{"id":519,"date":"2014-09-04T19:35:31","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T18:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-249197-772718.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=519"},"modified":"2014-09-05T09:08:58","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T08:08:58","slug":"4-09-14-usual-answer-eggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/4-09-14-usual-answer-eggs\/","title":{"rendered":"The usual answer, “Eggs”"},"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

4th September 1914<\/h3>\n

The 5th Division held a Divisional Conference at 10am in Bouleurs. From here it was decided that the 15th Brigade was to act as rearguard. They were to be arrive at Gagny at 9am the following morning.<\/p>\n

False alarms continued to keep everyone on tenterhooks. Gleichen reports that he responded to reports of enemy by pushing up the outposts of the Bedfords along with a couple of howitzers<\/a> attached to his Brigade.<\/p>\n

The Dorsets remained in bivouac for the whole day.\u00a0It wasn’t until 11:45pm that they finally continued the retreat.<\/p>\n

\n
\"An<\/a>
Mildred Aldrich’s house on the hilltop overlooking the Marne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Bedfords were pushed right up to\u00a0the southern edge of the Marne. There’s an interesting narrative by\u00a0Miss Mildred Aldrich, an American who was living in Huiry, high above the valley floor. She wrote a book about her experiences called “A Hilltop on the Marne<\/a>“. She had spotted Uhlans, mounted German cavalry, down in the trees beside\u00a0the Marne, and had reported it to Captain Edwards of the Bedfords who arrived on the 4th September. All the British (or English as she refers to the entire BEF throughout the book) seem to be interested in was\u00a0food.<\/p>\n

It was not much after nine when two English officers strolled down the road\u2014Captain Edwards* and Major Ellison, of the Bedfordshire Light Infantry. They came into the garden, and the scene with Captain Simpson of the day before was practically repeated. They examined the plain, located the towns, looked long at it with their glasses; and that being over I put the usual question, “Can I do anything for you?” and got the usual answer, “Eggs.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More evidence of the 15th Brigade’s\u00a0lack of personal equipment is confirmed by her line “these Bedfordshire boys were not hungry, but they had retreated from their last battle leaving their kits in the trenches, and were without soap or towels, or combs or razors”.<\/p>\n

\"Captain<\/a>
Captain Edwin Edwards of the 1st Bn Bedfords<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The story is expanded upon in 1914 by Lyn Macdonald<\/a>\u00a0but Mildred Aldrich’s personal account is much better reading. She wrote several books about her experiences in Huiry<\/a> during the First World War.<\/p>\n

*Sadly Captain Edwards was injured in October and later\u00a0died of his wounds in hospital at London Bridge on\u00a031st December 1914. There’s an online memorial to him here<\/a>. Interestingly he was born in Brixton. On the other side of the tracks to our Frank mind you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  4th September 1914 The 5th Division held a Divisional Conference at 10am in Bouleurs. From here it was decided that the 15th Brigade was to act as rearguard. They were to be arrive at Gagny at 9am the following morning. False alarms continued to keep everyone on tenterhooks. Gleichen reports that he responded to […]<\/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 stays put and the Bedfords get eggs sunny side up http:\/\/wp.me\/p4Wjz3-8n #dorsets #bedfords #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":[4,12],"tags":[36,63,8,64,62,52],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Wjz3-8n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1230,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/7-12-1914-the-wytschaete-line-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":0},"title":"The Wytschaete line man","author":"ellimondo","date":"7th December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 7th December 1914 The Dorsets remained in Dranoutre for another day but at 4.15pm A Company, along with Frank and a single platoon of B Company marched via Lindenhoek to relieve the Bedfords in trenches south of Point 75. Here they came under orders of the King's Own Scottish\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":435,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/26-08-14-splendid-work-machine-guns\/","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":1},"title":"Splendid work with machine guns","author":"ellimondo","date":"26th August 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 26th August 1914 The Dorsets were\u00a0roused\u00a0at 1am when some Bedfords fell back\u00a0from their trenches. Gleichen recalls \"some men in the trenches began firing at some probably imaginary Germans\". I imagine the Dorsets weren't amused by this unnecessary exercise. Orders were at 4am received as expected to move out in\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":1324,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/25-12-1914-a-white-lie-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":2},"title":"A white lie Christmas?","author":"ellimondo","date":"25th December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"25th December 1914 Merry Christmas everyone. I am writing this from\u00a0my leather wing-backed armchair, fire crackling in the grate, chestnuts roasting (must move back a bit) and dogs at my feet. A glass of Lisbon's finest at my side is pepped up with some meths from\u00a0the garage, while Val Doonican\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":933,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/22-10-1914-dorsets-finest-finings\/","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":3},"title":"Dorset’s finest and finings","author":"ellimondo","date":"22nd October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 22nd October 1914 If the wheels had fallen off the Dorsets\u00a0on the 13th October then the 21st October was when they were\u00a0consigned to the knacker's\u00a0yard. The Cheshires were out early at digging\u00a0trenches when the Germans attacked Violaines at 5:50am. For some inexplicable reason the Cheshires had not set ample\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other stories"","block_context":{"text":"Other stories","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/other-stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1330,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/26-12-1914-not-so-stille-nacht\/","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":4},"title":"Not so Stille Nacht","author":"ellimondo","date":"26th December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"26th December 1914 The Dorsets enjoyed, if that was possible, another quiet day with no shelling. Strangely both the Bedfords' and the 5th Division's diaries record that Sector B was shelled. The Dorsets' diary also mentions in the margin that the G.O.C. 2nd Corps visited the fire trenches \u2013 this\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":731,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/24-09-14-howitzer\/","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":5},"title":"Howitzer that!","author":"ellimondo","date":"24th September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 24th September 1914 The Bedfords joined the Dorsets in the morning along with the remnants of the Cheshires. the Norfolks had been attached to the 3rd Division on the 21st September. To bolster\u00a0their dwindling ranks, Gleichen had a rag tag mix of troops attached to his command. He recalls\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\/519"}],"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=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}