MR NYAMUDEZA

HISTORY STUDY PACK: FORM 3

SYLLABUS CODE: 0470

WEEK 1: (LESSON 2)

TOPIC: WORLD WAR 1 -BATTLE OF MONS 1914

 OBJECTIVES

• Describe Belgian resistance.

• Explain how the Belgian resistance caused the Schlieffen plan to fail.
• Describe the battle of Mons.

WEBSITES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrv-Oik0tX0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhLGEc8uFsc

Key words and their definitions

Battle -a sustained fight between large organized armed forces.

Mons- a town in Belgium

BEF-British Expeditionary Force

Casualties- a people killed or injured in a war or accident

The Rape of Belgium

The Germans Arrive by the American artist George Bellows depicting the 1914 German atrocities in Belgium.

The German Army was outraged at how Belgium had frustrated the Schlieffen Plan to capture Paris. From top to bottom there
was a firm belief that the Belgians had unleashed illegal saboteurs (called "francs-tireurs") and that civilians had tortured and
maltreated German soldiers. The response was a series of multiple large-scale attacks on civilians and the destruction of historic
buildings and cultural centers. The German army executed between 5,500 and 6,500. French and Belgian civilians between
August and November 1914, usually in near-random large-scale shootings of civilians ordered by junior German officers.
Individuals suspected of partisan activities were summarily shot. Historians researching German Army records have discovered
101 "major" incidents—where ten or more civilians were killed—with a total of 4,421 executed. Historians have also discovered
383 "minor" incidents that led to the deaths of another 1,100 Belgians. Almost all were claimed by Germany to be responses to
guerrilla attacks. In addition some high-profile Belgian figures, including politician Adolphe Max and historian Henri Pirenne,
were imprisoned in Germany as hostages.

The German position was that widespread sabotage and guerrilla activities by Belgian civilians were wholly illegal and deserved
immediate harsh collective punishment. Recent research that systematically studied German Army sources has demonstrated
that they in fact encountered no irregular forces in Belgium during the first two and a half months of the invasion. The Germans
were responding instead to a phantom fear they had unconsciously created themselves.

BATTLE OF MONS

One of the German soldiers shot at the battle of Mons

A map showing the route followed by German and Allied soldiers

The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War. The Allies clashed with
Germany on the French borders.

Date: August 23, 1914

Location: Mons, Belgium

Battle of Mons, (August 23, 1914) engagement between the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the German army at Mons,
Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF), commanded by Sir John French, struggle with the German 1st Army over the 60-
foot-wide Mons Canal in Belgium. The German victory forced the BEF into a retreat. The Battle of Mons was the first major
action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. At Mons, the British Army attempted to hold the line of
the Mons–Condé Canal against the advancing German 1st Army. Although the British fought well and inflicted disproportionate
casualties on the numerically superior Germans, they were eventually forced to retreat due both to the greater strength of the
Germans and the sudden retreat of the French Fifth Army, which exposed the British right flank. Though initially planned as a
simple tactical withdrawal and executed in good order, the British retreat from Mons lasted for two weeks and took the BEF to
the outskirts of Paris before it counter-attacked in concert with the French, at the Battle of the Marne

The Battle of Mons was the last of four “Battles of the Frontiers” that took place over as many days on the Western Front
between Allied and German forces in the opening month of World War I. The first three—at Lorraine, Ardennes and Charleroi—
involved French forces under the central command of General Joseph Joffre. French’s BEF had been originally slated to assist
the French 5th Army, commanded by General Charles Lanrezac, in their attempt to break through the center of the advancing
German lines. A delayed start and poor relations between French and Lanrezac, however, meant that the 5th Army and the BEF
would fight separate battles against the advancing Germans, at Charleroi and Mons.

The British Expeditionary Force arrived in France on 14th August, 1914. On the way to meet the French Army at Charleroi, the
70,000 strong BEF met the advancing German Army at Mons. The British Commander Sir John French, deployed the British
infantry corps, under the leadership of General Horace Smith-Dorrien, east and west of Mons on a 40km front. General Edmund
Allenby and the cavalry division was kept in reserve.

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 and during the operation, five men, including Private Sidney Godley,
Captain Theodore Wright and Corporal Charles Jarvis, won the Victoria Cross.

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, Sir John French 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
Expeditionary Force to retreat to the River Marne.

At nine o’clock on the morning of August 23, German guns opened fire on the British positions at Mons, focusing on the
northernmost point of a salient formed by a loop in the canal. Though Von Kluck and the 1st Army enjoyed two-to-one
numerical superiority, they did not make effective use of it, and the British regiments at the salient admirably withstood six
hours of shelling and infantry assault. Lanrezac’s decision, late in the day, to order a general retreat of the French 5th Army at
Charleroi left the BEF in danger of envelopment by the Germans, and a decision was made to withdraw the troops as soon as
possible. By the time the battle ended after nine hours, some 35,000 British soldiers had been involved, with a total of 1,600
casualties.

Thus the first day of British combat in World War I ended in retreat and bitter disappointment, although the steadfastness of
the BEF had delayed Von Kluck’s advance by one day. Within weeks of the battle, however, British public imagination elevated
Mons to mythic status and those who had died to heroes, until the British defeat came to seem more like a victory in
retrospect.
Test your understanding

Who was involved in the battle of Mons?

Describe the battle of Mons

Example

What were the results of the Battle of Mons (4)?

• the Allies suffered heavy casualties

• the Allies were defeated
• German forces made a decisive victory on the battle of Mons
• the BEF retreated

Exercise 1

Why did the German forces win the Battle at Mons? (6)