The Retreat from Mons / By one who shared in it

GENERAL SIR H. SMITH-DORRIEN. From the Painting by Arnold Mountford.
BY ONE WHO SHARED IN IT
BY A. CORBETT-SMITH ( Major, R.F.A. )
With Three Plates and Map
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd With one appearing hair, that will not follow These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1916
GENERAL SIR H. L. SMITH-DORRIEN, G.C.M.G., G.C.B., D.S.O., ETC.
DEAR GENERAL SMITH-DORRIEN,
When, some few months ago, you honoured me by your acceptance of this dedication I had in mind to make a single volume which should trace the course of the War during the period of your command of the Second Army, the unforgettable days from Mons to Ypres.
Since then I have found that there is one phase of the operations which has gripped the imagination of the public more than any other event of the past two years: the Retreat from Mons. It is, indeed, almost incredible how little the people know of this, and how splendidly they respond to the telling of the story.
But it seems to me that the story can never be told as it should be. Only those who actually experienced the horror and the splendour of those ten days could hope to tell it, and for them the facts are blurred and distorted by the nightmare through which they passed.