The New Army, also known as Kitchener's Army, was an all-volunteer portion of the British Army which was formed in the United Kingdom in 1914 on the recommendation of Secretary of State for War Herbert Kitchener. Kitchener sought to raise 500,000 volunteers for the Army at the start of World War I, and all five of the armies raised for the New Army were made up of volunteers, including the famous Pals' Battalions. Almost 2.5 million men volunteered, first seeing action at the 1915 Battle of Loos, but enthusiasm for the war plunged in 1916 after the true nature of the war became public knowledge. In late 1916, conscripts were sent to France to fill the gaps in the volunteer units, which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Somme. By 1918, more than half of the 5 million British Army soldiers serving in the Great War were conscripts.