston to Hankey, 14 June 1901, 4/2, Hankey Papers, Churchill Archives Centre (CAC); Maurice Hankey, The Supreme Command 1914–1918 (London: Allen & Unwin 1961), 21.

⁸Aston to Grey, 18 Feb. 1903, 6/3, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁹Context of these reforms: Nicholas d'Ombrain, War Machinery and High Policy: Defence Administration in Peacetime Britain, 1902–1914 (Oxford: OUP 1973), 25–73; John Gooch, The Plans of War – The General Staff and British Military Strategy c.1900–1916 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1974), 32–1; Nicholas Lambert, Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution (Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press 1999), 86–89.

¹⁰Fisher to Aston, 2 Feb. 1904, 6/5, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹¹Aston, Memories, 232.

¹²George Aston, Letters on Amphibious Wars (London: John Murray 1911), vii.

¹³Wider ‘amphibious’ historiography: David Massam, ‘British Maritime Strategy and Amphibious Capability, 1900–1940’, unpublished PhD, Oxford University, 1995; Allan Millet, ‘Assault from the Sea: The Development of Amphibious Warfare between the Wars – the American, British and Japanese Experiences’, in Williamson Murray and Allan Millet, eds. Military Innovation in the Interwar Period (Cambridge,UK: CUP 1996), 50–95; Richard Harding, ‘Learning from the War: The Development of British Amphibious Capability, 1919–29’, Mariner's Mirror 86 (2000), 173–85; Ian Speller, ‘In the Shadow of Gallipoli? Amphibious Warfare in the Inter-war Period’, in Jenny MacLeod, ed., Gallipoli: Making History (London: Frank Cass 2004), 136–149.

¹⁴Brian Bond, The Victorian Army and the Staff College 1854–1914, (London: Methuen 1972), 196.

¹⁵Journal, 2–17 Jan. 1895, 5201-33-2, Rawlinson Papers, National Army Museum; Aston, Memories, 237.

¹⁶Ewart to Aston, 12 May 1904, 6/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹⁷Rawlinson to Aston, 24/25 May 1904, 6/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹⁸Fisher to Aston, 26 May 1904, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹⁹Aston later served on an Admiralty Committee examining Fisher's ideas for the future training of Royal Marines officers. According to Aston he sensed that the proposals might damage his corps and so opposed them, incurring Fisher's long-lasting displeasure: Aston, Memories, 252.

²⁰Ibid., 239.

²¹Ibid., 245; notes in Aston's hand on ‘Work of Professor of Fortification’, undated, 6/3, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

²²Diary entries, Jan, to Dec. 1906, Isacke Papers, LHCMA.

²³‘Imperial Strategy – Précis of a lecture delivered at the Staff College on 10th January 1905’, & ‘Imperial Strategy – 14th Nov. 1905’; Stopford to Aston, 26 Feb. 1905; Henry Wilson to Aston, 1, 5 Mar. 1905, 3/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

²⁴Aston, Memories, 238.

²⁵Paul Kennedy, ed., Grand Strategies in War and Peace (London: Yale UP 1991), 1–7.

²⁶Aston, Memories, 242.

²⁷Cited in: Arthur Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, Vol.1 (London: Oxford UP 161), 384.

²⁸‘Extracts from a report on a Staff Ride embracing a disembarkation and the establishment of a base, as carried out by the staff of the Second Army Corps – Apr. 1904’, WO33/322, National Archives (NA).

²⁹Aston, Letters, 37, 56.

³⁰Diary entries, 5–7 Sept. 1904, Wilson Papers, Imperial War Museum (IWM).

³¹‘Report of the Naval and Military Conference on Overseas Expeditions’, WO33/344, NA.

³²‘Manual of Combined Naval and Military Operations’, 20 Oct. 1911, WO33/569, NA.

³³Slade disliked inter-service rivalry and was optimistic about the feasibility of amphibious operations: Lambert, Revolution, 173, 180.

³⁴Aston, Memories, 241. The lunch does not feature in the Wilson diaries, or the Slade and Rawlinson Papers.

³⁵Diary entries, 28–31 Mar. 1905, Wilson Papers, IWM.

³⁶Diary entries, 12–14 July 1905, Isacke Papers, LHCMA.

³⁷Diary entries, 15–18 May 1907, 19–23 May 1908, Wilson Papers, IWM; Diary entries 18–21 Mar. 1906, Isacke Papers, LHCMA.

³⁸The War College's light cruiser, HMS Tapisichon, was used to simulate the naval force. Introduction to Slade Papers, MRF/39/2, National Maritime Museum (NMM).

³⁹Lambert, Revolution, 179–82.

⁴⁰Braithwaite was at the Staff College as an instructor from 1906 to 1909.

⁴¹‘Extracts from a report on a Staff Ride embracing a disembarkation and the establishment of a base, as carried out by the staff of the Second Army Corps – Apr. 1904’, WO33/322, NA.

⁴²Aston, Memories, 242.

⁴³Diary entry, 18 May 1907, Wilson Papers, IWM.

⁴⁴Diary entry, 21 January 1907, Wilson Papers, IWM.

⁴⁵George Aston, ‘Eleven Years (1904–1914) – Why did we fight in France?’ unpublished MS, (1933), 121, 4/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM. George Leask, Sir William Robertson (London: Cassell 1917), 97–98.

⁴⁶Aston to Liddell Hart, 1 July 1932, 1/26/27, Liddell Hart Papers, LHCMA.

⁴⁷Diary entry, 23 Oct. 1907, Wilson Papers, IWM.

⁴⁸Notes on ‘Question of how to treat alternative proposals for employment of the British Army’, Oct. 1907, 4/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁴⁹Context of the War Office's move towards a ‘continental commitment’: Gooch, Plans of War, 280–82; Michael Howard, The Continental Commitment (London: Pelican Books 1974), 42–45.

⁵⁰George Aston, ‘Combined Strategy for Fleets and Armies; or “Amphibious Strategy”’, RUSI Lecture, 15 July 1907, 6/16, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁵¹Arthur Wilson to Aston, 21 May 1907; Repington to Aston, 24 May 1907; Clarke to Aston, 28 June 1907; Callwell to Aston, 29 June 1907, 6/16, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁵²Wider impact of Russo-Japanese War on inter-service planning: Massam, ‘British Maritime Strategy’, 15, 35.

⁵³George Aston, ‘Combined Strategy for Fleets and Armies; or “Amphibious Strategy”,’ RUSI Lecture, 15 July 1907, 6/16, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM, 22.

⁵⁴Aston, Memories, 257.

⁵⁵George Aston, ‘Eleven Years (1904–1914) – Why did we fight in France?’ unpublished MS, (1933), 121, 4/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM, 129.

⁵⁶‘Empire Strategy – with special reference to South Africa, Lectures by Brigadier-General Aston to Colonial Forces’, printed by the Transvaal Leader, 1909, 3/1, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁵⁷Aston had some difficulties bringing the Afrikaaner and English-speaking groups together during the course: Diary entries, Apr.–Dec. 1912, 1/5, passim. ‘Lectures by Brigadier-General GG Aston – Special Class for South African Staff Officers, 1912’, 3/1, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁵⁸Again presaging his problems in 1914, Aston's health broke down at least six times while in South Africa. This was usually due to ‘overstrain’ (Apr. 1910) or during training periods (July 1910 and Nov. 1912). His personal life was also transformed when in 1909 at the age of 48 he married Dorothy, daughter of Vice-Admiral William Wilson, and started a family.

⁵⁹Diary entries, 9 Feb., 29 Apr., 3 Nov. 1909, 1/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM; Kraft Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, Letters on Strategy, (London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner, 1897); Aston, Letters, 69.

⁶⁰Aston to Greene, 21 Aug. 1910, 4/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁶¹Cuttings in 2/5, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁶²Diary entry, 14 Feb. 1911, 1/4, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁶³Ibid., 9 Apr. 1911.

⁶⁴Ibid., 4 May, 4 Aug. 1911.

⁶⁵Ibid., 15 Sept. 1911.

⁶⁶Jellicoe to Aston, 10 Aug. 1911, 6/16, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁷¹Ibid., 43.

⁶⁷Analysis of diary entries, 3 Nov. 1909–21 Mar. 1910, 1/2-3, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁶⁸Aston, Letters, 4.

⁶⁹Aston to Greene, 21 Aug. 1910, 4/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁷⁰Aston, Letters, 2–3.

⁷²Ibid., 358.

⁷³Ibid., vii.

⁷⁴Ibid., 358.

⁷⁵Ibid., 145.

⁷⁶Ibid., 237.

⁷⁷Ibid., 144.

⁷⁸Aston, Memories, 241.

⁷⁹Eliot Cohen and John Gooch, Military Misfortunes – The Anatomy of Failure in War (New York: Vintage Books 1991), 133–163; Tim Travers, Gallipoli 1915 (Stroud, UK: Tempus 2001), 222.

⁸⁰Aston, Letters, 51.

⁸¹Ibid., 54.

⁸²Ibid., 301.

⁸³Diary entry, 14 Feb. 1912, 1/5, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁸⁴Hankey, Supreme Command, 54–56.

⁸⁵Diary entry, 1 Mar. 1912, 1/5, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁸⁶Hankey to Aston, 29 Feb. 1912, 1/5, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM. Aston's displacement by Hankey has an interesting parallel in his later relationship with Basil Liddell Hart. After offering him advice and encouragement in a difficult period in 1924, Aston found that he was sacked from his job at The Times in 1932 to make way for Liddell Hart. Unfortunately in this case the outcome was more serious, as the loss of income brought the ageing Aston to the brink of bankruptcy: Aston/Liddell Hart correspondence, 1924–1935, 1/25, Liddell Hart Papers, LHCMA.

⁸⁷Hankey to Churchill, 17 Feb. 1912, 4/4, Hankey Papers, CAC.

⁸⁸Diary entry, 12 Sept. 1909, 1/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁸⁹Diary entries 6-10 Mar. 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁹⁰Wider context of Harwich and Scapa Flow: K.W. Mitchinson, Defending Albion: Britain's Home Army, 1908–1919 (London: Palgrave 2005), 41.

⁹¹Churchill to Aston, 26 May 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁹⁵Franklyn A Johnson, ‘Defense by Committee: The Origins and Early Development of the British CID 1885–1916’, unpublished PhD, Harvard University, 1952, 306, cited in Marder, Dreadnought, Vol. 1, 383–84. See also: d'Ombrain, War Machinery, passim.

⁹⁷Diary entry, 12 July 1913, 1/6. Aston would later observe that Churchill was ‘an interesting personality as First Lord but by no means a good one to get work done. Quite ignorant of administration and incapable of getting the best out of others or of taking advice – always delaying progress by doing things on his own and having others to unravel the tangles he gets business into’: Diary entry, 5 May 1914, 1/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁹⁸Diary entry, 24 Nov. 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM. Further context in: Mitchinson, Defending Albion, 46.

⁹²See Massam, ‘British Maritime Strategy’, 35, 48–49.

⁹³Marder, Dreadnought, Vol.1, 388–89; Gooch, Plans, 290–91; Lambert, Revolution, 203–6.

⁹⁴Diary entries, 20–26 Nov. 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁹⁶Diary entry, 5 May 1914, 1/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

⁹⁹Aston's involvement undermines the suggestion that Bayly worked independently of the naval staff: Massam, ‘British Maritime Strategy’, 47.

¹⁰⁰Wider context: Paul Hayes, ‘Britain, Germany, and the Admiralty's Plans for Attacking German Territory, 1906–1915’ in Lawrence Freedman et al., eds., War, Strategy and International Politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1992), 95–116.

¹⁰¹‘Manual of Combined Naval and Military Operations’, 20 Oct. 1911, WO33/569, NA.

¹⁰²‘Report of the Naval and Military Conference on Overseas Expeditions, War Office 1905’, WO33/344, NA.

¹⁰³Text of the main report, ADM137/452, NA.

¹⁰⁴Ballard to Chief of Staff, 10 July 1913, ADM137/452, NA.

¹⁰⁵Paul Halpern, A Naval History of World War I (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press 1994), 105–6.

¹⁰⁶Chief of Staff to First Sea Lord, 17 Mar. 1913, ADM137/452, NA.

¹⁰⁷‘Advance Bases for the Fleet’, 2 May 1904, 6/3; ‘Proposals for improving the constitution of our striking force’, 12 Dec. 1906, 6/4; ‘A suggested improvement in the composition of the military forces of Great Britain’, [undated but after 1912], 7/1, Hankey Papers, CAC.

¹¹¹George Sydenham Clarke, Fortification – Its Past Achievements, Recent Developments and Future Progress, 2nd ed. (London 1907), 244.

¹⁰⁸Diary entries, Apr. to June 1913, passim, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹⁰⁹Diary entry, 18 Apr. 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹¹⁰Aston gave Bayly's assistant a signed copy of his book: Diary entry, 19 Apr. 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹¹²Diary entries, 16, 21 July 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹¹³Diary entries, 13–19 Nov. 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹¹⁴‘Secret Minute’ by Aston, 19 Nov. 1913, ADM 137/452, NA.

¹¹⁵George Aston, ‘Eleven Years (1904–1914) – Why did we fight in France?’ unpublished MS, (1933), Chapter 21, 4/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹¹⁶Pencil draft of a memo in Aston's hand [Aug. 1914], ADM137/452, NA.

¹¹⁷War Office report on plan, probably dated 11 Aug. 1914, ADM137/452, NA

¹¹⁸Diary entry, 5 Nov. 1913, 1/6, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹¹⁹Diary entries, 14 Oct. 1911, 25 Mar. 1914, 1/4, 1/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹²⁰Diary entries, 10–13 Dec. 1913, 2–18 Mar. 1914, 1/6, 1/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹²¹Arthur Wilson to Aston, 25 Dec. 1913, 4/2, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹²²Aston redrafted the chapter, and after an exchange of correspondence, got Corbett's endorsement. Corbett seems to have been impressed with Aston's work as he asked to include it in the Cambridge Naval & Military series he was editing at the time: Diary entries, 26 Feb. to 18 Mar. 1914, 1/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹²³Diary entry, 24 Mar. 1914, 1/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹²⁴The suggestion that he change the title came from his wife while they were in hospital waiting for their son to undergo an operation: Diary entry, 18 Feb. 1914, 1/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹²⁵George Aston, Sea, Land and Air Strategy (London: John Murray 1914), 117–19, 210–11.

¹²⁶Ibid., 167.

¹²⁷Ibid., 103, 195, 236–37.

¹²⁸Ibid., vii, 61, 238.

¹²⁹Ibid., 264.

¹³⁰By World War II tri-service operations were known as ‘combined’, however today this means the cooperation of forces from more than one nation, with ‘joint’ designating co-operation between the armed services of a single country.

¹³¹Diary entries, July 1914, 1/7, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹³²George Aston, The Problem of Defence – Reminiscences and Deductions (London: Phillip Allan 1925), 58–59.

¹³³Cuttings in 2/5, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹³⁴‘War diary’ [written up at the end of 1914]: 1/8, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹³⁵Aston, Problem of Defence, 32–33.

¹³⁶Hankey to Aston, 16 Apr. 1916, 6/4, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹³⁷Aston to Liddell Hart, 1 July 1932, 1/26/27; Liddell Hart to Hankey, 2 Dec. 1935, Hankey to Liddell Hart, 3 Dec. 1935, 1/352/42, Liddell Hart Papers, LHCMA.

¹³⁹‘Secret – Evidence Dardanelles Commission’ 4 Nov. 1916, 6/15, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.

¹³⁸MS notes, 9, 12 Oct. 1916, ‘Further Notes’, 27 Oct. 1916, 6/15, Aston Papers, LHCMA/RMM.