'The Axle Upon Which The Wheel Of Reinforcement Turned'

News of the battle at Le Cateau had come and gone and all at home realised that this business was a lot more brisk than was initially thought. 
The new industrial might of the German Army had pushed the B.E.F. back through France and to the banks of the river Aisne, where their rapid advance was halted.
For those men of the 4th (Territorial) Battalion mobilised but guarding a stretch of the Mersey estuary near Peldon in Essex, these were tiresome days. Desperate to get some action in, these men watched events unfold on the continent, convinced that it would be over soon and they'd not play a part in it. For them, their call to active service was drawing near.
The 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion were however, having a slightly different time. Since the day war was declared, the Battalion had furnished many drafts of officers and men to bolster the other Battalions in the Regiment, most notably the 2nd Battalion as they prepared for overseas service. They were aptly described as the 'axle on which the wheel of reinforcement turned' and they did so until the end of the war. 
In conjunction with the staff of the Depot, they ensured that the recruits who passed through the Battalion, received the necessary basic training before they joined their respective Battalions. Over the course of the hostilities, no fewer than one thousand officers and a staggering thirty-three thousand men passed through its ranks. It was a mammoth feat of logistics.

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