battle of Mons

Mons, battle of (1914). In late August 1914 FM Sir John French's force of a cavalry division and two corps advanced into Belgium on the left of the French Fifth Army. Sir John was unaware that the French offensive was in difficulties, and that German armies were moving through Belgium in strength. On the evening of 22 August his westernmost II Corps, under Gen Smith-Dorrien, arrived on the Mons-Condé canal east and north of Mons, with Lt Gen Haig's I Corps echeloned back on its right. Gen von Kluck's First Army, in superior strength, was approaching the canal from the north, but neither side had much knowledge of the other's dispositions.

Early on 23 August the Germans mounted courageous but disconnected attacks: most foundered in the face of fierce rifle fire. Smith-Dorrien recognized that the troops on his right, where the line bulged out north of Mons, risked being cut off, and in the afternoon pulled back south of Mons. On the following day the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) began its long retreat to the Marne. The battle cost the BEF 1, 642 casualties, and the Germans up to 10, 000. It gave early proof both of the quality of the BEF's soldiers and the shaky state of its staff work. The British army's first two VCs of the war were won by Lt Dease and Pte Godley on the Nimy railway bridge north of Mons.

— Richard Holmes

(August 22-23, 1914) the first engagement between the Germans and British in World War I, ending with a famous British retreat. On its way to Paris, the German Army had torn through Belgium, decimating the French Army. British forces tried to defend Mons, but were outnumbered and outgunned by the Germans on August 22. The Germans continued to attack the retreating British, inflicting heavy casualties until a Belgian Army diversion distracted them long enough to delay their advance.

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