The British Army, information management and the First World War revolution in military affairs

Hall, BH

Abstract

Information Management (IM) – the systematic ordering, processing and channelling of information within organisations – forms a critical component of modern military command and control systems. As a subject of scholarly enquiry, however, the history of military IM has been relatively poorly served. Employing new
and under-utilised archival sources, this article takes the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of the First World War as its case study and assesses the extent to which its IM system contributed to the emergence of the modern battlefield in 1918. It argues that the
demands of fighting a modern war resulted in a general, but not universal, improvement in the BEF’s IM techniques, which in turn laid the groundwork, albeit in embryonic form, for the IM systems of modern armies.
KEY WORDS: British Army, Information Management, First World War, Revolution in Military Affairs, Adaptation

Citation

Hall, B. (2018). The British Army, information management and the First World War revolution in military affairs. Journal of Strategic Studies, 41(7), 1001-1030. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2018.1504210

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 21, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 6, 2018
• Publication Date: Aug 6, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jul 31, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 6, 2020
• Journal: The Journal of Strategic Studies
• Print ISSN: 0140-2390
• Publisher: Routledge
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 1001-1030
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2018.1504210
• Publisher URL: https://doi-org.salford.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/01402390.2018.1504210
• Related Public URLs: https://www-tandfonline-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/toc/fjss20/current