When it first arrived in France in August 1914, the BEF had no control over the French railways or ports, having to use those which had been allocated to them. This became a problem as soon as the numbers of troops increased. There were 81,000 in August 1914, 269,711 by December 1914, and nearly 1,000,000 by the following December. This vast increase in troop numbers led to the splitting of the British Army into five new armies, the first two appearing in March 1915; by 1918 three more had been formed. There was also a sixth army,
