With the Serbs in Macedonia

12 WITH THE SERBS IN MACEDONIA
While the business of drawing stores and
equipment was proceeding, men were being
drafted to us in driblets to complete our
strength. England was shaking herself awake,
and methods were necessarily rough and ready.
We were entitled to so many men, and we got
them on the instalment system. But it was
hardly a happy time for the O.C. He had to
form this crowd, of whom he knew nothing,
into a unit, and to make some of them N.C.O.'s,
clerks, cooks, and batmen. If there weren't any
clerks or cooks among them, the War Office
didn't mind. That was the O.C.'s funeral.
He had the number of men laid down in G.
1098.
Nobody knew anything about anybody or
anything, but everybody meant business, and
so things got done. The Depot authorities
helped us all they could, and it is to be hoped
that some day the excellent work done at
Bulford during this period will receive its
proper recognition. The O.C. interviewed his
men, and scattered stripes around. The company
sergeant-major began to break the company
into their drill. The men who couldn't
drive a Ford were taken out and — taught and
the subalterns went about with both eyes
skinned, looking for likely batmen. They were
very green subalterns, fresh from an O.T.C.,