What was significant about the battle of mons?

Answer 1

The Battle of Mons was the first contact between the British Expeditionary Force and the invading German Army. Before the war the British had a small, professional Army, and alone among the nations of Europe did not require compulsory military service of its young men or have conscription ("the draft"). The German Kaiser scornfully denigrated any concern over the British becoming involved in the war with sneers about Britain's "contemptible little Army". The British soldiers adopted this insult as a badge of honor, and called themselves "The Old Contemptibles". But the British were only able to dispatch the small Expeditionary Force to France when the war started, of only six divisions, to help try to stem the onslaught of more than seventy German divisions pouring into northern France through Belgium. At Mons the highly trained prewar regular professional soldiers of the BEF delivered such an accurate volume of rifle fire so rapidly and at such extreme range that the Germans believed themselves faced with machine guns. At that stage of the war the BEF was barely equipped with any machine guns, and the heavy casualties the Germans received at Mons were inflicted by rifle fire, from the bolt-action rifles of the British Regulars. A well trained British soldier could deliver 120 accurately aimed shots PER MINUTE with his bolt-action, Lee-Enfield rifle. This was a fine feat of arms, but it only held up the Germans who were right in front of that portion of the BEF which fought at Mons, and it only held them up for one day. So, strategically, there was negligible impact from the battle. The forces to either side of the defenders of Mons continued to retreat, so the BEF at Mons was also obliged to retreat at the end of the day. By 1915 there were sadly few of the Old Contemptibles left.