Tommy's Ark: Soldiers and Their Animals in the Great War. Richard Van Emden Read Free Page B

against Germany. Germany was the rising European power with interests in Empire-building that threatened Britain’s long-term pre-eminence in Europe and her colonies.
    War between Britain and Germany had long been expected and it was perhaps the fulfilment of this ‘expectation’, rather than Belgian neutrality, that had excited Britain’s declaration of war in those first days of August. France had already declared war on Germany as a result of a military agreement she had with Russia. Russia, in turn, had supported Serbia when the ailing Austro-Hungarian Empire, backed by her ally, Germany, had threatened Serbia. It was all very complicated and stemmed back to the assassination in June 1914 of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by a young Serb nationalist – not that the British soldiers marching to Mons cared much about that. Germany required a short, sharp corrective to its international misbehaviour and these boys were going to hand it out in spades and be home for Christmas.
    The British Army was tiny by international standards as, traditionally, Britain had had the navy to protect her shores and overseas interests. Many British battalions were stationed overseas in countries such as India, so that the number of men available to go to the aid of France was initially just 80,000 men, collectively known as the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). On the morning of 23 August, forward elements of this small force had taken up positions alongside a canal that separated them, and the town of Mons, from the Germans. The fighting that took place there that day taught both sides a couple of swift lessons. The Germans received a rude awakening to the remarkable professionalism of the small British army. This army had been tuned to a level of efficiency most other countries, with their large conscript armies, could not hope to match. Equally, the British learnt that, no matter how good a professional soldier might be, vastly overwhelming numbers of enemy soldiers will, in the end, overwhelm. Appeals in Britain by the new Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, for a civilian army were already under way when news of the Battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat reached the national press; the news stimulated the greatest surge in voluntary enlistment the country has ever known.
    The British retreat from Mons was a remarkable feat of arms. The British soldiers, a third of whom were reservists softened by civilian life, tramped as much as 175 miles in two weeks, carrying arms, clothing and equipment weighing 66lb. The weather was hot, rations were scant, supplies of drinking water were thin. At any time they could expect to halt and fight, then move on again. Sleep or rest were always at a premium. In the end the BEF escaped destruction by a narrow margin, helped in part by the failures of the enemy to press home their clear advantage.
    The retreat took the British Army close to Paris and beyond to the Marne where the rot was stopped and the German advance turned, with the aid of a new French army formed in the capital and driven to the front in taxis. The German lines of communication and supply were overextended, her men perhaps as exhausted as those they were chasing. In the end, the Germans were forced to fall back and dig in on the first high ground that could be defended, the Chemin des Dames. Stalemate. And so began a race for the coast as each side sought to gain an advantage by outflanking the other. The sand dunes on the edge of the coastal town of Nieuport in Belgium were reached in October by both sides, and the first tentative ‘front-line’ trench system began to emerge that would eventually stretch from this insignificant town all the way to the French Alps.
    Throughout October and November, the Germans threw battalion after battalion against British positions, first around the northern French town of La Bassée, then against forces positioned in a tight salient around the Belgian town of Ypres. Despite