Battle of Le Cateau

The Battle of Le Cateau was fought on 26 August 1914 in the Nord department of northern France. The British II Corps of General Horace Smith-Dorrien, reinforced by the 4th Division and cavalry, held out for most of the day against the German First Army of General Alexander von Kluck. It was the second battle of the British Expeditionary Force, after the Battle of Mons, and one of the most important engagements of the great Allied retreat of August 1914.

Background

After the Battle of Mons on 23 August and the French defeat at Charleroi, the British began their retreat. The two British corps were separated by the Forest of Mormal. I Corps under Douglas Haig, after a night skirmish at Landrecies, moved further south and could not support II Corps. The latter reached the area of Le Cateau on the evening of 25 August, utterly exhausted. It was joined by the 4th Division of General Thomas Snow, which had only just arrived from Britain, and by the cavalry of General Edmund Allenby.

At about 3.30 a.m. Smith-Dorrien concluded that marching on by day with the enemy at his heels would end in the destruction of the corps. He decided to stand and fight, deal the Germans a heavy blow and only then continue the retreat. The commander-in-chief, Field Marshal John French, wanted the retreat to go on. When at about 7 a.m. headquarters passed Smith-Dorrien an order to withdraw, he replied that his men were already fighting.

Forces

About 40,000 soldiers fought on the British side: according to figures cited by historians, some 40 infantry battalions and more than 240 guns. The Germans committed their forces gradually. At first these were mainly the IV Corps of General Friedrich Sixt von Armin and the II Cavalry Corps of General Georg von der Marwitz, and further units of the First Army came up during the day. Kluck was convinced that the British were fleeing west, towards the Channel ports, and at first did not expect an organised defence.

Course of the battle

The British took up positions along the road from Le Cateau to Cambrai. The right wing near Le Cateau was held by the 5th Division, the centre around Caudry by the 3rd Division, and the left wing by the 4th Division. The positions were occupied at night and in haste, without proper trenches or prepared lines of retreat.

The fighting began early in the morning on the right wing. The British artillery stood in the open, just behind the infantry, and fired over open sights at the advancing columns. The Germans replied with indirect fire from concealed positions. At Le Cateau the outcome was decided by the artillery, not by the infantry’s rifle fire as at Mons three days earlier. The British batteries suffered enormous losses, but they also inflicted them on the German infantry.

The heaviest fighting took place west of Le Cateau, where the positions of the 5th Division lay on an exposed slope. The Germans worked round the town from the east and fired on the British from the flank. Battalions of the Suffolks and the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) were ordered to hold their positions at all costs and were almost entirely destroyed. Around midday the right wing began to give way.

In the early afternoon Smith-Dorrien ordered a retreat. The order did not reach every unit in time, and some fought on until they were surrounded. Gun crews, among them the 37th Howitzer Battery, saved their guns under fire. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded for gallantry that day: to Captain Douglas Reynolds, Drivers Job Drain and Frederick Luke, Major Charles Yate and Lance-Corporal Frederick Holmes.

The British left wing was covered by the French cavalry corps of General André Sordet, and further west, around Cambrai, French territorial divisions were fighting. That same day the Germans took Cambrai. The French screen, however, prevented the enemy from outflanking the British from the west. In the evening and during the night II Corps withdrew towards Saint-Quentin, and the Germans, believing they had defeated the whole Expeditionary Force, did not set off in immediate pursuit.

Losses

The British official history states that II Corps and its supporting units lost 7,812 men, of whom about 2,600 were taken prisoner. Estimates of the number killed vary, from about 700 to about 1,200. The British abandoned 38 guns, most of them disabled by their crews. German losses are usually put at about 2,900 men, although some historians believe they were lower.

Significance

The Battle of Le Cateau was a tactical defeat, but it served its purpose. The pursuit of II Corps lost its momentum, and for the rest of the retreat the British were no longer seriously threatened. In his first dispatch Field Marshal French praised Smith-Dorrien, stating that he had saved the left wing of the army. Later the two generals fell into a bitter conflict, which ended with Smith-Dorrien’s recall from France in 1915. Most modern historians side with him: the decision to stand and fight prevented the destruction of the Expeditionary Force, although its price was very high.