Just about getting this post up while it’s still actually
August!
The middle of the month saw me leaving the normal summer
routine at home behind for a long weekend in the cockpit of Europe.
Part of the trip saw me revisiting Waterloo (for the seventh
time!), which I’ll cover in another entry. But the main purpose of my Belgian
mini-break was to tour the First World War battlefield of Mons, scene of the
British Army’s first engagement on the Western Front, in time for the battle’s
centenary.
Now, my experience with visiting the Western Front has been
quite limited so far. Five years ago, a summer driving holiday across Europe
gave my Dad and I the opportunity to spend two days in and around Ypres, which
was very memorable indeed. That’s really been it, though, as far as the main
First World War sites in Europe are concerned.
The current centenary of the conflict is steadily serving to
increase my interest in the 1914-18 period, however, and the early months of
the war have always held a special curiosity for me.
There’s a tragic fascination to the fighting of late summer
and early autumn 1914, which sees an essentially nineteenth-century style of
warfare being waged – at dreadful cost – with twentieth-century
technology. For almost the very last
time in western European warfare, there are multiple instances of infantry
still manoeuvring on the battlefield in relatively close formations, with
colours flying and bands playing; of cavalry performing their traditional
mounted role with sword and lance; of artillery still firing over open sights
at targets they can physically see in front of them.
Almost everthing about this early period, from the
frequently splendidly impractical uniforms to the open nature of the
battlefields, is at a striking remove from the mud, gas and barbed wire popular
image of the First World War. By the winter of 1914, things had changed
utterly, and the static attrition of trench warfare had firmly carved up the
landscape of northern France and Belgium.
From a British and Irish perspective, the British Expeditionary
Force that crosses the Channel in August 1914 to take part in this early
fighting is an interesting body indeed. Rather than the massed citizen armies
that the combination of popular enlistment and later conscription would combine
to produce as Britain’s war progressed, the initial BEF was a very small, all-regular
force. Tiny by the standards of European allies and adversaries like France and
Germany, Britain’s field army was nonetheless well-trained and professional. Its
men were khaki-clad, moustachioed regulars or else regular reservists recalled
to the colours on the outbreak of hostilities.
This army acquitted itself well in its early defensive battles
at Mons and Le Cateau in late August, and in September played its part with its
French allies in the First Battle of the Marne, halting the German threat to
Paris. Along the way, it endured a gruelling forced retreat from the scene of
its first encounter with the German army at Mons on 23 August.
Irish service in the British armed forces is a particular
interest of mine, and the BEF is anything but short of Irish connections.
Nearly every existing Irish infantry and cavalry regiment in the British Army
was represented amongst the force, with regiments like the 4th (Royal
Irish) Dragoon Guards, the Royal Irish Regiment, the Connaught Rangers and the Royal
Munster Fusiliers all playing conspicuous roles at various points during the
campaign. Irish soldiers were also plentifully represented in other arms and
corps of the BEF.
Visiting Mons at some point during this centenary year had
been on my mind for the last few months, and going during the actual month that
the battle was fought seemed ideal. I had originally toyed with the idea of
trying to coincide my visit with either the official commemorations of the war’s
outbreak on 4 August, or else on the exact centenary of the battle itself on 23
August, but work commitments put paid to either plan. As it turned out, that
was probably for the best. In the event, I was able to tour the battlefield
freely, without access to any sites being impeded or overly crowded.
I’ll split my report on the battlefield itself into another
post or two to avoid overcrowding things. Stay tuned!
