Overview

An Unappreciated Field of Endeavour explains how pre-war strategic, economic, political and defence dynamics constrained military logistic resilience but influenced the plans to rely upon commercial assets to support military and naval operations, before examining the role of the commercial railways and mercantile marine in the planning, preparation and execution of Defence mobilisation and movement in the United Kingdom during Transition To War in 1914. The role of British railways in playing a defining part in a critical moment of European history is explored in depth as are the technical processes and managerial interfaces that enabled them. The contribution of British commercial and business leaders and managers to enhancing the combat capability of the BEF is examined through the lens of the increasing industrialisation of logistic support to operations. In particular, the influence of commercial practice in improving military logistic efficiency and effectiveness, whilst also subtly changing military culture is matched to the dynamics and frictions of employing commercial logistic advisers in the operational environment of the Western Front. AUTHOR: Clem Maginniss was born in Coventry and educated at Ratcliffe College Leicester and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Modern European History and International Relations from the University of Warwick. He served for 40 years in the Regular Army, the Territorial Army and the Army Reserve, first in the Royal Corps of Transport and then the Royal Logistic Corps. A graduate of the Army Staff College Camberley, he has held a range of fascinating National, NATO and United Nations appointments involving mobilization planning, railway operations, medical logistics, combat engineer support, tank transporting, officer training, flood relief, infrastructure development, estate management, humanitarian assistance and the Foreign Office. He has written extensively for the British Army Review and the Royal Logistic Corps Review on logistic history, doctrine, operations and equipment but An Unappreciated Field of Endeavour is his first book. 50 photographs, 10 maps, 3 diagrams, 38 tables

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9781913118297

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...the book gives a fascinating insight into how the British army was kept in fighting fettle over those four long years. * Gun Mart * ...an essential read for the serious student of the BEF or the history of logistical support of armies * The NYMAS Review *

Although this book should be mandatory reading for all military logisticians of the twenty first century there is much here to fascinate the more general student of military history and as General Jacko Page, a distinguished operational commander of modern times, says in his forward ..... without the logisticians' dedicated labours an army will not long endure. -- The Military Historical Society Bulletin

Author Information

Clem Maginniss was born in Coventry and educated at Ratcliffe College Leicester and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, being awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Modern European History and International Relations in 1978 from the University of Warwick. He served for 42 years in the Regular Army, the Territorial Army and the Army Reserve, first in the Royal Corps of Transport and then the Royal Logistic Corps. A graduate of the Army Staff College Camberley, he has written extensively for the British Army Review and the Royal Logistic Corps Journal on logistic history, doctrine, operations and equipment. A Great Feat of Improvisation is his second book. His interests are Great and Second World War military and naval logistics, underwater exploration, ship-wreck research, defence archaeology, railway heritage, keeping fit and a range of outdoor pursuits. He lives in Norfolk with his wife Edwina.

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