Book description
At Le Cateau on 26 August 1914, the commanders of the Second Corps
of the British Expeditionary Force elected to fight the German First
Army and, although outnumbered three to one, delivered such a smashing
blow to the German invaders that the whole of the BEF was able to
continue the Retreat to Compiegne without being seriously threatened.
Although the British suffered 1,200 of their men and officers killed,
and were forced to leave their dead and many of their wounded on the
battlefield, as well as thirty-six of their field guns, they inflicted
losses on von Kluck's army of nearly 9,000. Yet the architect of this
feat of arms, Second Corps commander Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, was
sacked soon afterward, while First Corps commander Sir Douglas Haig,
who had performed far less impressively, took command of the whole
BEF. Antony Bird describes the battle, its aftermath and he examines
the men, the weapons and the tactics that made this feat of arms possible.
Antony Bird has an MPhil from University College London. With his
brother Nick Bird, he regularly conducts tours of the battlefields of
the Western Front and Gallipoli. In 2006 Antony and Nick Bird were the
co-editors of Eyewitness to War, their personal collection of the most
vivid and eloquent writing on war.
