Le Cateau (26–27 August 1914) was the second major action fought by the BEF in the Great War. His men exhausted after fighting at Mons and by the subsequent speedy retreat, Lieutenant-General Horace Smith-Dorrien (commanding II Corps) decided that he had to make a stand in the vicinity of Le Cateau.There his men took on elements of four German corps in an action that succeeded in giving the BEF a respite, but at considerable cost. Amongst other elements of controversy in the conduct of the battle was the handling of the Royal Artillery.The battle also undermined the already fraught relationship between Smith-Dorrien and the BEF's commander, John French. The battlefield today remains largely as it was, open countryside, and it is an ideal location to view one of the most significant British battlefields of the early days of the war.In this action no less than five Victoria Crosses were won, three of them in one howitzer battery and two by men of the 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.

This book, first published in 1919, represents a study undertaken by former Royal Artillery Major Archibald Frank Becke on the action fought by General Sir H. Smith-Dorrien and the troops under his command on August 26th, 1914 at Le Cateau—a critical day that proved not only a triumph for the British arms, but had a most important bearing on the whole retreat. The book served to show Officers of the Regiment the use that will be made of their War Diaries, and the nature of the information that is required for historical work, and also to encourage all Officers who were present at the battle to submit any further information that was in their possession. Lastly, Becke intended the book to be of scholarly use.

"In a career spanning over six decades, the New York art dealer Pierre Matisse (1900-1989) contributed substantially to the advancement of modern art. At his eponymous gallery on East Fifty-seventh Street, he showed several now legendary artists for the first time outside Europe. The collection--paintings, sculpture, and drawings by Balthus, Bonnard, Chagall, Derain, Dubuffet, Giacometti, Magritte, and the dealer's own father, Henri Matisse, among others--was donated to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004 by the foundation established by his widow. These extraordinary artworks are presented with informative entries addressing the circumstances of each work's creation and the dealer's relationship to the artist. In the introduction, the story of Pierre Matisse's early struggles in New York is told for the first time and illustrated with previously unpublished archival photographs."--Provided by publisher.