Bantams

by Sidney Allinson

The citizens of Le Javre weren't prepared for the bizarre sight that greeted them after a British troopship arrived in their harbour in January, 1916, with a fresh contingent of reinforcements for the Western Front - the troops comically marched down the gangplanks and along the quay as though they were mocking the traditional image of the stalwart soldier. They were all about 5 feet tall, miniature Guardsmen, more like mascots than fighting men. And so the first battalion of Bantams, as they were officially called, prepared for battle. They soon proved they were equal in stamina and greater in valor than standared-sized soldiers. By 1918, more that 50,000 Bantams, including almost 2,000 from Canada, had been in the trenches and their casulalties were enormous, due in part to their heedless bravery. Yet has been forgotten or deliberately concealed by army historians, who are perhaps embarrassed by the episode and fear that such little men, and the army's need to use them, somehow revealed weaknesses in the British character. Their story is now told for the first time.

Genres: History, World War I

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that sells itself well, but ends up having disappointingly little to sell, with most on the cover flaps.

The original Bantams didn't meet the recruitment height standard of 5'3", but, from Canadian field hand to Argentinian cowboy, packed enough muscle from daily physical labour to make up for that. An ingenious medical testimony before the British Parliament reinforced the enthousiastic lobbying of early recruiters, pointing to such Victorian stastistics as fall-out rates during marches under the Indian sun - tall guys dropped first. Once suitably uniformed with some inventive tailoring, they were numerous enough to form several "Bantam" divisions within Kitchener's army(35th, 40th). made themselves an extra step in the trenches, the better to fire a Lee Enfield almost as tall as they were. Even the shorter-stocked carbine had resulted in some nasty head wounds during early marches with bayonets fixed. The Welsch miners put their trade to good use in mining warfare & a Bantam fitted a wee more comfortably inside a tank.

Apart from that, they faced the same war as everyone else. They fought just as bravely.
Therein lies the rub; while entire chapters quote at length from rare Bantam diaries, they're often rather generic Western Front narratives.

[Manray9 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sidney Allinson’s The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I looks at the phenomenon of Britain’s “Bantam” formations of the Great War. Britain, alone among the European powers, did not rely upon compulsory service to fill the ranks of her army at the beginning of World War I. British men were not conscripted until 1916. Until then, the armed forces were manned by volunteers. After the initial enthusiasm for the war waned in 1915, new approaches to manning the army were needed. British recruiting officers had seen that substantial numbers of the male population could not meet the army’s minimum height requirement of 5 feet, 3 inches (160 cm). Large segments of the industrial working class suffered from long-term poor nutrition linked to a lack of protein. Their diet relied on potatoes, white bread and tea with very little meat and few dairy products. That dietary limitations were related to class was exposed by the fact that most officers exceeded the national average male height by two inches. Many thousands of short men were turned away by recruiters. (As an aside, I have read a number of first-hand accounts by British and French observers who commented on the size and apparent strength of American and Aussie troops on the march. Men of these two countries enjoyed a diet including plentiful meat).

After a dust up at a recruiting station by a man deemed too small to fight, Alfred Bigland, MP, was inspired to address the growing recruiting shortfall by soliciting men under 5 feet, 3 inches. He enlisted the support of Lord Kitchener and the Bantams were born in 1915. Enlistment rules specified recruitment of men between the heights of 5 feet and 5 feet, 3 inches, but Bantams down to 4 feet, 9 inches served. Although they were short, many Bantams were strong, having worked in mines, farm fields and factories. Their combat load was the same as all other infantrymen: full packs, clothing, miscellaneous gear and a Lee-Enfield (SMLE) rifle with 120 rounds of ammunition. This load placed a burden of seventy pounds on each man. Bigland’s first Bantam formation was the 15th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment. Raising a Bantam battalion became a matter of civic pride throughout Great Britain. Cities and counties vied to raise formations and spared little expense in their equipage. Bantam poems appeared in the newspapers and Bantam songs rang out of the music halls. Eventually twenty battalions were raised. Bantam battalions represented many honored old regiments of the British Army -- the Highland Light Infantry, the South Wales Borderers, the Lancashire Fusiliers and others.

Bantams fought well at Arras, Lens, Delville Wood, Vimy Ridge, along the Somme, and at Bourlon -- but their formations slowly disintegrated after 1916 because the number of fit Bantam recruits declined sharply. One interesting note from Allinson’s book: during the war 346 men were shot for cowardice or desertion – not one was a Bantam.

Allinson’s The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I is brief, thorough and quite readable. For anyone interested in a unique aspect of World War I military history, I recommend it with a strong Three Stars.

[Robin Braysher · Rating 3 out of 5]

My maternal grandfather could have been a 'Bantam', but it only took one recruiting sergeant to say "sling yer 'ook, short-arse", for him to decide that Lord Kitchener would have to manage without him! On the other hand, my wife's maternal grandfather - Walter - was more persistent and became a 'Bantam' in 18/Lancashire Fusiliers (35th Division), fighting on the Somme and around Arras, before being 'combed out' and sent to the Labour Corps. So the subject of 'Bantams' is close to my heart. Given that so much has been written about the First World War in recent years, it seems perverse that we have to go back to the early '80s to find anything meaningful about the phenomenon of 'The Bantams', but maybe there is not much more to say.

The book does - to quote the advert - do pretty much 'what it says on the tin', in telling the story of the Bantams from first inception, through recruitment, to action on the Western Front and the final change of the two divisions into 'normal' divisions: 35th in early 1917 and 40th later that year. The chapter on the Canadian Bantams is a bit of an odd one as they did not fight as 'Bantam' units but were spread around the Canadian forces, some in the infantry, others in railway construction or labour units. The author is Canadian, though, so he could hardly be expected to ignore his countrymen, even if they followed a different path to the British Bantams; we should be grateful that he expended so much effort on the story of the Bantams on this side of the Atlantic! By no means an academic book, it rattles along at a great pace with colourful and vivid descriptions and is very readable. Perhaps more analysis would be useful, although study of the Great War back then was in a different place, but the real strength of the book is the large number of personal accounts incorporated - bear in mind we hadn't quite lost all the veterans back then - supported by published histories and official war diaries. The book has a handful of interesting photographs but, seeing as you ask, there are no maps; I don't think that matters as it is not, primarily, an account of specific battles and I am sure most people reading it will have access to suitable maps of the Western Front.

Whilst it's a shame that more hasn't been written about the Bantams, if there is to be only one book, then Sidney Allinson's does the business. Having read it I now have a much better understanding of the Bantams and am delighted at how many references there are to 18/Lancashire Fusiliers which have given me a real appreciation of Walter's war. The final irony for Walter was that having been downgraded in early 1917, by 1918 this ex-Bantam was needed back on the frontline - in the previously Bantam 40th Division - taking part in the final advance to victory.