Roger Ingpen

MOBILISATION AND TRANSPORT OF THE BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE—THE KING’S MESSAGE TO HIS TROOPS—SIR JOHN FRENCH’S ORDER OF THE DAY—LORD KITCHENER’S ADDRESS—DEATH OF GENERAL GRIERSON—DISPOSITION OF THE FRENCH FORCES IN THE NORTH—ADVANCE OF THE GERMANS—SIR JOHN FRENCH ON THE MOVEMENTS OF THE BRITISH TROOPS—FIGHTING AT MONS—THE KAISER’S ARMY ORDER.

By the middle of the third week of the war, the British Expeditionary Force—three army corps and a cavalry division—had been mobilised and sent across the Channel to France. Sir John French’s force was the largest army that England had ever sent into the field at the outset of a campaign. Its mobilisation, concentration, and transport across the narrow seas had been carried out with silent efficiency. England waited confidently and patiently for the tidings of its entry into the battle line.

On August 9 the King had issued to his troops on their departure for the front the following message:—

Buckingham Palace,
Aug. 9, 1914.

You are leaving home to fight for the safety and honour of my Empire.

Belgium, whose country we are pledged to defend, has been attacked, and France is about to be invaded by the same powerful foe.

I have implicit confidence in you, my soldiers. Duty is your watchword, and I know your duty will be nobly done.

I shall follow your every movement with deepest interest, and mark with eager satisfaction your daily progress; indeed, your welfare will never be absent from my thoughts.

I pray God to bless you and guard you and bring you back victorious.

George R.I.

Lord Kitchener also addressed to the forces these instructions, to be kept in the Active Service Pay-book of every soldier in the Expeditionary army:

You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy. You have to perform a task which will need your courage, your energy, your patience. Remember that the honour of the British Army depends on your individual conduct. It will be your duty not only to set an example of discipline and perfect steadiness under fire, but also to maintain the most friendly relations with those whom you are helping in this struggle.

The operations in which you are engaged will, for the most part, take place in a friendly country, and you can do your own country no better service than in showing yourselves in France and Belgium in the true character of a British soldier.

Be invariably courteous, considerate, and kind. Never do anything likely to injure or destroy property, and always look upon looting as a disgraceful act. You are sure to meet with a welcome and to be trusted; your conduct must justify that welcome and that trust. Your duty cannot be done unless your health is sound. So keep constantly on your guard against any excesses. In this new experience you may find temptations both in wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and, while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy.

Do your duty bravely,
Fear God,
Honour the King.
(Signed) Kitchener, Field Marshal.

On the day before the Expeditionary Forces were announced to have landed safely in France, the British Army sustained a severe loss through the sudden death, on August 17, of Lieut.-General Sir James Moncrieff Grierson. This brilliant and accomplished soldier, who was to have commanded the Second Corps (third and fifth divisions), was succeeded by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien. The First Corps (first and second divisions) was commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Douglas Haig, the Third Corps (fourth and sixth divisions) by Major-General W.P. Pulteney, and Major-General Edmund Allenby was in command of the Cavalry division.

After the lapse of nearly a hundred years, then, the British troops found themselves once more on Belgian soil with a heavy task in front of them. As in 1815, the object of the Allies was to liberate Europe from the domination of a military despot. In the present conflict the Prussians, whom we had so often supported on the field, were against us, while we were ranged on the side of our old foes at Waterloo.

Our forces were placed on the left of the line on which the Allied Armies advanced to the help of Belgium. LiÈge had fallen, but Namur was holding out. The plan of campaign was that of the French staff, under the command of General Joffre, and was based on the general idea of a march across the Belgian frontier on the west of the Meuse with the left towards Tournai. It was expected that, after a first battle with the German army in Belgium near the border, the enemy would be driven back to the north-east, hands would be joined with the heroic Belgian army, Brussels abandoned by the invaders, and the siege of Namur raised.

Sir John French issued a stirring “order of the day” to the British Expedition at the moment, when our forces were complete, and our columns formed for advance. In the course of “a few brief words to the officers, non-commissioned officers, and men I have the honour and the privilege to command,” the Commander-in-Chief said:—

Our cause is just. We are called upon to fight beside our gallant Allies in France and Belgium in no war of arrogance, but to uphold our national honour, independence, and freedom.

I have in peace time repeatedly pointed out to you that the strength and efficiency of a modern army in the field is to be measured more by the amount of individual intelligence which permeates throughout its ranks than by its actual numbers.

In peace time your officers and non-commissioned officers have striven hard to cultivate this intelligence and power of initiative. I call upon you individually to use your utmost endeavour to profit by this training and instruction. Have confidence in yourselves, and in the knowledge of your powers.

Having, then, this trust in the righteousness of our cause, pride in the glory of our military traditions, and belief in the efficiency of our Army, we go forward to do or die for God, King, and Country.

The disposition of the French forces was described by a statement issued from the War Office at Paris as follows:

An army starting out from the Wavre in the north, and going in the direction of NeufchÂteau, is attacking the German troops which have been pouring down the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg along the western bank of the Semoy, and going in a westerly direction.

Another army which left from the region of Sedan and crossed the Ardennes is attacking several German army corps that were on the march between the Lesse and the Meuse.

A third army from the region of Chimay has been moved forward to make an attack on the German right between the Sambre and the Meuse, and is supported by the English army which set out from the region of Mons.

The movement of the Germans who had sought to envelop our left wing has been followed step by step, and their right is now being attacked by our army forming our left wing, in junction with the English army. At this point the battle has been raging violently for more than a day.

The Germans had concentrated a huge mass of men for the attack on the left of the allied lines, held by the British troops, with the object of dealing them a smashing blow and of forcing their way south. They were determined to carry out the Army Orders of August 19 in which the German Emperor declared with characteristic assurance that:

It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies, for the immediate present, upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill and all the valour of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English and walk over General French’s contemptible little army.

Headquarters,
Aix-la-Chapelle.

Men and guns were not wanting for this assault. The shrapnel was deadly in its effect, but the marksmanship of the German rifles is stated to have been uniformly poor. To make assurance doubly sure, the troops pitted against our men were some of the best, as testified by the statement of a wounded Belfast man:—

You must remember that for almost twenty-four hours we bore the brunt of the attack, and the desperate fury with which the Germans fought showed that they believed if they were only once past the British forces the rest would be easy. Not only so, but I am sure we had the finest troops in the German army against us.

On the way out I had heard some slighting comments passed on the German troops, and no doubt some of them are not worth much, but those thrown at us were very fine specimens indeed. I do not think they could have been beaten in that respect.

“It was like a great river bursting its banks. The moment the Belgians were forced to retire to their entrenched camp at Antwerp,” wrote Mr. William Maxwell, on August 21, from Mons, “the Germans swept over the country without check west toward Ghent, south toward Mons. The enemy was committed to a great turning movement. It was striving to hold the French along the Meuse between Namur and Dinant, while its armies west of the river were marching south along a front of many miles. One army threatens Mons with the object of penetrating the French frontier and descending on Maubeuge and Valenciennes, another army was advancing toward the line of Tournai—Coutrai which covers the great city of Lille. At Ath there were indications that the enemy was advancing south along the Enghien—Soignies, though he seemed to avoid the main road at Jurbise. By deserted country paths from this point I came to Mons.” Here as everywhere great fear was manifested by the citizens at the approach of the Uhlans. The authorities had been warned by telephone that they were near. “They pretend that they are English and then when the villagers cry ‘Vive l’Angleterre,’ they find out their mistake.”

On the same day, a French witness, the correspondent of a Paris paper, spoke of the German advance as extending “over a line of nearly 100 miles, spreading out in a formidable fan-like movement, preceded by a swarm of scouts in all directions, which sweeps over the country from Brussels to Arlon. The German hordes are on the march over five different routes towards France. They will find men to meet them.”

M. Auguste Mellot, deputy of Namur, saw in that town on August 21 eleven German Army Corps “pass the Meuse coming from VisÉ, a powerful force being detailed to mask their march.” The German troops engaged in this action probably amounted to fewer than half that number.

The lines of the Allied Armies practically covered every assailable point from CondÉ to Dinant. Mr. Maxwell thus described the position of the British forces just before the great battle which began on Saturday, August 22:—

The 1st British Cavalry Division (General Allenby) had its headquarters at Givry, close to the frontier, and was moving north in the direction of Binche. Cavalry covered the south-east of Mons. It was pushed forward also toward Fontaine l’EvÊque, west of Charleroi, and, generally speaking, threatened to raid the left flank of the Germans advancing rapidly from the direction of Brussels.

An immense army was gathered on the frontier, and had passed into Belgium. Mons was the point of greatest concentration of the British. It was an army marching to attack, for there was no attempt at making defensive works. From Mons the British army extended west along the canal from Mons, from Maubeuge through Bavay, on to Valenciennes, where the Highland regiments created immense enthusiasm. From the western end of the canal at Mons, Belgian territory has few defenders. Most of the men have been withdrawn from that side. Prussian patrols swarm over the country, and it is clear that behind them is a great army.

Sir John French, in his first admirable despatch, gives a history of the activities of the British Expeditionary Force during that eventful week in August from the 21st to the 28th when our troops were fighting against overwhelming odds. We will divide the despatch into sections, which will fall into place as our story proceeds. He says:—

The concentration [of the troops] was practically complete on the evening of Friday, August the 21st, and I was able to make dispositions to move the Force during Saturday, the 22nd, to positions I considered most favourable from which to commence operations which the French Commander-in-Chief, General Joffre, requested me to undertake in pursuance of his plans in the prosecution of the campaign.

The line taken up extended along the line of the canal from CondÉ on the west, through Mons and Binche on the east. This line was taken up as follows:—

From CondÉ to Mons inclusive was assigned to the Second Corps, and to the right of the Second Corps from Mons the First Corps was posted. The 5th Cavalry Brigade was placed at Binche.

In the absence of my Third Army Corps I desired to keep the Cavalry Division as much as possible as a reserve to act on my outer flank, or move in support of any threatened part of the line. The forward reconnaissance was entrusted to Brigadier-General Sir Philip Chetwode with the 5th Cavalry Brigade, but I directed General Allenby to send forward a few squadrons to assist in this work.

During the 22nd and 23rd these advanced squadrons did some excellent work, some of them penetrating as far as Soignies, and several encounters took place in which our troops showed to great advantage.

The scouting operations of the British cavalry extended south-westward of Brussels and south-east as far as Charleroi. The German cavalry were well-nigh exhausted by their ceaseless exertions, but a rapid advance was necessary for their success, and it was clear that they would proceed without delay; while our cavalry scoured the country for any signs of the German advance. The French were coming up from the south. A wounded soldier in the British hussars stated that on Friday, August 21, his party encountered some of the 4th Cuirassiers. The two forces without any warning came face to face round the turn of a small village street. They immediately attacked one another as quickly as their horses could move, much to the alarm of the village people, who made for their houses, screaming with terror. It was a genuine cavalry charge without the discharge of a gun. The hussars were the lighter, consequently they had the advantage as regards speed, for the horses of the Cuirassiers were dead beat. The result of the encounter was 27 Germans killed and 12 taken prisoners.