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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Training after conscription


Guest Harold

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A lot of the Sherwood Foresters sent to Dublin to put down the rising had less than three months service and were unfamiliar with their weapons. An Artilliary Officer, Captain E. Gerrard, came across a group of them under fire at Beggers Bush Barracks, which are quite close to the Mount St Bridge area where the slaughter took place. (see http://www.wfrmuseum.org.uk/rhr_Ireland.htm ) The Sherwoods he encounterd during that period did not impress him and he complained of the qulaity of the troops

"The young Sherwoods that I had with me had never fired a service rifle before. They were not even able to load them. We had to show them how to load them"

Later on he describes them as "untrained, undersized products of the English slums"

Taken from his statement made by him after the rising and held in the Bureau of Military History.

No doubt their lack of training accounted for their high causulty rate

wig

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