RETREAT FROM MONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20965, 31 August 1931, Page 11

RETREAT FROM MONS.

HISTOKIY'S FIERCEST FIGHT, MAKING THE NEWS KNOWN. RISK THE TIMES TOOK. * 7 TWO HISTORIC DESPATCHES. The vital facts of the historic and immortal retreat from Mons were first made known in England in two despatches published by the Times in its Sunday afternoon edition of August 30, 1914. One who read in London as they came hot from the press these appalling accounts of the devastation of Britain's Army can remember the bewildered, numb sense of horror and incredulity with which they were received. That the flower of Britain's infantry oh its victorious way to set Belgium free had been so crushed and overwhelmed by the weight of the enemy was simply not to be believed. But why then should such a responsible journal risk its reputation, if not its very existence, to publish such j heart-shaking news? /

As a matter of fact the risk the Times ran was a very grave one indeed, and the question of its suspension for the publication of these despatches was considered by Parliament next day. Such effective action was then taken by the authorities to prevent a repetition of the offence of publishing the truth about the war that not till quite recently have many important facts been permitted to come to light.

First Connected Account. "This despatch is the first connected account of the struggle received in England," commented the Times. " While bringing out the heroic conduct of the British troops against overwhelming odds it indicates the irresistible vehemence of the German advance and the extreme gravity of the task before us. The losses suffered by the British force are described as terrible, but the spirit.of the men is unshaken."

The special correspondent of the Times, writing from Amiens under 1 date August 29, went straight to the heart of the matter. " I read this afternoon in Amiens this morning's Paris papers," he wrote. "To me, knowing some portion of the truth, it seemed incredible that a great people should be so kept in ignorance of the situation which it has to face. Th 3 papers read like children's prattla, gleanings from the war talk of their parents a week ago. Not a word of the fall of Namur, and considerable talk a,bout new successes on the Meuse.

" This is not well. I would plead with the English censor to let my message pass. There is no reason, either in strategy or tactics, why every word I write should not be published. It is important that the nation should know and realise certain things. Bitter truths, but we can face them. We have to cut our losses, to take stock of the situation, to set our teeth. "I Saw No Fear."

" First let it be said that our honour is bright. Among all the straggling units that I have seen, flotsam and jetsam of the fiercest fight in history, I saw fear in no man's face. It was a retreating and a broken army, but it was not an army of hunted men. Nor in all the plain tales of officers, non-commissioned officers and men did a single story of the white feather reach me. No one could answer for every man, ■ but every British regiment and eveiy battery of which anyone had knowledge had done its duty. And never has duty been more terrible. "Since Monday morning last the German advance has been one of almost incredible rapidity. As I have already written you, the British force fought a terrible fight—which .may be called the action of Mons, though it covered a big front—on Monday. The German attack was withstood to the utmost limit, and a whole division was flung into the. fight at the end of a long march and had not even time to dig trenches. . "Further to the right the French, after days of long and gallant fighting, broke. Namur fell, and General Joffre was forced to order a retreat along the whole line. The Germans, fulfilling one of the .best of all precepts in war, never gave the retreating army one single moment's rest.The pursuit was immediate, relentless, unresting. Aeroplanes, Zeppelins, armoured motors and cavalry were loosed like an arrow from the *bow. Broken Bits of Regiments. "The British force fell back . . . southwards continually. Regiments were grievously injured, and the broken army fought its way desperately with many stands, forced backwards and ever backwards by the sheer unconquerable mass of numbers of an enemy prepared to throw away three or/four men for the life of every British soldier. Where it is- at present might not be well to say even if I knew, but I do not know, though I have seen to-day in different neighbourhoods some 'units of it.

"Our losses are very great. I have seen the broken bits of many regiments. . «-l s Apparently every division was in action.Some have lost nearly all their officers. The regiments were broken to bits, and good discipline and fine spirit kept the fragments together, though, they no longer knew what had become of the other parts with which they had once formed a splendid whole.

"To sum up, the first great German effort has succeeded. We have to face the facfc that the British Expeditionary Force, which bora the great weight of the blow, has suffered terrible losses and requires immediate and immense reinforcement. The British Expeditionary Force has won, indeed, imperishable glory, but it needs men, men, and yet more men. The investment of Paris cannot be banished from the field of possibility." The German Tidal Wave, Next to this message the Times published a telegram to the Daily NMail, also from Amiens, on August 29. Many gaps in it indicate that the censor had dealt with it heavily, but its. import is unmistakable. "This is a pitiful story I have to write," began the correspondent. "Would to God it did not fall to me to write it. But the time for secrecy is past. Only by realising what has happened can we nerve ourselves for the effort we must make to retrieve it.

"What you know in England may be something like the truth. * But I write with the Germans advancing' incessantly, while all the rest of France believes that they are still held near the frontier.,' . .

"The tidal wave of German troops which has swept over North-east France will spread further unless a miracle happens. Our small British force coitld not stand before a volume so powerful, so iuimensa. It has been scattered all over the country, so I learn from "officers and men met hera and there. The headquarters staff moved hastily a Jong way back from. *• .• and it cannot stay long where it is. As » captain of dragoons said, 'The Germami are everywhere. - "