Old Contemptibles Great War Site

The Transport and the Brigade Ammunition Columns received horses and vehicles commandeered from civi­lian sources, and these proved the weakest spot in the organisation. Most of the waggons were heavy and clumsy ; ride-and-drive harness was scarce, so that teams could not be used, and loads had to be cut down to what could be drawn by a pair of horses, driven from the box. The result was that the Trans­port and Ammunition Columns had no mobility, and had the greatest difficulty in surmounting Stanmore Hill on tileir way to their war stations near St. Albans. The scenes there will not be soon forgotten by those who saw them.

The 5th and 6th London Artillery Brigades did- their annual training in July, 1914, but the other brigades and the infantry battalions of the division had only just reached their summer camps at Perham Down, on Salisbury Plain, when war broke out ; they were all recalled at once to London to corn plete their mobilisation and equipment at their various headquarters. By the middle of August they had all marched to their war stations in the district round St. Albans. The artillery occupied the country round Hemel Hempstead, Berk­hamsted, and King's Langley, while the infantry brigades were grouped in and round St. Albans, Hatfield, and Watford respectively.

A detailed description of the train­ing would merely be a repetition of that of other Territorial divisions, and would have little interest at this date. Men and officers were all keen to learn their job, and anxious to become soldiers ; and their Regular comrades—generals, staff, officers, adjutants, and instructors alike—worked like slaves to prepare them for the task before them. But their best testimonial is the work of their division when it came under the supreme test of war.
Invaluable Groundwork

The training was entirely progres­sive, and brigade and divisional training was not attempted until February, 1915, one month before the division left for France. The thorough ground­work in platoon, company, and mus­ketry instruction, though dull and wearisome at the time, proved invalu­able later.

 At the end. of October the division was selected as one of the Territorial divisions to .be taken complete to France. A divisional ammunition column was formed under Major A. C. Lowe, D.S.O., and frequent brigade and divisional route-marches were practised in order to ensure the full mobility of the whole division. A terrible, wet winter from November to March, and great delays in obtaining equipment, tele­phones, transport, and material, and even the most necessary clothing for the open, added greatly to the discomfort of the troops and the difficulty of training them for war.