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Mons:
On the way to meet the French Army at Charleroi, the 70,000 strong British force met the advancing German Army at Mons.
To stop the advancing Germans, orders were given to a group of Royal Fusiliers to destroy the bridges over the Mons-Conde Canal. The men came under heavy German fire.
On the morning of 23rd August, General Alexander von Kluck and his 150,000 soldiers attacked the British positions. Although the German First Army suffered heavy losses from British rifle fire, the British Commander was forced to instruct his outnumbered forces to retreat. French favoured a withdrawal to the coast but the British war minister, Lord Kitchener ordered the British Forces to retreat to the River Marne.
The Battle of Mons was generally considered to be the first of many cock ups by the senior army staff under the direction of Kitchener. Undeterred the idiots in charge of both the French and British Armies continued until millions of the cream of Britain and France were killed.
We, the French, never really recovered from the decimation of our youth between 1914-1918.
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