Page 22 - Last Chargers example

Lt Col Wormald
maintaining their equipment. Lieutenant WG Styles and Sergeant Grimes’s36 Machine Gun Section carried out maintenance on these vital weapons while Corporal Gore37 sharpened the lances of his Troop with a le38.
The soldiers also took the opportunity to take advantage of their French host’s hospitality. ‘Peggy’ Graham managed to acquire a couple of canvas pails of English beer from the château, and the gardener provided the nest pears from the trees in the garden for lunch39. All this was complemented with white wine, bread and cheese. Having cleaned themselves and their equipment, the soldiers settled down to a badly needed sleep in the warmth of the sun. There was apparently an idyllic air about the place, farremovedfromtheagonyandpressofwar. Lieutenant Colonel Wormald and other of cers slept amongst the tired horses, while Captain Charrington wrote home to Stella, his wife of a
36 4708 Squadron Sergeant Major (Instructor Gunnery) AV Grimes
37 4756 Shoeing Smith Cpl J Gore
38 Lawrence
39 Whelan p20
Mrs Stella Charrington
little over ve weeks, telling her of their lunch and that ‘there were no Germans for miles’40.
While the Brigade Rested
At approximately 4.00pm the German 3rd Guard Cavalry Brigade (raised in Berlin) commanded by Oberst Freiherr von Senden was under orders to clear the woods of French and British troops along the road to La Fère. 2nd Squadron, 1st Garde Dragoner, under command of Rittmeister von Rheinhaben, was the Advance Guard with 4th Squadron (Rittmeister Graf von Hohenthal) in sup- port. 2nd Squadron, 2nd Garde Dragoner (Rittmeister Freiherr von Budenbrock) was slightly further to the east. Patrols had reported that enemy infantry and artillery were in the area of Cérizy and that there was British cavalry south of Essigny. The remain- ing squadrons of 1st and 2nd Garde Dragoner were deployed to the east ank, with the
40 Stewart p251
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