Picto Diary - 25 September 2015 - The BEF Retreat, August 1914
Continuing an eight day tour of WWI battlefields in Belgium and France... learning about the war from the British point of view.
Above: Gravestone of Maurice Dease, first UK soldier WWI VC winner for actions at Nemy Bridge in Mons, Belgium. St. Symphorien Military cemetery, Mons, Belgium. 25 September 2015.
The wreath is made of simulated poppies, UK symbol for WWI.
The remembrance poppy has been used since 1921 to commemorate soldiers who have died in war. Inspired by the World War i poem, "In Flanders Fields," after the first public use, and campaign for their use, by Moina Michael, they were initially adopted by the American Legion to commemorate American soldiers killed in that war. The practiced was later embraced by Commonwealth countries.
Germans used the oak sprig as their WWI symbol.
Above: Battlefield near Elouge, Belgium.... south of Mons. 25 September 2015.
Our group listens to battlefield guide Bruce Cherry tell the story of the First Battalion, 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment, 25 officers and 925 men, who stood firm on this battlefield in the face of overwhelming German opposition on 24 August 2015.
Only 7 British officers and 200 men survived the battle. The Cheshires are credited with saving the British 5th Division from disaster on the first day of the BEF retreat from Mons.
It would be another two weeks before the two retreating British corps would reach the Marne, just outside of Paris. Thereafter, coordinating with the new French 6th Army, the British would fight successfully the battle of the Marne and chase retreating German troops 50 miles back into Belgium, before both sides, tired, decided to dig in, creating the Western Front, which more or less would be the line that would separate the opponents for the four year duration of the war.
Above: Comic Mom, wearing TIMDT knit cap, at Le Quesnoy, France. Outdoor market. 25 September 2015.
Whaa???? No laundry at the Lille Carlton Hotel??!! Sacre Bleu. I have to buy 1% some underwear!
Above: Tour goers listen to Bruce Cherry recount the story of the liberation of Le Quesnoy, France on 04 November 1918. Here the group fast forwards four years for an aside while continuing its study of the BEF retreat from Mons in late August of 1914.
Bruce points out how elements of the New Zealand Division scaled the fortified walls of Le Quesnoy and captured it from a defending German garrison. The white, stone monument affixed to the fortress wall in the background marks the spot of the NZ troop breach of the wall.
To some extent it is a bit frustrating to try to put all the pieces of the WWI puzzle together... so deviations (from the 1914 British retreat from Mons, to the 1918 British offensive on the left) like this one seem as tiny puzzle pieces on an otherwise blank slate. There are so many sights... so many engagements... that occur just on the Western Front... a four hundred mile line reaching from the Flanders coast on the English Channel to Switzerland. Add battle history from other fronts... Eastern, Italian, Turkish, Caucasus, Serbia... and it is a wonder that any one person can "visualize" what actually went on.
Above: Sambre-Oise Canal at Ors, France. 25 September 2015.
Another deviation from the August 1914 BEF retreat. Ors. Sambre Oise Canal engagement. 04 November 1918.
Later, we are headed to Le Cateau, where an important battle, like Elouge, cited above, was fought as part of the BEF August 1914 retreat. However, the canal and the village of Ors, France is only four miles away from Le Cateau and worth a stop as it is the burial place of one of England's best known WWI war time poets, Wilfred Owen.
On 04 November 1918, the British 32nd Division crossed the Sambre-Oise canal on the bridge from which I capture the above image. Ors, France. In the face of strong opposition, during the assault, four VCs were won. Among the dead was the poet, Lieutenant Wilfred Owens. Owens was killed about a kilometer beyond where the image was taken, on the left side tow path.
War time poets such as Owens are controversial. Their mostly anti war tone has helped to shape much of the anti war attitude to WWI and subsequent wars that is spun through popular culture to this day.
Consider that Owens was only 25 when he died. So much literary skill at such a young age... agree with his tone or not.
Owen sample poetry:
Dulce et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned out backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.-
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Wilfred Owens
Three statements by Owen:
"All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true poet must be truthful."
"The people of England needn’t hope. They must agitate." Letter 19 January, 1917, shortly after arriving at the front line in France.
"I am more and more a Christian. . . Suffer dishonour and disgrace, but never resort to arms. Be bullied, be outraged, be killed: but do not kill." Letter to his mother, May 1917.
Above: Bumblebee on flower near Sambre-Oise Canal Bridge. Ors, France. 25 September 2015.
Above: Ors, France. 25 September 2015.
Image captured from cemetery where Wilfred Owens and two of four VC winners in Sambre Oise engagement are buried.
Above: Bishop observes fellow tour goers at mid Le Cateau battlefield monument honoring British Second Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, which fought valiantly against attacking Germans at Le Cateau, France on 25 August 1914.
Back to the BEF retreat!
Of the 40K allied men fighting at Le Cateau, 7,812 were injured, killed, or taken prisoner. Le Cateau was the largest battle fought by British troops during the two week long British retreat from Mons to the Marne, just outside of Paris.
Le Cateau is an iconic battle in UK military lore. Britain's professional army fought hard against a larger, well trained force. ... in this, the first significant British fighting on the continent in 100 years.
Smith-Dorrien, Ii Corps Commander, had been told by his superior, Field Marshal Sir John French, not to engage the enemy at Le Cateau, but to continue the retreat. I understand this as several times in my own banking/management career I took actions that I "knew to be right" counter to the wishes of a superior. You better win when you do this, but, it often causes resentment. French was livid after Le Cateau... but, he could do nothing. Smith-Dorrien was made a hero by the British press for his actions at Le Cateau.
Le Cateau bought the allies time to facilitate the retreat. The allies would regroup at the Marne in September and push the Germans back towards Belgium 40 miles.
The Battle of the Marne marked the point where Germany realized it had lost Paris, and hence the war. Notwithstanding, opposing armies engaged in trench, attrition warfare for 4 more years, after which the allies were victorious and armistice was signed in November 1918.
Addendum:
SUPER !!
Mr. Z3,
Ojai, CA
At Heathrow heading back to Chicago! Had a fun trip to France with Tony Tessier. Look forward to your pictomails of your current travels!
Teeny Tiny,
Chicago, IL