I just finished reading Adrian Gilbert's "The Challenge of Battle" about the BEF in 1914. I have a number of books about the Great War but it is not my primary area of knowledge. This book is well written and sounds like the truth. Previous stories of the Old Contemptibles were always of stalwart fellows shooting down Huns by the hordes, the old Army gradually wiped out at 1st Ypres. The wiped out part remains. But Gilbert's story is more complex than that. The BEF is indeed brave, though there are cracks in that edifice from time to time, especially when units have suffered heavy losses and lost most of their officers.
I was surprised to find that the first regulars sent to France included 60% reservists. They were well trained but had not made long marches in years, a bit of a problem for a force that then made the Great Retreat, over 200 miles in two weeks.
The book covers problems from the command level on down through the junior officers and the odd enlisted men who wrote their stories. Of interest were the stories of one Lieutenant Bernard Law Montgomery who led charges, sword in hand, at Mons and Ypres. At the latter he was so badly wounded his platoon dug a grave for him.
There is info about the problems of coordinating artillery with the infantry and cavalry. Sometimes bravery was in evidence when tactical skill would have been more helpful.
Le Cateau is described here as a defeat rather than the heroic stand often portrayed. BEF CO French comes in for criticism, as do Smith-Dorrien and other officers. Haig comes across as the most competent and cool higher ranking officer, though he did lose his cool just before Le Cateau. He snapped out of it. It becomes obvious why he was chosen to succeed French.
There are tales of times when the German artillery was better coordinated, also times when the Germans were shot down in droves before the British riflemen, of times when BEF battalions were surrounded and virtually wiped out, too many of the latter.
The "Kindermord", the attack of the newly raised, untrained German Reserve Corps at Ypres were not only made in tight formations that made easy targets, they also had not digested the lessons of artillery-infantry coordination that most of the other German units had learned the hard way.
I found this book easy to read (if a tale of sorrow) and of great interest to anyone contemplating games involving the BEF and for that matter, the German Army of 1914.
adds a tower to his 15mm trainyard.
