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Remembered Today:

The Battle Of Mons


peter blackwell

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Can anybody please give me any information on the retreat from Mons 

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There is so much available on the Web - not least on Wikipedia (with citations) and here on the Great War Forum (at least forty threads and counting)  - that some of us may prefer you to narrow the thrust of your question rather than for us to regurgitate information that is so readily available within seconds. Our own GWF content mentions a number of books on the subject.

 

And doubtless Googling will lead to a great number of other websites.

 

Moonraker

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cheers pete

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thank you so much pete

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thanks mate i'm very greatful

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Terence Zuber's book is worth reading for many reasons, not least for his over-evaluation of the German army and his often arguable conclusions.

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thanks mate i'm very greatful

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I don't recall Zuber's book covering much of the retreat from Mons, mostly the battle itself. The contemporaneous German account has been translated. Holger and I published it as 'The Battle of Mons: The Official German Account' (see here). The history covers the immediate aftermath of the battle but not the further withdrawal to any extent.

 

Robert

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Robert,

Agreed, but highly relevant to the retreat I feel -  without the battle no retreat.

Regards

David 

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For sure, David. And the lead-up to Mons had relevance to the way the Germans conducted the pursuit. The official account describes some of the thinking that informed the battle and subsequent actions.

 

Robert

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Thanks for your kind responses pete

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Hello Peter

 

You might like to try Riding the Retreat by the late Professor Richard Holmes. For a wider historical context, Fatal Avenue by the same author might be useful.

 

Ron

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OK thanks a lot pere

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There is Jack Horsfall's Mons in the Battleground Europe series (I proofed it and did a bit of an edit but it really was very much his work) - a complicated battlefield to visit today because of urban sprawl and redevelopment, the loss of most of the canal and new roads. But a lot of it is still there if you persevere and it may well be easier to do with the emergence of satnav since the book was published about twenty years or more ago (oh dear, over twenty years???).

 

There are other Battlegrounds for the various stages of the retreat and I strongly recommend Jerry Murland's Retreat and Rearguard 1914.

 

John Terraine's book on Mons (I think it has been printed with a variety of titles) is still a very good read even if the first edition came out fifty plus years ago.

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" I have seen Sordet's cavalry march through Inchy on the eve of Le Cateau, I have seen the Iron Corps of France march through the square of Ypres, I have seen the 1st Canadian Division marching to St Julien before the gas attack, I have seen Indian troops going into action for the first time on European soil, I have seen Australians on their way to attack Poziers, but I have no remembrance to equal that of the old regiments of the "B.E.F" marching to the battle of Mons." from "The Breaking of the Storm" by C.A.L Brownlow (Methuen & Co 1918).

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