Battleground Early Battles 1914 - Retreat of I Corps 1914

A history of the British Army's First Corps' retreat from the Battle of Mons and guidebook to visiting the battlefield.

On twenty-three August 1914 it was only the two divisions of General Smith-Dorrien's II Corps that were directly engaged with the German First Army along the line of the Mons-Conde Canal. As the British Expeditionary Force withdrew from Mons and bivouacked around Bavay on twenty-five August, Sir John French and his GHQ advisors – unsure of the condition of the routes through the Forêt de Mormal - ordered the British Expeditionary Force to continue their retirement the next day and to avoid the thirty-five square miles of forest roads.

Consequently II Corps used the roads to the west of the Forêt de Mormal and Sir Douglas Haig's I Corps those to the east – with the intention that the four divisions should meet again at Le Cateau. It was an intention that was ambushed by circumstance as I Corps encountered units of the German 7th Division at Landrecies on 25/twenty-six August. Unsure of the weight of the German attack at Landrecies, Douglas Haig hurriedly left for Grand Fayt and ordered his two divisions to immediately begin their retirement along a route that would take them west of Le Cateau.

It was this decision that kept the by now five divisions of the BEF apart until one September and is the subject of this book. I Corps was now coming under attack from the German Second Army and the resulting rearguard actions that Haig's men were involved in are covered in this volume:

Landrecies four Guards BrigadeGrand Fayt two Connaught RangersMaroilles one Royal BerkshiresEtreux two Royal Munster FusiliersCerizy five Cavalry BrigadeVillers-Cotterêts four Guards Brigade

The account concludes on the Marne.