Page "John French, 1st Earl of Ypres" Paragraph 29

After the failures at Neuve Chapelle and Aubers Ridge, French briefed the press correspondent Repington in an attempt to pin the blame for the shell shortage onto Kitchener.

This behaviour led many of French's supporters to abandon him.

By April 1915 the BEF had grown to 900, 000 men in 28 divisions.