End of the retreat from Mons

On 5 September 1914 the British Expeditionary Force ended the retreat that had begun after the Battle of Mons. The tired British divisions halted south-east of Paris, beyond the rivers Marne and Grand Morin, around Tournan-en-Brie, not far from Melun. The next day the same units were to turn about and advance north.

Two weeks of marching

The retreat began on the night of 23/24 August, when Field Marshal John French realised that his army was in danger of being encircled by the much larger German 1st Army of General Alexander von Kluck. From then on the British marched south almost without a break, first across northern France, then through the valleys of the Somme, the Oise and the Aisne, until they were beyond the Marne.

Measured along the roads taken by the infantry columns, the distance was about 200 miles, or over 300 kilometres, according to British accounts. In a straight line it is about 230 kilometres from Mons to Melun, but the soldiers did not march in a straight line: they wound about, turned back, went round blocked roads and bivouacked wherever darkness overtook them. Marches often lasted a dozen hours or more a day, in the August heat, in full kit, on aching feet. Soldiers fell asleep on the march, and at halts dropped to the ground where they stood. Many reservists, recently called up from civilian life, had not had time to break in their new boots.

The retreat was not a rout. British rearguards turned to fight again and again to hold off the pursuit. The heaviest action was fought on 26 August by General Smith-Dorrien’s II Corps at the Battle of Le Cateau. Smaller engagements took place at Landrecies, Étreux, Néry and in the woods near Villers-Cotterêts, among other places. The force’s total losses from Mons to the Marne are estimated at about 15,000 killed, wounded and missing, and many guns, wagons and pieces of equipment had to be abandoned on the battlefield and in roadside ditches.

A crisis of confidence

At the end of August Field Marshal French was depressed by his losses and distrusted his French allies, whose retreat he regarded as the cause of his army’s troubles. He wanted to pull the force far back, behind the Seine, to rebuild it. At the beginning of September the war minister, Lord Kitchener, came to Paris and ordered him to remain in the line and conform to the plans of the French commander-in-chief, General Joseph Joffre.

It was on 5 September that Joffre came to French’s headquarters near Melun to persuade him to take part in the counter-attack being prepared. According to witnesses, at the end of the conversation he struck the table with his hand and said that the honour of England was at stake. Moved, French promised that his soldiers would do everything in their power. That same day, north-east of Paris, the French 6th Army was already clashing with the Germans on the river Ourcq.

“Old Contemptibles”

The force’s veterans of 1914 later called themselves the “Old Contemptibles”. The name came from an order supposedly issued on 19 August 1914 by Kaiser Wilhelm II. In it he was said to have called French’s army a “contemptible little army” and to have called for its destruction. The text circulated in Britain in the autumn of 1914, but no evidence was ever found that the Kaiser really issued such an order. Most probably it was a product of British propaganda. The soldiers, however, took the insult as a source of pride.

Significance

The retreat from Mons exhausted the British but did not break them. The force came out of it weakened, without some of its heavy equipment, but still able to fight. After only one day’s respite, on 6 September it took part in the counter-offensive on the Marne, which halted the German march on Paris.