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.

Excerpt from The Royal Regiment of Artillery at Le Cateau, Wednesday, 26th August, 1914 The V. French Army had suffered a reverse at Charleroi and with their right, (or E.) ank threatened no recovery was possible in the advanced position on the Sambre, therefore the Generalissimo wisely decided to fall back until he could meet the crushing tide of the German advance with the certainty not only oi staying it but 3f forcing it back.4 the royal artillery AT LE cateau. John French ordered a retirement of the b.e.f. Which would other wise have been exposed to an annihilating defeat in detail}. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

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Le Cateau, with Mons, was one of the two major engagements fought by the British Expeditionary Force in France in the opening weeks of the Great War. The battle, fought chiefly by the BEF s II Corps under the command of General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 26th August 1914, came about because of the confusion caused by the unexpected speed and weight of the German advance, which had routed General Lanrezac s French Vth army. The BEF, endeavouring to cover for the French, found itself out oon a limb around the small town of Le Cateau. On the night of 25th August, the local commanders, - aware that to continue the retreat at daylight in conjunction with the fleeing French, as ordered by GHQ, would open them to the dangers of an attack by General von Kluck s 1st Army in front of them while they were in the process of retiring - took the decision to stand and fight. GHQ, some 23 miles away at St Quentin, concurred. The discipline of the BEF"s musketry, including units of the Argyll and Suffolk regiments, held the advancing enemy at bay, although the German machine-gun fire inflicted heavy casualties. The action held up the German juggernaut for a vital day, but the retreat continued. This official combined tour guide and pack of battlefield maps, produced by the War Office in 1933 as another war with Germany loomed, gives a clear step by step unfolding of the battle with the aid of a series of topographical sketches and a main battle map showing the movements of the opposing armies. There are notes on the units involved, the mistakes made, and the lessons learned. An invaluable addition to the armoury of the growing number of Great War enthusiasts and visitors to the western front. Smith-Dorrien was made the scapegoat for the battle and lost his command.