Given the job of guarding the left flank of the Allies' position in August 1914, the British Expeditionary Force arrived at the Belgian town of Mons on the 22nd and ran into scouting parties of the German First Army just north of the town. The next day they fought an important delaying action, but by the afternoon overwhelming numbers of the enemy were arriving and BEF commander John French order the withdrawal that became known as the Retreat from Mons. Over four years later, the British Army was driving the German Army back and, ironically, was in Mons again, the very site where they fired their first shots of the war.
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It is ironic that WWI started for the British on the Chausee de Bruxelles just north of Mons in 1918 when British Cavalry clashed with German Uhlans. On Armistice Day in 1918, the British finally had advanced back up to Mons and their 1914 start point when the Canadian Corps liberaed the city. SHAPE Hq now sits in nearby Casteu since its move from Paris in 1967-68. Practically on the grounds of AHAPE is the infamous "White Cateau" where British and French commanders met in 1940 to try to develop a combined counterattck plan to cut Guderian's "Panzer Corridor" as it arced across Picardy headed for the English Channel after having crashed through the Ardennes at Sedan. After the meeting, the principal French commander was seriously hurt in a car accident and was not able to launch his part of the attack. The British launched their own counterattack that failed. Then, General DeGaulle launched his which also failed. Thus, the meeting in the White Cateau was the Allies' last chance to stabalize the front in 1940. Poor little Belgium was then invaded and occupied in 1940, liberated in September 1944, re-invaded by the Germans in December 1944, and not finally liberated until early 1945.
ReplyDeleteT. Morgan