GENERAL SIR H. SMITH-DORRIEN.
From the Painting by Arnold Mountford.
The
Retreat from Mons
BY ONE WHO SHARED IN IT
BYA. 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
To
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 honouredme by your acceptance of this dedication I hadin mind to make a single volume which shouldtrace the course of the War during the period ofyour command of the Second Army, theunforgettable days from Mons to Ypres.
Since then I have found that there is onephase of the operations which has gripped theimagination of the public more than any otherevent of the past two years: the "Retreat fromMons." It is, indeed, almost incredible how littlethe people know of this, and how splendidly theyrespond to the telling of the story.
But it seems to me that the story can neverbe told as it should be. Only those who actuallyexperienced the horror and the splendour of thoseten days could hope to tell it, and for them thefacts are blurred and distorted by the nightmarethrough which they passed.
Still, I am rashly making the attempt, and indoing so I try to write of the big, human side ofthings. For it is the trivial, homely incidentsin the daily life of the British soldier, and thestories of noble devotion and chivalry of gallantgentlemen like Francis Grenfell and Bradbury,which fire the imagination. I know that you willunderstand and appreciate my motives.
For the rest, should the public be kind to thistrivial volume I shall hope later to continue thenarrative as I had originally intended.
Will you, then, accept my book, not in tributeof a Command which must remain indelibly scoredin letters of gold on the page of our country'shistory so long as Britain endures, but as a memoryof the two or three years of peace when I wasprivileged to work with you and of the year ofwar when I had the honour of serving, one of that"band of brothers," in your Command?
I am,
Very faithfully yours,
A. CORBETT-SMITH.
THE MIDDLE TEMPLE,
LONDON.
AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I tender my very grateful thanks to GENERAL SIRHORACE SMITH-DORRIEN for his kindness in readingthe proof-sheets of the book and for several mostvaluable items of information.
My thanks are also due to CAPTAIN C. T. ATKINSON,of the Historical Section, Committee ofImperial Defence, for his courteous help in thetask of compiling the Roll of Honour. Also tothe SECRETARY, K.A. Institution, for the loan ofmaterial for the same purpose.
I have availed myself to some extent of theresearches of MR. HILAIRE BELLOC in my estimatesin Chapter V.; while my details of the GermanArmy are taken from German sources, "DeutscheLand- und Seemacht," by Rabenau, and othervolumes.
To my comrades-in-arms (few, al