Let me put these figures in tabular form so that we can get a comparison at a glance.
Machine- All ranks. Field-guns. guns.
Actual Approximate Numbers on August 22nd
British . . . 80,000 300 100
French . . . 240,000 960 288
German . . . 812,500 3,016 936
Excess German
strength over
Franco-British 492,500 1,756 548
It is always rather difficult to grasp the meaning of big numbers like these, so let me put it another way.
Place one German against each man in the Franco-British Force, and one German field-gun against each field-gun on our side. Now take all the German soldiers and guns still remaining over and imagine that you are watching them march past you down Whitehall, the men in fours all doing their "goose" parade step and the guns going by at a trot.
The army, marching night and day, without a moment's halt, would take just about three days to pass you.
Such then was the enemy superiority; about four or five times as great as the most pessimistic prophets had anticipated. We shall see shortly what this superiority developed into against the British Force.
The Position of the Forces
British.—The general position of the opposing forces before battle was joined, at least for the British, will be realised from plan A (page 71), and there is little need to add anything by way of explanation.
It will be noted that the British line extended along a front of about 25 miles, with Mons near the centre of the line. On Saturday, August 22nd, Sir John French disposed the Force into its positions. The Second Corps, under Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, held the canal line from Condé, on the west, to Mons, on the east. The First Corps, under Sir Douglas Haig, extended from Mons, on the west, to Binche, on the east.
As there were no British reserves, the Cavalry Division, under General Allenby, was detailed to act as such and to be ready to move forward where and as required.