The First Hundred Thousand originally appeared as articles in Blackwood's Magazine. Each chapter describes the author's experiences up to a particular moment, with no knowledge of what came later.
When these articles were compiled into a book, they were divided into two vastly different sections about training and combat: "Blank Cartridges" and "Live Rounds." The first section ends with this sobering comment:
That is the tale of The First Hundred Thousand—Part One. Whether Part Two will be forthcoming, and how much of it there will be, depends on two things—the course of history, and the present historian's eye for cover.In "Blank Cartridges," you see soldiers adjusting to discipline, bureaucracy, and the physical demands of army life. The soldiers gradually develop into fighting men, and you wonder what will happen when they go into battle.
The answer comes in "Live Rounds," where the soldiers experience the stress and shock of battle. The book describes the deaths of several main characters, and the reader might reflect on the innocent camaraderie of training camp that was described in the early pages of The First Hundred Thousand.
Hay's authorship of the magazine material in The First Hundred Thousand was not revealed until the book was published because he "didn't want his reputation as a novelist to be spoiled." Until then, he was identified as " K(1), The Junior Subaltern." (Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, edited by Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft) Hay used fictional names for all of the characters in the book, but emphasized that all of the events were true.
The first World War created a new military society whose large size was underscored by the title The First Hundred Thousand. Soldiers found themselves interacting with people of different nationalities and class levels.
An experienced writer like Ian Hay saw the chance to create a record of these new experiences, which helped people back home understand the lives of the soldiers who were taken from those homes. Hay used his novel-writing experience to sketch portraits of different people, to show how each soldier was a mixture of personality, skills, authority, and background.
The First Hundred Thousand shows how soldiers are formed—through discipline, strict routines, constant practice, and obeying orders. Simply put, the soldier had to get used to things, both in training and in battle.
![Soldiers from the London Scottish Regiment charge with fixed bayonets in 1914 [MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bOPQztcuPZ-e-3YLe4Spt59HUk8gjcINJbKfRl7hecZGpynixkoMV5ONkHTsM9in9gRWt9U-bN6B63vRL3NRBrY2boSZjgLQBxQw0BRSBqbb3vspxCeQNm1qpuONu06sCQDjL1GaCoQ/s1600/scottish_soldiers_world_w-466382.jpg "Soldiers from the London Scottish Regiment charge with fixed bayonets in 1914 [MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY]") |
| Soldiers of London Scottish Regiment in 1914 [MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY] |
You see the value of this discipline when the soldiers reach the battlefield. Soldiers are faced with unforeseen situations, like the loss of a commanding officer. Immediate decisions and actions must be taken, which force soldiers to call on all of the resources of their experiences.
Hay showed how a strong group feeling grew among the soldiers, who realized that they were going through a unique experience that bonded them. This was their life, and many times their death, and no civilian could completely understand it. This military cohesion also was shown in Hay's national pride about other members of his Scottish military unit.
The challenges of military bureaucracy got Hay's attention during training. He came up with this humorous list of bureaucratic practices:
- Round Game Department, with "its craving for irrelevant information and its passion for detail."
- Fairy Godmother Department, "which supplies us with unexpected treats."
- Practical Joke Department, where "the jokes usually take the form of an order, followed by a counter-order."
The digging was mostly done in trenches. The First Hundred Thousand is a great resource for students of trench warfare. The reader sees how the trenches are designed and organized; how troops move through them; and how they affect military strategy and battles. The limitations of trench warfare show how the war became a series of battles over small areas of land.
These trenches are the setting for the final chapters of the book, which describe an aggressive offensive action called "The Big Push" that had been anxiously anticipated by Hay and his fellow soldiers. This offensive was part of the Battle of Loos in September and October of 1915.
By then, the reader is thoroughly familiar with the heroism and sacrifice of the soldiers whose deeds were faithfully recorded by Ian Hay in The First Hundred Thousand.
A March 26, 1916 review in The New York Times praised The First Hundred Thousand:
Here is a book which gives the experiences of an actual soldier, not in the form of a history, but in the guise of a series of character sketches. They live as but few of the rest of the war books do, and with mingled pathos and humor and with shrewd touches of observation the author sets before us what it has meant to be an officer or an enlisted man in Kitchener's army and train and go to the front.
The First Hundred Thousand was published in England on December 6, 1915, according to an advertisement in the London (England) Times on December 1, 1915. It was published in the United States in March 1916. Headlines from the December 1, 1915 edition of the London Times included:
- CLOSING IN ON MONTENEGRO. PRIZREND TAKEN. SERBIANS STILL IN MONASTIR.
- HEROIC BRITISH NURSES. TRIALS IN THE SERBIAN RETREAT
- BRITISH WARSHIPS OFF BELGIAN COAST. GERMAN POSITIONS SHELLED.
Online versions:
Newspaper information from Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/)
Photograph of Scottish soldiers accessed on October 27, 2016 from http://www.express.co.uk/news/world-war-1/466382/Scotland-the-brave-Tough-kilties-battled-for-Britain-in-WWI.
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