Following on from the D Day 80 commemorations 0630 am Today 22/8/2024 marks 110th anniversary of the first action by the British Expeditionary Force in WW1 which will probably go unremarked by the media.
At Casteau in Belgium the Royal Irish Dragoons laid an anbush for a patrol of German Lancers. A troop of Dragoons gave chase and Captain Hornby is reputed to have killed a German lancer with his sword. Shortly afterwards Drummer Edwards fired the first shot of WW1 on the Western Front. The day before Private John Parr of the MIddlesex Regiment had become the First British soldier to be killed in WW1.
Tomorrow will mark the anniversary of the Battle of Mons.
By the end of WW1 the original Professional British Army of 1914, the men for whom it was simply âtheir jobâ, had been virtually wiped out. In fact most had gone by the autumn of 1915.
Look at their faces.
Thanks for that @cav551 , I thought it worth repeating so have copied it in total here in France.
We shall remember them.
We got to the party a little late, but the world was a lot bigger then.
Same race but a different horse.
I salute every serviceman and woman, battle hardened or not, theyâre all prepared to pay the ultimate sacrifice.
Very emotional, I have heard it many times before, always with the same effect though.
Have you noticed that the b astards who start these wars are not the ones who go to fight them?
Like the current Maniac of Moscow.
Young men die for old menâs arguments.
Even at my advanced age I fill up at the thought of the poor sods going to battle.In WW2 my dad was one of them.They should put all politicians in the front rank.Current youngâuns and wokies have no clue about those times accusing us oldies of attending ceremonies like the cenotaph of celebrating war.Quite the reverse.
I occasionally contribute to a US forum.Their history of the world wars is interesting.You would think that British and other allies werenât in it at all,and anyway they saved our asses twice.
Watch the 37 days video.There were far more old men of good will trying to stop the war on the western front than the 3 main protagonists Churchill, Moltke and Cambon.Mostly by far Cambon.There was no advantage even for Moltke in a war on two fronts.
While helping Germany to stop Russiaâs opportunist aggression was in everyoneâs interests.
We literally fought on and for the wrong side in 1914.France was the aggressor with itâs Russian ally then we joined them.
The popular view of the WW1 British Army is of the part time soldiers of the Territorial Army and Kitchenerâs Volunteer Army of Palsâ Battalions wallowing in the mud and the trenches - âThe Lions led by Donkeysâ. The British Expeditionary Force of 1914 was neither of these.They were the Professionals of the Regular Army - the career soldiers, the adventurers, the unemployed who had joined up becasue there was no other work and the reservists. Whilst miniscule in size compared to the French and German armies they were more than equal in skill at arms. Every man was trained to fire 15 aimed rifle shots at a man sized target at a range of 300 yards in one minute. They were also, for the most part, skilfully led in the open warfare and Cavalry actions of 1914 which ended at Ypres. The "Great Retreat " from Mons to the Marne being an example of the most difficult military manoeuvre - a tactical withdrawal while in contact with the enemy. Mons was the start where the Kaiserâs much vaunted Imperial Army was given the bloodiest of noses by an army of shilling- a- day Tommy Atkinses.
Problem was at start of the conflict, their tactics belonged in the previous century.
Cavalry charges brandishing swords were no good against German modern machine gunsâŠit was akin to a slaughter.
Then a stalemate situation later developed, where both sides started to dig inâŠhence âTench Warfareâ became a thing, more and more longer trenches were built, with more âsophisticationâ (if that is the right word) with bunkers, first one to make a move was generally cut down
If ever you get the chance to visit some of these sites, it is worth it.
Me and my Dad walked across an old battlefield about 15 years ago, that had been ploughed, there were bones and shells lying even then, including live shells piled up for the French bomb disposal,.which was a regular thing.
There are a lot of small cemetries which were dug where the soldiers fell, theyvare even more poignant than the big ones the likes of Tyne Cott.
23rd August 1914 Mons. The Battle resulted in the award of 4 VCs: Lt. Maurice Dease, Private Sidney Godley, Captain Theodore Wright and Corporal Alfred Jarvis. Their deeds and a narrative of the battle can be found on Wikipedia, Brittanica or elsewhere. Although for those really interested the fullest account can be found here:
Briefly, More or less the full weight of the German 1st Army was against II Corps of the BEF who were defending the line of the Mons- Conde Canal and its bridges. The British Artillery was hampered by slag heaps, mine workings and the built up nature of Mons, plus the very exposed positions in open country from being able to sight and range fully effectively on the attacking Germans in front, and it was only really towards afternoon when the Germans started attacking from the West that their fire started to tell. The rifle fire of the 1st Middlesex, 4th Royal Fusiliers, and the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers was so effective at long range that many of the Germans in the initial attacks thought they were facing massed Machine guns. Deads and Godley held on defending the bridge at Nimy to the last, Wright and Jarvis attempted to lay demolition charges on the remaining bridges. Meanwhile other elements of II Corps were hastily preparing a defensive line further south and Artillery Batteries were retiring and digging in to offer support to the battalions along the Canal line who were being overwhelmed by German shellfire.
For those who may wish to see whether their local Regiment was involved the full order of Battle is here:
It went along similar lines as the BEF in WW2.
It was a predictable pointless rout either way.
The Battle of the Marne was more effective.
It probably would have been better in both cases to sacrifice Paris and group all the allied forces in Western and South Western France and use the French distances to stretch the German supply lines and troop densities.Especially with the primitive transport of 1914.
Also never understood the use artillery against bunkered forces then the machine guns predictably came out to mow down infantry attacks when the barrage stopped.
Why not us the infantry as bait by feigning attacks to draw out the machine guns then retreat and re start the barrage with the machine guns then caught out in the open.
24th August 1914 The BEF withdraw to the area around Eloges and Audregnies in the early hours because the French army on their right are withdrawing and have left their flank exposed. The German 1st Army moves further to the southWest in an attempt to outflank the BEF. Captain Francis Grenfell and Major Ernest Alexander both receive the VC for retrieving artillery guns while under fire. The 4th Dragoons and the 9th Lancers make a desperate Cavalry charge to try to take the pressure of the 1st Cheshires and 1st Norfolks. This ends in failure as the horses trip over signal wires alongside the railway line and crash into barbed wire fences boredering fields. At the end of the day General Horace Smith Dorien enters in his diary that the Duke of Wellingtonâs Regiment anf the 1st Cheshires have âsaved the dayâ. The later have suffered over 80% casualties in a last stand.
August 1914. The Bttle of Le Cateau
August 1914 was extremely hot, the B.E.F had been leapfrogging in reverse and fighting brief actions since the afternoon of the 23rd. Some units had marched nearly all night. The men and Horses were hot, hungry and virtually exhausted. Smith Dorien decided that it was time to turn and fight. 5 Victoria Crosses were awarded for actions during the Battle of Le Cateau; to Major Yate and Lance Corporal Holmes of 2nd Kingâs Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and to Captain Reynolds and 18 year old Drivers Luke and Drain of 37th Howitzer Battery RFA.
1st September 1914 Nery, L Battery Royal Horse Artillery
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L Batteryâs guns were later recovered and repaired in the artillery workshops. Although F gun was the one manned by Bradbury, Dorrell & Nelson the gun in the IWM is C gun. On 11th November each year a member of museum staff places a Poppy on the gun.
Check out the laughable ratios of kit v personnel.
An artillery âbatteryâ of âŠ6 guns and those not even heavy artillery.
The same regarding machine gun âbatteriesâ.
Call it around a dozen medium artillery pieces and a dozen machine guns to hold the line on the western front.
Which could have been avoided by us and France chucking Russia under the bus.
Obviously most were there as cannon fodder.I would have told George to stuff his VC we should never have even been there.
Well that, at least, I can agree with. Fighting other peoplesâ wars should never be justified and military might should be held back 'till attacked. As I also believe that we should never have fought colonial wars either (colonialism is a bad and wrong thing to do) the whole of the 20th century might well have been directly war free for Britain if that principle had been followed.
Assisting with othersâ defence, especially in our own long term interest as in Ukraine, is a different matter and if that prompts attack well so be it, we would be stronger for having waited.
Membership of NATO is an exception to that rule, as it is so large and so strong that I believe its very existence will deter Russia (the only really serious possible aggressor) from ever daring an attack, especially as it has demonstrated its non-nuclear military weakness in Ukraine. Putin only started that adventure because he assumed that his overwhelming might would bring the ancient colony back into the empire within at most a few months.
Russia has a reasonable case on the matter of Eastern Ukraineâs population and not allowing NATO to threaten Russiaâs borders.Both similar to Americaâs position on Cuba and our position on Northern Ireland.
Also ironically bearing in mind that Germany wasnât really the aggressor in WW1.It was Russia allied with France and us.
Serbiaâs position v Austria was similar to Irelandâs v us.
Except in the case of Serbia just a step on the way to joining the Russian Bolshevik fold in the form of Yugoslavia.
We could have changed European history by at least guaranteeing the neutrality of us and France and therefore no western front threatening Germany and no WW1 and by definition no WW2.Possibly also no Russian Bolshevik revolution.
Also strange how you donât view China as a bigger threat than Russia.
Bearing in mind itâs the nuke deterrent and willingness to use it that keeps/kept us free.Not prancing around on Russiaâs borders repeating all the same mistakes as 1914.
While here we are with a Bolshevik coup of our own having seized power at home.