the items he had seem in use in the German Army when he attended the manoeuvres of 1908. The Germans had machine-guns flare pistols, trench mortars, ambulances, artillery telephones and field kitchens. The 4th Division was based at Great Yarmouth in August 1914, ready to repel a German invasion attempt. First World War The 4th Division disembarked at Le Havre on 24 August and joined the Expeditionary Force in time for the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August. The division was ordered to hold high ground near Solesmes to assist the retirement of II Corps (Lieutenant-General Horace Smith-Dorrien) and then to move to the left flank of II Corps at Le Cateau. After a day of battle, the 4th Division reached Le Cateau in soaking rain, tired and hungry. Smith-Dorrien judged that a retreat on the morrow would be impossible; the corps would fight on 26 August and then slip away. At Edmonds narrowly missed being hit by shrapnel-fire during the battle and in his Memoirs wrote that the night of 26/27 August was the most miserable in his life. Edmonds rode at the head of the 4th Division column in another downpour, not being able to get down from his horse to check his map, because he would be unable to mount it again. At midnight the column stopped for four hours and then carried on the Great Retreat that lasted for ten days. At the age of 53, Edmonds had to get by on about three hours sleep a night. Food was short and by the time that Edmonds had finished his duties each night, he found that most of the remainder of the food laid out for the officers had been eaten by a corpulent Veterinary Officer. Edmonds wrote that he could not believe that a man so tired and hungry could stay alive. Edmonds was able to keep going because of the pre-war training of the 4th Division in retreats and the anticipation that it would end by a counter-attack, the order for which came on 5 September. Once able to rest, Edmonds found sleep impossible, had an aching jaw, was unable to concentrate when trying to read a map and found that everything looked black or grey. The engineer-in-chief asked for him at General headquarters (GHQ) of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Edmonds was relieved not to be sent home because of his age