[moscowexile]

Pablo:

"Without the invasion of Belgium, I think it's pretty likely Britain would not have intervened in August 1914, just as it had not intervened in the Franco-Prussian War, when Bismarck specifically assured Prime Minister Disraeli that Germany would not attack Belgium. The German General Staff knew attacking Belgium would bring Britain into the war, but they just didn't care since they felt its army's contribution would be minimal at best. Oops."

I agree: a major miscalculation.

The much modified German General Staff's Schlieffen plan, a sweeping "right hook" through Belgium of the German 1st and 2nd armies in their march on Paris whilst the majority of French divisions, chasing after revengeful glory in their lust to regain those territories, Alsace and Lorraine, lost to the German Empire in 1871, hurtled headlong into the wrong direction necessary to counter this sweep, took little or no account of those French divisions that would oppose them on the Franco-Belgium border and treated with disdain any contribution that any paltry British expeditionary force could contribute to resisting the invasion of France through Belgium . Hence Kaiser Bill's alleged comment at the the time about Britain's "contemptible little army".

There is no German record of the Kaiser describing the British Expeditionary Force 1914 as "contemptible", though he did say that it was "a contemptibly small" army. Whatever, the name stuck and veterans of the 1914 BEF to France and Belgium called themselves with pride: The Old Contemptibles.

They were so "comtemptible" that although greatly outnumbered, in August 1914 they dug themselves in along the Albert canal at Mons, Belgium, where they waited for the leading divisions of Kluck's 1st army:

"Kluck determined to take on the BEF and they first engaged the British in battle on August 23rd, 1914. French [BEF commanding general] had deployed his men across a 40 kilometre front. The BEF was heavily outnumbered. The BEF had 70,000 men and 300 artillery guns whereas the Germans had 160,000 men and 600 artillery guns.

Despite such overwhelming numbers, the Germans did not do well at the start of the battle. The BEF may have been referred to as a bunch of “contemptibles” by Kaiser William II, but they were professional soldiers. The Germans believed that they were facing many British machine guns at Mons. In fact, they were infantry men firing their Lee Enfield rifles, but at such a combined speed that they gave the Germans that impression. German intelligence later estimated that the BEF had 28 machine guns per battalion at Mons - whereas each battalion only had two. After his experiences of the BEF at the Battle of Mons, Kluck, after the war had finished, described the BEF as an 'incomparable army'."

The fact was that the British had learnt the hard way during the Boer War what rapid, accurate rifle fire from entrenched positions could do to advancing columns. Nevertheless, Mons was not a victory and the British had to retreat because of the overwhelming numbers of German infantry.


My great granddad was one of those BEF riflemen.