{"id":768,"date":"2014-09-30T23:50:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T22:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-249197-772718.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=768"},"modified":"2014-10-01T00:05:39","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T23:05:39","slug":"30-09-14-sharp-shooting-frank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/30-09-14-sharp-shooting-frank\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharp shooting Frank"},"content":{"rendered":"

30th September 1914<\/h3>\n

Carrying\u00a0on from yesterday, which I though was an excellent post (trumpet blowing is fair enough, as I make up about 50% of this blog’s readership), we’re going to look at Frank’s skills. Apart from ladies and beer, of course.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>
Frank is on the far right. The rest of this motley crew are Royal Artillery or Royal Horse\u00a0Artillery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Royal Field Artillery cap badge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The photograph above shows Frank outside a stable with a bunch of artillery men. I’ve always assumed these other men were Dorsets too. \u00a0I’ve looked at this photos many times but my non-military mind completely failed to spot their cap badges were different. Their cap badges link them\u00a0to the Royal Artillery. It’s hard to narrow this down to the Royal Field Artillery, Royal Horse Artillery or Royal Garrison Artillery. However, much discussion is to be found here<\/a>\u00a0as to whether or not the men\u00a0have ball buttons (Royal Horse Artillery) or plain buttons (Royal Field Artillery).<\/p>\n

The photograph was taken between January 1912, when Frank was made a Lance Corporal (the single stripe on his left arm), and the beginning of the war. It’s more likely that this is when he’s in\u00a0Aldershot as Royal Artillery units were stationed there in 1912. The Dorsets left for Belfast on\u00a09th January 1913.<\/p>\n

If you look closely at his left hand sleeve, towards the cuff, there’s another badge there in the form of a pair of crossed rifles. This is the marksman “skill-at-arms” badge, awarded when a soldier had scored 130 points or more in an\u00a0annual “musketry”\u00a0test. 50 rounds were fired at targets from different positions. 4 points were scored for a bull, 3 for an inner and 2 for an outer, making the maximum score 200 points. Impressive stuff, but the badge was not as uncommon as you would think. Many regiments really went to town on musketry training so a quite a few of their men had these badges. If you like statistics then fill your boots with this thread<\/a> on the Great War Forum.<\/p>\n

\n

The Dorsets’ diary reports a quiet day and night, with only the occasional high explosive shell passing over them into Sermoise across the Aisne. The weather had cheered up a bit and the Dorsets were beginning to enjoy something approaching a frontline routine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30th September 1914 Carrying\u00a0on from yesterday, which I though was an excellent post (trumpet blowing is fair enough, as I make up about 50% of this blog’s readership), we’re going to look at Frank’s skills. Apart from ladies and beer, of course. The photograph above shows Frank outside a stable with a bunch of artillery […]<\/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":"http:\/\/wp.me\/p4Wjz3-co","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":[8,113,111,112],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Wjz3-co","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":956,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/25-10-1914-trenchant-views\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":0},"title":"Trenchant views","author":"ellimondo","date":"25th October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"25th October 1914 The Dorsets spent another day in billets. The weather was warm for October as they continued to help the Royal Engineers dig trenches and repair roads. At 4pm they were stood to arms along the Rue de B\u00e9thune, but by 6pm the supposed\u00a0danger\u00a0had passed and they returned\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":1219,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/5-12-1914-stopping-a-jack-johnson\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":1},"title":"Stopping a Jack Johnson","author":"ellimondo","date":"5th December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"5th December 1914 The Dorsets remained in billets at Dranoutre for the day. Going back to Frank's letter from the 3rd, the mysterious and continuously ill Jess continues to torment us. Jess has been ill but is getting on alright now have you heard from her lately I had two\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":671,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/18-09-14-havent-found-thomases-yet\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":2},"title":"I haven’t found any Thomases yet","author":"ellimondo","date":"18th September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You say you haven\u2019t heard from Tom yet, well you can take it from me that he is alright thats what we have heard, that we have beaten the Germans quite easily as sea.\u00a0I wish we could say that out here. Read the whole letter from the 17th September. 18th\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Letters"","block_context":{"text":"Letters","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1519,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/30-1-1915-lamp-batteries\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":3},"title":"Lamp batteries","author":"ellimondo","date":"30th January 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 30th January 1915 The Dorsets were relieved by the Cheshires. If the Dorsets\u00a0were already in billets then there's no explanation why they were relieved or what from exactly.\u00a0A and D Company joined the battalion\u00a0later at Dranouter so perhaps it was they who were relieved. The 5th Division's artillery busied\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":484,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/1-09-14-cant-get-cold-tea\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":4},"title":"Can’t get any cold tea","author":"ellimondo","date":"1st September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"French picture postcard of [place name deleted] Ancienne Abbaye de la Cour-\u00e0[aother name deleted] Addressed to Mrs Webster, 29 Strethleven Rd, Acre Lane, Brixton, London, England. Date stamped APO 1 Sp 14 \u2013 passed by Censor No 137, and also stamped London Paid 14 Sp 14 Dear Aunt Just a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Letters"","block_context":{"text":"Letters","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":608,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/13-09-14-black-marias-cow-guns\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":5},"title":"Black Marias and Cow-Guns","author":"ellimondo","date":"13th September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 13th September 1914 At 4am the Dorsets set out and by 5am had formed up with the rest of the 15th Brigade at Le Mont de Soissons. Here they were ordered\u00a0to support the 13th Brigade who had crossed the Aisne and were attacking Missy, about six miles to 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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768"}],"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=768"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":776,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions\/776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}