The last pitched battles on English soil were Sedgemoor in 1685 and Preston in 1715. But after that the army still needed to train and practice. The first land on Salisbury Plain was not bought for army training until 1897 and Catterick Camp was opened after the outbreak of WW1. So from 1853 when there was a renewed invasion scare, to 1914, there were many large scale army exercises or “manoeuvres” all across the countryside of southern England.
The manoeuvres would let senior officers practice their tactical skills, although the movements had to be to some extent pre-planned due to needing permission to use some land etc. These exercises should have been a valuable training and learning experience for all the commanders involved, with no loss of life, but losing an exercise did not seem to harm a General’s military career in any way.
This episode was written by Simon Cains
Simon lives in South Buckinghamshire, England, and became interested in his local history during the lockdown restrictions. He found that two big pre-WW1 army exercises had passed within a couple of miles of his home, and started researching the whole subject. He has also followed the lives of a great-grandfather and his brother who were killed in 1916 and 17. When there are no covid restrictions, Simon enjoys touring battlefields in the UK and in Europe.
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