On the 27th of July tents were shifted to Totley Rifle Ranges in Derbyshire, where the preliminary Musketry Course was fired by the Battalion during the next fortnight, with most creditable results. The men made themselves great favourites in Totley and Dore, and at Sheffield, where they received a very hospitable welcome at all times, and especially on the occasion of a memorable route march through that city on 9th August. The Battalion was given an enthusiastic send-off at Dore and Beauchief Stations on 10th August, when entraining for Salisbury Plain, the scene of their next training ground.
When the Seventeenth steamed into the station at Codford St. Mary, on 11th August, and saw the occasional houses peeping through the tall trees, it was the thought that, after the bustle and stir of Totley, they had indeed become soldiers in earnest. The Camp Warden strengthened this belief with his assurance that no unit stayed longer than six weeks in the Camp, and after that,—Southampton and France, for the testing and proof of all that had been learnt so eagerly. As it turned out, three months were spent at Codford—months of rigorous training, of long interesting divisional manœuvres, and general hardening. The men learned to dig trenches quickly and well, for they had to spend nights in them; to march many miles without complaint, and fight at the end of the hardest day's march; to use Lewis guns, not as amateurs with a strange toy, but as men whose lives depended on their speed and ability. The mysteries of transport, and the value of a timetable were revealed.
Needless to say these days of field exercises were not lacking in some amusing incidents which seem to dog the footsteps of peace conditions manœuvres and which act as very welcome episodes amid the hard work that such training involves. Towards the close of one of the periodical manœuvres carried out by the Seventeenth under the critical eye of an Inspecting General a bugle had sounded and the manœuvres ceased. Officers grouped together and men lay on their backs and talked. The General turned to one of the Battalion officers who were now beginning to assemble round him, and said, "What was that call?" He often did such things as this to test knowledge of detail. "The Stand Fast," said the officer to whom the question was addressed. "Oh! come! come!" said the General, "Now, what was it?" he further questioned a Company Commander. No reply came. Then he turned to the Second in Command, "Now, Major, what was it? Tell him." "The Stand Fast, sir," said the Major. "Really," said the General, "you gentlemen must learn the elementary things in soldiering. Bugler, tell these gentlemen what that call was." "The Stand Fast, sir," replied the bugler. The General hurried on with the conference!
At Codford the Battalion had its first taste of army biscuit and bully-beef. From Monday to Thursday manœuvres were held; on Friday, "clean up," and on Saturday, after the Colonel's inspection, the luckier ones went to Bath and Bristol for the day, or to London or Bournemouth for the week-end. Friday was pay day—"Seven Shillings me lucky lad," and after pay-out, the reading of the Army Act or a Lecture on bayonet-fighting or tactics. Games flourished. The Battalion football team played and defeated Bath City, and met the other Battalions of the Division at Rugby Football, and invariably won. On the ranges with rifle and Lewis gun, the Battalion maintained its place as the Battalion in the Division.
Officers of the Battalion at Mar Lodge, Troon, 1915.[ToList]
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