Shell Crisis of 1915

Previous military experience led to an over-reliance on shrapnel to attack infantry in the open, which was negated by the resort to trench warfare, for which high-explosive shells were better suited.

The Times, in cooperation with David Lloyd George and Lord Northcliffe, sought to force Parliament to adopt a national munitions policy with centralised control.

[4] After the failed attack at Aubers Ridge on 9 May 1915, The Times war correspondent, Colonel Charles à Court Repington, sent a telegram to his newspaper blaming lack of high-explosive shells.

French had, despite Repington’s denial of his prior knowledge at the time, supplied him with information and sent Brinsley Fitzgerald and Freddie Guest to London to show the same documents to Lloyd George and senior Conservatives Bonar Law and Arthur Balfour.

[6] However, due to his reputation, the British public were hesitant to question Kitchener, leading to the subsequent circulation decline of the newspapers despite the growing consensus that the political role was ill-suited.

Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George and Conservative Leader Bonar Law visited Asquith on 17 May 1915, and after a very brief meeting Asquith wrote to his ministers demanding their resignations,[8] then formed a new coalition government in which he appointed Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, heading a newly-created government department.

The Shells Crisis had allowed Lloyd George to push for a coalition in which the Liberal Party relinquished their full control while the Conservatives remained in a subordinate position.

Stanley Brenton von Donop, Master-General of the Ordnance, demanded an Inquiry to clear his name but Kitchener persuaded him to withdraw the request as it would have led to French’s dismissal.

The construction of these factories took time and to ensure that there was no delay in the production of munitions to deal with the Shell Crisis, the Government turned to railway companies to manufacture materials of war.