Wow! eBook
Le Cateau – 1914: 26 August 1914
Author(s): Nigel Cave (Author), Jack Sheldon (Author)
- Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd
- Publication Date: 20 Aug. 2008
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 160 pages
- ISBN-10: 0850528429
- ISBN-13: 9780850528428
Book Description
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.
Editorial Reviews
From the Author
This book: Le Cateau, one of the Battleground Europe guides was co-written By Nigel Cave and me Jack Sheldon. You already list my various other titles and I should be grateful if you would list Le Cateau under my name as well as Nigel Cave’s
About the Author
Nigel Cave is Series Editor of Battleground Europe WWI series and is a distinguished author in his own right. He also conducts Battlefield Tours around many of the WWI Battlefields.
