How common were battlefield promotions?

[xtremex]

My interest is in the trenches of WW1 1918 France to be specific, but in any war, were promotions given out on the spot to replace the fallen/wounded/captured? How were the promotions presented?

"Here's another stripe. Congratulations, you're a Sergeant now". ?

Can a soldier rise from Private to Sergeant in 6 months?

 

xtremex

[TRR]

In modern times, battlefield promotions still happen from e4-e5 and e5-e6. The theater commander has the ability to promote a certain amout per month without regards to the points system. I believe only the guard and reserves do direct comission from enlisted, I may be wrong about that though.

[jgawne]

there's two different things- battlefield promotions, and commissions.

 

promotions in the enlisted ranks (private to senior NCO's) are basically done at the whim of the company commander, and so men could easily rise from pvt to any upper NCO rank quite quickly, especially in WW1 when they were trying to find the right guys for the right job in a big hurry. There was no real requirement for any specific training or anything in WW1 so if you had a really good pvt in your company you can give him whatever stripes you want- or take them away. Didn't;t even actually need ot be in combat or anything.

 

The difference is when you talk about moving from enlisted man to officer. a battlefield commission. Very different thing. Again, WW1 was a different time, and men that had talent and smarts were always getting pulled out of the ranks and sent to an officers school. In early WW2 the theater commander could authorize a commission directly from EM to officer- and they did with greater and greater frequency until they mandated the officer go to a special officer class (in Europe at Fontainbleau),

 

The National Order of Battlefield commissioned officers recognize a man as being chosen for ability on the battlefield and sent to a quick in-theater class as being a battlefield commission, but being sent back to a full officer training program as not being one.

 

So a longer than needed answer, but yes- a private could easily walk into a unit in WW1, and end up any NCO rank in a major hurry- this happened a lot- especially due to the drastic increase in the size of the US Army. And it could happen all ina verbal order in combat, and the paperwork gets done when they have a chance.

 

VERY different from the "professional NCO" of after WW2.

[jgawne]

If you are really interested in this, there is a pretty good book on the US Army training (or lack thereof) in WW1.

 

The School of Hard Knocks, by Richard Faulkner.

[Allan H.]

Harry Truman, when he was in the Missouri National Guard had hoped to be elected as the Battery First Sergeant of his Guard unit. He was surprised to find out that he had been elected as the Battery Commander and thus attained the rank of captain. It wasn't done due to study at West Point or another institution, nor was it from attaining high marks in training, it was simply done by vote by other members of the unit. Such were the ways that many men ended up with their ranks during the World War I period.

 

Allan

[xtremex]

So, entering service as a Private in May of 1918, promoted to Corporal in July 1918 and promoted to Sgt in October of 1918 is probably correct.