The first dedicated English-language guidebook to Mons, European Capital of Culture 2015. Mons is a town itching to be discovered. Cobbled streets rise on a twisty medieval grid to its beautiful central square, and then on up to a crescendo at the 17th-century Belfry, one of the town's four UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Historic, pretty and manageably compact it is the perfect short stay destination.
Conventional histories of the Battles of Mons and Le Cateau describe how, although the British were massively outnumbered, precise and rapid rifle fire mowed down rows of German troops: the staggering casualties inflicted made both British victories, and set the stage for the Battle of the Marne. But neither encounter has ever been described in English from the German point of view. Using German tactics manuals and regimental histories, Terence Zuber re-examines the battles at Mons and Le Cateau, subjecting British tactics to a critique that goes beyond admiration for rapid rifle fire and presenting new and startling perspectives, showing how the Germans employed a high degree of tactical sophistication in conducting combined-arms operations. The odds were, in fact, even, and German casualties never reached the levels described in the standard histories. 'The Mons Myth' is the first history of these battles to take this approach in ninety years, and completely changes our understanding of what actually happened.
Alongside maps and carefully-chosen archive photography, David Lomas explores The British Expeditionary Force's presence during the battle of Mons and thereafter. When the First World War broke out in August 1914 the Imperial German Army mistakenly assumed that the BEF – 'that contemptible little army' – would be easily defeated. They were stopped in their tracks by the numerically inferior British force, whose excellent marksmanship cost the closed packed German ranks dear. Eventually forced to fall back by overwhelming German numbers, the British carried out a masterful fighting retreat across Belgium and northern France. At Mons, nine and a half British battalions held four German divisions at bay for an entire day. This book examines not just the battle of Mons itself but also the ensuing British retreat including the actions at Le Cateau and Villers-Cotterêts.
Mons to the Marne, the latest volume in Pen & Sword's Battle Lines series of walking, cycling and driving guides to the Western Front, is the essential companion for every visitor who is keen to retrace the path taken by the British Expeditionary Force immediately after the outbreak of the First World War. All the most famous battle sites of the Great Retreat are featured here. Expert guides Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland take visitors over a series of routes that can be walked or biked or driven, explaining the fighting that occurred in each place in vivid detail. They describe what happened, where it happened, and why, and who was involved, and point out the sights that remain there for the visitor to see. Their highly illustrated guidebook is essential reading for visitors who wish enhance their understanding of the fast-moving campaign that preceded the war in the trenches. It gives a fascinating insight into the experience of the troops, the terrain over which they fought and the character of fighting itself.As featured in the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald.
World War I began disastrously for the English when the Germans routed them at Mons, Belgium, on August 23 and 24, 1914. On September 29, 1914, the Anglo-Welsh writer Arthur Machen fictionalized this encounter in a newspaper story, claiming that the English were saved by the appearance of angelic bowmen sent by St. George. But his fiction became accepted as fact. The believers--notables G. K. Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle and C. S. Lewis, along with almost forgotten figures like Harold Begbie, Phyllis Campbell and T. W. H. Crosland--wrote pamphlets, testimonies and poems, performed music and created motion pictures attesting to the existence of the guardian angels. This history of the Angels of Mons controversy for the first time collects and annotates Machen's work and the responses it inspired, most of which have not been available since their publication a century ago. Also reprinted for the first time are several of Machen's responses to the believers, including "The Angels of Mons: Absolutely My Last Word on the Subject" and "The Return of the Angels: This Time They Are at Ypres."
"Ben’s father is in prison and his mum, a former child genius, is barely hanging on to her sanity. When Ben and his classmates are nearly killed in a coach crash in Belgium, Ben starts to experience flashbacks: visitations to the brutal start of World War 1 and the uncertain world of Corporal Sam Lyle. Is Ben going mad too, like his mum, or is there another reason why he finds himself in a war zone in 1914? Who is the spectral figure that haunts both the boy and the soldier? Do angels exist? What people are saying... 'This is a stunning story: fast moving, fiercely realistic yet engaging with ghosts and an angel. It's alive with native wit and, underpinned by the conflict of courage and cowardice, loyalty and bullying, it's genuinely moving. Very many school groups visit the battlefields of WWI, and Angel of Mons (with its excellent notes at the end) should be essential reading for them all.' - Kevin Crossley-Holland, Author and President of the School Library " ‘This could be something very special’ The Literary Consultancy
Welsh at War From Mons to Loos and the Gallipoli Tragedy is the culmination of twelve years of painstaking research by the author into the the Welsh men and infantry units who fought in the Great War.These units included the four regular regiments the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, South Wales Borderers Welsh Regiment and Welsh Guards as well as the Territorial Monmouthshire Regiment, the Yeomanry regiments, the Denbighshire Hussars, Pembroke Yeomanry, Montgomeryshire Yeomanry, Glamorgan Yeomanry and Welsh Horse Yeomanry and their amalgamation into service battalions for the regular regiments during 1917.Welsh troops fought with great courage in every theater of the war the Western Front, Aden, China, Gallipoli, Egypt, India, Italy, Salonika and in Palestine and as well as the casualties who were suffered during these campaigns, many men gained recognition for acts of gallantry.The book covers all of the major actions and incidents in which each of the Welsh infantry regiments took part from the opening of the war in 1914 until the end of 1915, as well as stories of Welsh airmen, Welshmen shot at dawn, Welsh rugby players who fell, Welsh gallantry winners and the Welshmen who died in non-Welsh units, such as the Dominion forces and other units of the British Armed Forces.While chronicling a history of the war through the events and battles that Welshmen took part in, the stories of individual casualties are included throughout, together with many compelling photographs of the men and their last resting places.
"The Retreat from Mons: By one who shared in it" by Arthur Corbett-Smith General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrienwas a British Army General. He was one of the few British survivors of the Battle of Isandlwana as a young officer, he also distinguished himself in the Second Boer War. In this book, his recollection of his time spent around Mons is described in great detail to bring the life of an army soldier to the civilian world.
The Retreat From Mons, or ‘The Great Retreat’, was a harsh lesson for both the British troops who were retreating in the face of the overwhelming forces of the German Armies, and the Germans themselves, with the stubborn tenacity and fighting abilities of the long-service British Tommies. The action in this volume begins with the mobilization of the British Expeditionary Force, to the beginning of the battle of the Marne. The book was officially endorsed and benefits from a foreword by Field Marshal French who was in command of the British Expeditionary Force at the time.
