Retreat of I Corps 1914 by Jerry Murland - 9781783463732

Retreat of I Corps 1914Author(s): Jerry Murland\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Pen & Sword Battleground\nISBN-13: 9781783463732, 978-1783463732\nSynopsis\nOn 23 August 1914 it was only the two divisions of General Smith-Dorrien's II Corps that were directly engaged with the German First Army along the line of the Mons-Conde Canal. As the British Expeditionary Force withdrew from Mons and bivouacked around Bavay on 25 August, Sir John French and his GHQ advisors - unsure of the condition of the routes through the Foret de Mormal - ordered the British Expeditionary Force to continue their retirement the next day and to avoid the 35 square miles of forest roads. Consequently II Corps used the roads to the west of the Foret de Mormal and Sir Douglas Haig's I Corps those to the east - with the intention that the four divisions should meet again at Le Cateau. It was an intention that was ambushed by circumstance as I Corps encountered.