Battle of Mons and the first VC of the War

 This weekend saw the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Mons. I was fortunate enough during the summer of 2012 to go on an in depth recce of not only Mons but also the route of the subsequent retreat. When people remember the Great War it tends to be 1916 onwards (with perhaps the exception of the battle of Loos). I found the recce to be fascinating as we covered such a large distance and such a varied set of engagements, from infantry battles to cavalry clashes to large engagements such as Le Cateau.

Plaque at Nimy Bridge (Authors Collection)

The plaque above is from the location just under Nimy Bridge where Lieutenant Dease and Private Godley won their Victoria Crosses. While these were the first of the war they would not be the last to be earned on the retreat that began after the Battle of Mons (only one day later Captain Grenfell would earn his during the action at Audregnies and Captain Bradbury would earn his during the engagement at Nery). 

Mons saw the much smaller BEF come into contact with the German 1st Army, that the BEF were able to put up a fight and extricate themselves shows the professionalism of the regulars and reservists. 

The grave of Lieutenant Dease at St Symphorien (Authors Collection)

Lieutenant Dease is buried at St Symphorien which is a remarkable Commonwealth War graves Cemetery. Behind German lines for the vast majority of the war, it is laid out in a very different manor. It also features the first and last BEF and Canadian casualties of the War. 

Private Godley survived the action at Mons, was taken prisoner and survived the war being present with his Victoria Cross by the King in 1919.

The ISIS Problem

Yesterday and today has seen a vast amount of media coverage devoted to the beheading of American Journalist James Foley and the alleged British element of ISIS. While this was indeed shocking is hardly a surprise. After all ISIS or IS has become renowned for their brutal methods and acts.
It is the message regarding nationality which is getting the air time and the talk of extremists returning home to carry out further outrages. While this is a natural concern and one that is very real, it remains to be seen if there will be a new direction from ISIS or if they will inspire more home grown elements. Certainly action by local elements against ISIS forces will keep ISIS focused on the Levant and while this might provide a training ground and actual experience of combat to extremists, it also means that they have to be seen to achieve success if they wish to maintain credibility.

The Royal United Services Institute have published a number of interesting articles related to ISIS and the the issues at hand over the last few days. Here is an article that I was reading earlier very concise and to the point but it is a point well made.

The use of US airpower will increase as a result of this murder and the ante has been upped. It is doubtful if you will see combat troops once again deployed on Iraqi soil but with US airpower bolstering Kurdish forces and hopefully Iraqi military forces ISIS might be pushed back and either destroyed as a credible threat/alternative (which ever way you view it, this would seem unlikely given the nature of the organisation) or diminished to the point where they present a threat but one that is managable by regional elements.

A Quick Review

I managed to finish "Death to The French" by C.S Forester on my lunch break today. I thought that a quick review would make a nice and short post.

It was a very quick book to read and a good size for a lunch time read. You can certainly see parallels with Bernard Cornwall's "Sharpe" novels and this is more than just sharing the same coloured jacket. I would however suggest that the main protagonist Matthew Dodd is more amusing than Richard Sharpe. They both share a strong sense of duty and honour and they both perhaps have more than their fair share of close calls.

The pace of the book is good and always keeps moving along. This is even the case where the view point switiches between Dodd's view and the main French protagonist Sergeant Godinot. The author occasionally makes a modern reference to something a character does and at first I found this a little distracting. However I warmed to these little asides as I went on.

Overall I would give this an 8 out of 10 and certainly recommend this to anyone who likes the Sharpe series of novels or a good adventure.

A long break

So it turns out that moving house and job in the same month followed by a holiday is really not good or productive to maintaining a blog.

Have no fear I plan to get back to regular updates and to try and keep them relevant and interesting. Naturally there will be plenty of Great War posts along with some Operation Market Garden posts with the upcoming 70th Anniversary.