{"id":1247,"date":"2014-12-11T14:03:59","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T14:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-249197-772718.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2014-12-11T14:03:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T14:03:59","slug":"11-12-1914-having-to-turn-out-for-a-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/11-12-1914-having-to-turn-out-for-a-german\/","title":{"rendered":"Having to turn out for a German"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
<\/div>\r\n \r\n \r\n \n

 <\/p>\n

11th December 1914<\/h3>\n

It was the early morning of another damp day as the Dorsets trudged over the frontier, back to France, and into Saint-Jans-Cappel. Here they\u00a0went into billets at 2am, which Gleichen describes as “a nice little village”. It became a popular destination for\u00a0troops getting some respite\u00a0from the frontline.<\/p>\n

I’ve recently\u00a0read an extract from a diary by Major (his name, not rank) Swindell of the 2nd Bn. Manchesters<\/a>. His entry for the 2nd\u00a0December 1914, which mentions our old friend Count Gleichen, made me chuckle:<\/p>\n

### Dec 2nd 1914
\n\u2018Aunties’*. Had a generals’s inspection by General Count von Gleeson (sic) [this was Brigadier General Edward Gleichen, then OC 15 Brigade – ST Ed.] This made the boys moan a little, having to turn out for a German. Auntie went strong today. She put a chalk mark on her wood, & of course marks and all went. She got wound up & then the music started. She only stopped for breath. The only thing I can compare her voice with is a steam hooter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* The Manchesters had named the local farmer’s wife “Auntie”. She tried to charge the troops a penny for a bucket of water and took away the pump handle when they told her where to get off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  11th December 1914 It was the early morning of another damp day as the Dorsets trudged over the frontier, back to France, and into Saint-Jans-Cappel. Here they\u00a0went into billets at 2am, which Gleichen describes as “a nice little village”. It became a popular destination for\u00a0troops getting some respite\u00a0from the frontline. I’ve recently\u00a0read an extract […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Frank marches to Saint-Jans-Cappel http:\/\/wp.me\/p4Wjz3-k7 #dorsets #ww1 #100yearsagotoday #LivesOfWW1","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[30,116,8,264,163,265],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Wjz3-k7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1177,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/29-11-1914-peppermints-and-perfumed-soap\/","url_meta":{"origin":1247,"position":0},"title":"Peppermints and perfumed soap","author":"ellimondo","date":"29th November 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"###\u00a029th November 1914 Let's begin\u00a0today's post with a deceptively\u00a0bucolic description of the local terrain by Count Gleichen: Imagine a bit of rolling country\u2014rather\u00a0like parts of Leicestershire,\u2014fair-sized fields, separated mostly by straggling fences interspersed with wire (largely barbed), and punctuated by tall trees. Patches of wood in places, spinney size for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1242,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/10-12-1914-heavy-weather\/","url_meta":{"origin":1247,"position":1},"title":"Heavy weather","author":"ellimondo","date":"10th December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"10th December 1914 The Dorsets were relieved by the 2nd Bn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry but hideous\u00a0weather made progress very slow. Although they were bound for billets in St Jans\u00a0Cappel midnight passed and they were still en route, hence I will post the map of their march tomorrow. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":975,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/5th-divisions-band-aid\/","url_meta":{"origin":1247,"position":2},"title":"5th Division’s band aid","author":"ellimondo","date":"29th October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"29th October 1914 Any attempts to reorganise with the new reinforcements was hampered throughout the day as various companies were ordered into the front line and then stood down. A and B Companies were put under the command of the 13th Brigade at 11am (the Dorsets now coming under command\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1290,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/19-12-1914-blazin-squad\/","url_meta":{"origin":1247,"position":3},"title":"Blazin’ squad","author":"ellimondo","date":"19th December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"19th December 1914 It was another squally and rainy day. Conditions in the trenches had become fairly desperate. Trenches regularly collapsed and men stood up to their waists in liquid mud. Gleichen\u00a0writes that it was from a trench like this that \"a Dorset man was literally almost drowned and drawn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/JqtrD38bF6k\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":920,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/19-10-1914-bring-up-the-bodies\/","url_meta":{"origin":1247,"position":4},"title":"Bring up the bodies","author":"ellimondo","date":"19th October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"19th October 1914 The Dorsets repeated the same routine as yesterday. On this day, or possibly the day before (it's not clear which day in the History of the Dorsetshire Regiment 1914-1919) Major Saunders\u00a0sent Lieutenant Woodhouse, the machine gun officer, with a party of men to recover the bodies from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":907,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/17-10-1914-cuthbert-seedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1247,"position":5},"title":"Cuthbert, seedy","author":"ellimondo","date":"17th October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"17th October 1914 The Dorsets remained in and around Festubert all day in billets. I wonder if I detect some of resentment towards Cuthbert and the 13th Brigade in Gleichen's memoirs?\u00a0Comments such as \"but Cuthbert was not there, so it was a little difficult to combine any action\", \"we met\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}