OK! How many are you going to send?

Where are we? I know, I last left the German Army invading Belgium. The mighty Germans figured that they would waltz through the Belgian Army and attack France. Will...that didn't happen. The Belgians' turned out to be a little tougher than the enemy thought. In fact they were holding their own and requested help from the French Army, which was gathered along the boarder between the two countries. However, the French Commander-in-Chief Joffre had a defensive plan that didn't include sending his army into Belgium.

This was the first mistake among many. If France would have joined the fight in Belgium, Germany may not have made it into France, but Joffre was caught-up within his own mind, which wasn't flexible enough to see the possibilities. So the Belgium mouse that roared had to withdraw from the fight.

Over in England they powers at be decided to declare war on Germany, but they were having trouble trying to determine just how many men they wanted to commit. The military wanted to send six divisions, however, homeland defense insisted that it was necessary to keep a strong force at home to protect England from invasion if the war went south. During the debate, homeland defense out smarted the military by deploying two divisions. The French were expecting six divisions to cover their left flank as the enemy approached.

Back in England, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was now down to four divisions. Then it was reduced down to three when they decided to keep one division in reserve. The British elected Sir John French to lead the BEF and coordinate strategies with Joffre, which was like placing two pit bulls into a ring. Then to make matters worse,  General, Lanrezac, was leading the French elite fifth army. He was hard to control along with his ego.

Lets evaluate the competing teams in this super bowl of wars.  The Allied teams coach was a seventy something French General that knew he had the winning game plan. The British offensive coordinator didn't like his coach, and further more he was told by his commander-in-chief not to put his BEF in danger. The French offensive coach didn't like Sir French, and he didn't trust him.

The opposing team was a massive well trained, well organized machine. The German First Army was coached by General von Klick, while the second army was under the command of General Bulow. Like a steamroller they were marching through Belgium on their way to France.

Things didn't look good for the home team! The British first and second corps had landed in France and were being transported to the Belgian Frontier. Joffre had ordered, or requested Sir French to move the BEF to the city of Soignies, Belgium. There he would take up a positions to protect the French Fifth Army's left flank.

With today's technology and satellites the army can zoom in and count the whiskers on an enemy soldier, but  100 years ago the best they had were observation aircraft or cavalry scouts. with these limitations it isn't hard to imagine that the BEF didn't know that von Klick was also heading towards Soignies and that they would arrive on the same day, August 23, 1914.

Like in a cheap western, the BEF scouts were riding towards Soignies when they saw three riders on the horizon. As the two parties drew closer, they recognized that they were on different sides. The German Hulans (cavalry with long lances) turned and high-tailed it back towards Soignies. The British were in hot pursuit, and caught the Hulans in Sognies. After a brief skirmish, only one of the Hulans escaped.

The BEF scouts reported their run in with the German cavalry, as did the remaining German scout. Sir French wasn't sure of von Klick's strength, so he decided to take defensive positions east and west of the city of Mons. On the other hand, von Klick must have thought, "very interesting". He decided the best plan would be to try to outflank the British. However, von Klick had to clear it with General Bulow before moving his army. Bulow wasn't big on the idea because it would leave a gap between the two armies that the enemy could take advantage of. After having his idea poo-pooed, von Klick  launched a frontal attack on the British Second Corps, which had established a defensive line along the Mons Canal, west of the city.

General Smith-Dorrien was in command of the Second Corps, while General Haig was in command of the First Corps. With the help of the first corps artillery, the second corps repelled the German's first attack. However, neither Sir French or Smith-Dorrien knew that they were so out numbered. The BEF had around 70,000 men and 300 pieces of artillery against the Germans 160,000 men and 600 guns. Even though the BEF was the underdog, they inflected extremely heavy casualties on the enemy, forcing von Klick to postpone a second attack until his reserves arrived.

The lull in the action brought bad news to Sir French. He was unaware that General Lanrezac attacked the German Second Army at Charleroi, leaving the BEF's right flank exposed. What made matters worse, the French army did so poorly, Lanrezac was forced to retreat, abandoning the BEF. With this information, and realizing that his army was outnumbered, Sir French knew that he had to retire from the battlefield.

The problem was the first corps was east of the city, while the second corps was west. The first corps began their retirement to the south, towards the city of Landrecies, while second corps retreated south to the city of Le Cateau. Both the first and second corps were being pursued by the German First Army.