As regards the reconstruction undertaken by Haldane great progress had been made. The Army Council had taken the place of a commander-in-chief; the Imperial General Staff had been set up; the Militia, which had been converted into the Special Reserve, was ready to train and despatch recruits as required by the regular battalions; and the Territorials were organized on the same principle as the First Line, and, although they were under strength and only partially trained, it was thought that many old Territorials would rejoin in case of war and that complete units would be able to take the field after a few months’ training. In addition, the universities and public schools had responded to the invitation to turn their units into Officers’ Training Corps and a reserve of men capable of leadership in a time of crisis had thus been created. Above all, the Expeditionary Force, consisting of six divisions and a cavalry division, was ready to move at a moment’s notice. This finely tempered weapon, this wonderful fusion of skill and discipline with British courage, this “contemptible little army” was ready to thrust or parry, wherever it might be sent and against whatever odds.
II. Events Following the Outbreak of War
Before trying to follow the history of any particular unit it is, of course, necessary to bear in mind the military proceedings as a whole. Most people have a general idea of what took place in the different theatres of war, but events are apt to be forgotten, and it may be as well before describing any particular operations to remind the reader how it came about that such operations became necessary.
On the 4th August, 1914, war was declared with Germany, and in compliance with prearranged and carefully drawn up plans that Power, having already declared war on France on the 3rd, proceeded at once to violate the neutrality of Belgium whose roads supplied the easiest way to the heart of France, and the idea was to strike that country prostrate before Russia was ready to move. It was well understood that the Russians must be slower than any of the other immediate combatants to mobilize their forces.
Thus, on the 5th August, the Germans, who thoroughly recognized the advantage of getting in the first blow, were opposite Liége and occupied that city five days afterwards, although the last fort did not fall until the 17th. On the 14th August the French, too, were in Belgium, and between the 12th and 17th the British Expeditionary Force had landed on the coast and the army was moved into position extending from Condé through Mons and Binche.
During the few days prior to the British landing the Belgians had been driven steadily backward by overwhelming forces, as also had the French; and as the British Expeditionary Force only consisted of four divisions (the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th) and a cavalry division its numbers were far too small to make any very perceptible alteration in the situation. The result was a steady general retreat of all the Allies commencing on the 24th August and lasting to the 5th September, by which time the armies were behind the River Marne and in the immediate neighbourhood of Paris, and the British base had necessarily been shifted from the Channel ports to the mouth of the Loire.
A cold statement that the Great War opened with a rapid retreat conveys the truth perhaps, but not all of it. Never in its long history of adventure and heroism had the British Army covered itself with such glory. There are retreats and retreats in war. When an army runs away that disaster is described under this term, and there seems to be no other correct military expression for what happened in Flanders and France in August, 1914, though, as a matter of fact, the little army sent from these shores was fighting one long continuous battle against overwhelming odds; its artillery completely outnumbered; its infantry facing death and wounds in the most soldier-like spirit possible to any troops, quite unable to understand why the movement was backward and not forward, but resolved to a man to get some of their own back when their time came.
On the 5th September the retreat had ceased, and by this date the German Colonies of Togoland and Samoa had been wrested from them and their fleet had learnt what the British sailor was capable of, notably in the Bight of Heligoland on the 28th August.
On the 6th September the tide of war had turned on land: a general offensive by French and British troops had commenced, the Battle of the Marne begun and Paris saved.
Strictly speaking, there was no Battle of the Marne, the fighting between the 6th and 10th of September being desultory and chiefly in the nature of independent and to a great extent disconnected engagements, but the struggle or series of struggles, however described, proved, indeed, a turning point—the British crossed the river on the 9th and the Germans were in full retreat.