Organization: How Armies are Formed for War

by Hubert Foster

Varieties of Staff

The number and description of Staff Officers allotted to a Command depend on its importance, and on the duties they have to perform.

The duty of the Staff Officer is defined as follows in British Field Service Regulations: “To assist the Commander in the supervision and control of the operations and requirements of the Troops, to transmit his Orders, and to assist the Troops in carrying them out.” In the British Service these duties are divided among three Branches of the Staff—the General Staff, the Adjutant-General’s Branch, and that of the Quarter-Master-General.

The Staff has in foreign armies become differentiated into two Branches—the Routine Staff, which the Germans style Adjutantur; and the General Staff, which assists the Commander in all matters directly affecting the fighting. The Prussian General Staff is nearly a century old, and forms in general features a model of the General Staff more recently instituted in other armies. Its development from the Quarter-Master-General’s Staff is sketched in the historical part of this work.

A short analysis of the main duties devolving on these different branches of the Staff will now be given.

THE GENERAL STAFF

The purpose of the Commander is to defeat his enemy, and in endeavouring to effect this object he has two main pre-occupations:

1. To watch the movements and forecast the plans of the enemy.

2. To make his own plans, and to decide on the movements and distribution of his forces required to carry them out.

In order that the Commander may devote his whole attention to these vital matters, he should be as far as possible relieved from details, and these fall within the province of his General Staff.

We thus see that the main duties of the General Staff should correspond to those laid down for the General, and may be summed up under the following heads:

1. Intelligence, to enable the Commander to watch the enemy’s movements, and make his plans.

2. Operations, by which his plans are carried out.

Each of these headings comprises an immense amount of detailed work, which cannot be here dwelt on further than to indicate its general scope.

1. Intelligence means collecting information about the enemy and the theatre of war, from every possible source, and arranging for its transmission to Head-Quarters, to be examined and collated, and then laid before the Commander. This subject also includes everything connected with maps and topographical information, as well as Press Censorship, and provision of interpreters and guides.

2. Operations include:

(a) Working out details of dispositions and movements of troops, as to their units and numbers, with especial attention to place and time, and attention to the security of the troops in movement and at rest.

(b) Embodying the Commander’s plans in clear and concise “Operation Orders.”

(c) Transmitting these Orders with certainty and despatch.

(d) Watching, and ensuring, their due execution.

The services of Inter-communication must be carried on under the control of the General Staff, so as to ensure the rapid transmission of Information to, and Orders from, Head-Quarters.

But in addition to the above responsibilities which fall on the General Staff, there are also Staff duties involved in assisting the Commander to keep his Command in a state of efficiency, which depends on the following requirements:

First, that its organization, discipline, health, and numbers be kept up.

Secondly, that its material wants be met.

These duties do not bear directly on the fighting, and so do not fall to the General Staff, but to the other branches.

THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL’S BRANCH (A.G.)

Duties under the first heading are undertaken by the Staff of the Adjutant-General, which deals with the following matters affecting the personnel of the Command: discipline, law, and police; pay, interior economy, and routine Orders; casualties and returns; appointments, promotions, and rewards; reinforcements, and organization of improvised units and local levies; the disposal of prisoners; collecting the wounded and burying the dead. All possible office work in connection with these matters should be done at the Base, so as not to burden the Troops in the Field with clerical work carried on under difficulties.

Since the Adjutant-General’s Branch is responsible for the health of the Force, the Medical Services are placed under its control in the British Service. In foreign armies they are administered by their own Heads at Head-Quarters of Divisions and Army Corps, under the control of the General Staff.

THE QUARTER-MASTER-GENERAL’S BRANCH (Q.M.G.)

The second heading (supplying the material wants of the Army) comprises, besides the duties of the Medical Services mentioned above, those of the Supply, Store, Transport, and other Administrative Services. The work of the latter is carried out in detail by the Heads of those Services, who are under the control of the Quarter-Master-General’s Staff in the British Service. In foreign armies, where there is no Q.M.G.’s Staff, they are under a Civilian Official called the Intendant, who works under the control of the General Staff in each Command.

The British Staff Organization, which concentrates these Administrative Services under the Q.M.G., is no doubt a better arrangement. It relieves the General Staff of pre-occupation regarding their working, and minimizes any failure of adjustment between the Field Units and the Services on the Lines of Communication, by charging a special Branch of the Staff with their co-ordination.

STAFF OF SUBORDINATE COMMANDS

The above description of Staff work refers in its entirety only to General, or Army, Head-Quarters, but a similar organization of Staff is applicable on a smaller scale to Head-Quarters of Subordinate Commands. In small Head-Quarters the same Staff Officer may have to undertake more than one set of duties.