{
 "slug": "mons",
 "title": "Battle of Mons",
 "status": "draft",
 "era": "1900–1918",
 "date_text": "23 August 1914",
 "start": "1914-08-23",
 "end": "1914-08-23",
 "war": "World War I",
 "cdb90_war": "WORLD WAR I (WESTERN FRONT 1914)",
 "place": {
  "name": "Mons–Condé Canal, from Obourg through Nimy and Mons west to Condé, Hainaut, Belgium",
  "lat": 50.4789,
  "lon": 3.9501,
  "wikidata": "Q1417205"
 },
 "lede": "On 23 August 1914 two British divisions held the Mons–Condé Canal for a day against Kluck's First Army, then fell back. The BEF's first battle began the Retreat from Mons and its legends.",
 "result": "German tactical victory: the BEF held the canal for a day, then withdrew at the start of the Retreat from Mons",
 "result_cdb90": "attacker win",
 "belligerents": [
  {
   "role": "attacker",
   "name": "German Empire (First Army: III, IV and IX Corps engaged)",
   "commanders": [
    "General Alexander von Kluck"
   ],
   "strength": null,
   "casualties": {
    "value": 5000,
    "low": 2000,
    "high": 5000,
    "source": "s1"
   }
  },
  {
   "role": "defender",
   "name": "British Empire (British Expeditionary Force: I and II Corps, Cavalry Division, 5th Cavalry Brigade, 19th Infantry Brigade)",
   "commanders": [
    "Field Marshal Sir John French",
    "General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien",
    "Lieutenant-General Sir Douglas Haig",
    "Major-General Edmund Allenby"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 80000,
    "low": 80000,
    "high": 80000,
    "source": "s1"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 1638,
    "low": 1600,
    "high": 1638,
    "source": "s1"
   }
  }
 ],
 "sections": {
  "background": "Germany's plan for 1914 was to defeat France quickly with a great wheel of its right-wing armies through Belgium. Germany entered Luxembourg on 2 August and crossed into Belgium near Liège the next day. On the outer edge of the wheel marched Alexander von Kluck's First Army, the largest of the German armies, which by 22 August was swinging past Brussels towards Ath and Mons.\n\nUnder pre-war Anglo-French plans the British Expeditionary Force had landed in France and concentrated around Maubeuge, on the far left of the Allied line. On its right was Lanrezac's French Fifth Army, already fighting on the Sambre around Charleroi. On 22 August the BEF moved up from Maubeuge into Belgium and took up positions around Mons.\n\nThat morning a squadron of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards met German cavalry near Casteau, north-east of Mons. Corporal E. Thomas fired what is remembered as the first British shot of the war, and Captain Hornby's troop charged the German horsemen, killing several.\n\nThe ground the BEF took was chosen by circumstance, not design. Edmonds, the British official historian, calls the canal position imposed 'fortuitously'. The canal ran straight west from Mons to Condé, but east of the town it looped north round Nimy and Obourg, making a salient overlooked by high ground north of the canal. Kluck's army, wheeling from east to south, would strike that loop first.",
  "forces": "The BEF had about 80,000 men and some 300 guns in two corps: Haig's I Corps (1st and 2nd Divisions), Smith-Dorrien's II Corps (3rd and 5th Divisions), Allenby's Cavalry Division, the independent 5th Cavalry Brigade, and the 19th Infantry Brigade, which came up on the left during the battle. It was a small force of long-service regulars and recalled reservists. Its pre-war training stressed the combination of fire and movement and, above all, musketry. The annual 'mad minute' test asked a rifleman to fire fifteen aimed rounds in a minute at a target 300 yards away with the bolt-action Lee–Enfield; the best shots did far better.\n\nKluck's First Army had four active corps (II, III, IV and IX), three reserve corps and cavalry, with about 600 guns, but not all of it reached the canal. On 23 August three corps fought: IX Corps against the salient, III Corps at Jemappes and St Ghislain, and IV Corps further west towards Condé, while II Corps was still marching south some fifteen miles away. Edmonds counts eight German divisions against four British, and six against two in the infantry fight, along a front of 13 miles.\n\nThe ground suited neither side. West of Mons it was a mining district of slag heaps, ditches, wire fences and straggling buildings, where gunners on both sides struggled to find positions and observation.",
  "course": "**First contact (dawn to 10 a.m.).** Sunday 23 August broke in mist and rain, which cleared about 10 a.m.; church bells rang and villagers in their best clothes went to church. At 6 a.m. German cavalry exchanged shots with the 4th Middlesex at Obourg,. Before 9 a.m. German guns on the high ground north of the canal were shelling the Middlesex and the 4th Royal Fusiliers, and by 9 a.m. IX Corps infantry was pressing on Obourg.\n\n**The salient (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.).** The first Germans came at the Nimy bridges in heavy masses and were caught by the Fusiliers' rapid fire in front and the machine guns of the Middlesex and 2nd Royal Irish in flank. They switched to small parties working forward under cover of the woods. At Nimy the Fusiliers' machine-gun section was knocked out repeatedly; Lieutenant Maurice Dease kept a gun firing until he was mortally wounded, and Private Sidney Godley covered the withdrawal, then disabled the last gun and was taken prisoner. Both received the Victoria Cross, Dease's the first of the war. English Wikipedia credits a German private, Oskar Niemeyer, with swimming the canal at Nimy under fire to work a swing bridge for his comrades. After noon the Germans crossed west of Obourg in extended order. The Royal Irish moved up to help the Middlesex but by 1.30 p.m. could only hold their own. At 2 p.m. the Royal Fusiliers withdrew from Nimy, by order, having lost a little over a hundred men.\n\n**The straight canal west of Mons (11 a.m. to dusk).** III Corps entered the fight about 11 a.m. at Jemappes, advancing in heavy lines against the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers, and came within 200 yards of the bridge at Lock 2 before being driven back. At Mariette a column marching in fours was stopped by a corporal's party in a house. About 11.10 a.m. a battalion of the Brandenburg Grenadiers came out of Tertre largely in massed formation and was met by a shattering fire and suffered heavily. The Royal West Kent, the King's Own Scottish Borderers and the KOYLI machine guns stopped the attack on St Ghislain 300 yards short of the canal. Edmonds writes here that the Germans 'imagined that they were everywhere opposed by machine guns only', a claim taken up below. Further west, the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry drove back German cavalry at Pommeroeul at 4.45 p.m., and the 19th Brigade, which had relieved the cavalry on the left in the early afternoon, held on at Lock 5 after blowing its bridge.\n\n**Withdrawal from the salient (3 p.m. to midnight).** About 3 p.m. the Scots Fusiliers fell back through Jemappes to Frameries. Two of their three bridges were left standing for want of an exploder. Captain Theodore Wright, Royal Engineers, tried twice to fire the charges under Mariette bridge, the second time with a head wound, and Lance-Corporal C. A. Jarvis spent an hour and a half firing the charges at Jemappes; both won the VC. At 3.15 p.m. the Royal Irish withdrew to Bois la Haut, and about 5 p.m. the Middlesex rearguard was overrun, its machine guns firing to the last. Germans pushed through Mons almost unopposed. Between 7 and 8 p.m. a general attack on the Gordons and Royal Scots along the Harmignies road was stopped by rapid fire; the German 75th Regiment lost 5 officers and 376 men.\n\nAt dusk German bugles sounded 'Cease Fire' along the line. II Corps stood on a second position from Frameries through Wasmes to the Haine, while the 8th Brigade slipped away from Bois la Haut after dark and was safe at Nouvelles before 3 a.m. Late that night Sir John French learned that Lanrezac would retire from 3 a.m. and that Tournai had fallen, and ordered a general retreat for 24 August.",
  "aftermath": "The BEF lost just over 1,600 men, almost all in II Corps, and nearly half of them in the 4th Middlesex and 2nd Royal Irish. German losses are far less certain: British accounts once claimed more than 5,000; Zuber, working from German regimental histories, argues for no more than 2,000. The German advance was delayed a day: Kluck's objectives for the 23rd were reached only on the 24th.\n\nThe British, who believed they had held, were baffled by the order to retreat. Rearguard fighting at Élouges and Audregnies on 24 August began a two-week Retreat from Mons, through Le Cateau, to the Marne.\n\nMons is remembered for the first VCs of the war, the 'Old Contemptibles' (no trace of the Kaiser's supposed order has been found in German archives) and the Angels of Mons, which are a fiction. Arthur Machen's story 'The Bowmen', about phantom archers of Agincourt, appeared in the *Evening News* on 29 September 1914 without being labelled as fiction. Machen insisted it was imaginary, but in 1915 the occult and spiritualist press and sermons turned his bowmen into angels seen by real soldiers.\n\nThe live argument is about the rifles. Zuber's *The Mons Myth* (2010) contends that the odds were roughly even where the fighting happened, that German infantry attacked in skirmish lines, not masses, and that the story of Germans mistaking rifle fire for machine guns, which goes back to Edmonds, is not supported by German sources. His critics say he takes German accounts on trust.",
  "wargaming": "Mons is a defensive battle on a line, a day long, with a clock. The II Corps front, about 13 miles from Obourg to Condé, suits a game with battalions or companies as units and hourly turns from 9 a.m. to dusk. The salient alone, from Obourg round to Nimy and Jemappes, is a tight two-player game at company or platoon level over half a day.\n\nThe British player has a thin line on a canal with bridges, some of which he can blow; demolition should be uncertain, as missing exploders showed. Slag heaps, wire and buildings west of Mons should cut fields of fire and make artillery positions scarce for both sides. The salient is the weak point, overlooked from the heights north of the canal: hold it too long and the Middlesex and Royal Irish are lost; give it up too early and the Germans are into Mons.\n\nThe German player has the numbers but must cross water by the bridges or swim, and decide how long to attack in dense formations before shaking out. The big design question is British rifle fire. Rules that make every British battalion count as machine guns are taking a side in a live argument, and Zuber's case suggests testing one where German artillery and fire-and-movement matter more.\n\nWhat-ifs: Kluck's II Corps reaching Condé on the 23rd to turn the open British left; Haig's idle I Corps being used; Lanrezac holding on, so that the BEF stays to fight on the 24th."
 },
 "images": [
  {
   "file": "File:British and German dispositions. Mons, 23 August 1914.jpg",
   "kind": "map",
   "caption": "British and German dispositions at Mons on 23 August 1914.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/British_and_German_dispositions._Mons%2C_23_August_1914.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
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   "licence_url": "",
   "artist": "Wyrall, E.",
   "credit": "Author: Wyrall, Everard, 1878-1933 Volume: 1 Subject: Great Britain. Army. Division, 2nd; World War, 1914-1918 Publisher: London : Thomas Nelson and Sons 1921 Language: English Call number: ADU-6863 Digitizing sponsor: University of Toronto Book contributor: Robarts - University of Toronto Collection: robarts; toronto Full catalog record: MARCXML",
   "width": 1102
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Battles of Mons and Charleroi, 21-23 August 1914.jpg",
   "kind": "map",
   "caption": "The wider picture: the BEF at Mons on the left of the French Fifth Army at Charleroi, 21–23 August 1914.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Battles_of_Mons_and_Charleroi%2C_21-23_August_1914.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Battles_of_Mons_and_Charleroi%2C_21-23_August_1914.jpg/960px-Battles_of_Mons_and_Charleroi%2C_21-23_August_1914.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
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   "licence": "Public domain",
   "licence_url": "",
   "artist": "Author: Maurice, Frederick",
   "credit": "Subject: World War, 1914-1918; Tactics Publisher: New York : G. H. Doran co. 1919 Language: English Call number: D531 .M32 Digitizing sponsor: MSN Book contributor: Cornell University Library Contributor usage rights: See terms Collection: cornell; americana Full catalog record: MARCXML",
   "width": 1169
  },
  {
   "file": "File:4th Bn Royal Fusiliers 22 August 1914.jpg",
   "kind": "photo",
   "caption": "A Company, 4th Royal Fusiliers, resting in the square at Mons on 22 August 1914, shortly before moving to the Nimy bridges.",
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   "credit": "This photograph Q 70071 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums .",
   "width": 2480
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Maurice James Dease.jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "Lieutenant Maurice Dease, 4th Royal Fusiliers, the first VC of the war, mortally wounded at Nimy.",
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   "artist": "Unknown author Unknown author",
   "credit": "This photograph Q 70451 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums .",
   "width": 1628
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Sidney Godley VC IWM Q 80449.jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "Private Sidney Godley, who covered the Fusiliers' withdrawal from Nimy and won the VC.",
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  },
  {
   "file": "File:Alexander von Kluck (ca. 1914).jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "General Alexander von Kluck, commander of the German First Army.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Alexander_von_Kluck_%28ca._1914%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
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   "licence_url": "",
   "artist": "Mayer, Dresden Published as a postcard in the Kingdom of Prussia by Gustav Liersch, Berlin, card#95.",
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   "width": 467
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Nov 29 1915 - Illustrated London News The Ghostly Bowmen of Mons fight the Germans (cropped).jpg",
   "kind": "illustration",
   "caption": "'The Ghostly Bowmen of Mons', drawn by A. Forestier for the Illustrated London News Christmas number, November 1915.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Nov_29_1915_-_Illustrated_London_News_The_Ghostly_Bowmen_of_Mons_fight_the_Germans_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
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   "artist": "After Amédée Forestier",
   "credit": "November 29 1915 - Illustrated London News",
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  },
  {
   "file": "File:St. Symphorien Military Cemetery .JPG",
   "kind": "photo",
   "caption": "Dease's headstone at St Symphorien Military Cemetery, outside Mons.",
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 "sources": [
  {
   "id": "s1",
   "title": "Battle of Mons (Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mons",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s2",
   "title": "J. E. Edmonds, History of the Great War: Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1914, vol. I, 3rd edition (Macmillan, 1933), chapter IV and its note 'The German Account of Mons' (Internet Archive scan)",
   "url": "https://archive.org/details/3edmilitaryopera01edmouoft",
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s3",
   "title": "The Battle of Mons (The Long, Long Trail)",
   "url": "https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battles/battles-of-the-western-front-in-france-and-flanders/the-battle-of-mons/",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s4",
   "title": "Angels of Mons (Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Mons",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s5",
   "title": "Terence Zuber, The Mons Myth: A Reassessment of the Battle, author's book page",
   "url": "https://terencezuber.com/mons.php",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s6",
   "title": "Terence Zuber, The Mons Myth: A Reassessment of the Battle (The History Press, 2010); not read by me: arguments taken via s1, s5, s7 and s13",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s7",
   "title": "'The Mons Myth Myth', review of Zuber, The Mons Myth (Wargaming for Grown-ups blog, August 2016)",
   "url": "https://wargaming4grownups.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-mons-myth-myth.html",
   "kind": "article"
  },
  {
   "id": "s8",
   "title": "Mad minute (Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_minute",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s9",
   "title": "John Keegan, The First World War (2002 edition cited by s1); not read by me: figure taken via s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s10",
   "title": "Holger H. Herwig, The Marne, 1914 (Random House, 2009); not read by me: figures taken via s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s11",
   "title": "Sanitätsbericht über das Deutsche Heer im Weltkriege 1914/1918, vol. III (Mittler, 1934); not read by me: figures taken via s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "primary"
  },
  {
   "id": "s12",
   "title": "David Lomas, Mons 1914: The BEF's Tactical Triumph (Osprey, 1997); not read by me: figures taken via s1",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s13",
   "title": "The Mons Myth: A Reassessment of the Battle, summary (World War One Historical Association, History Unfolded)",
   "url": "https://ww1ha.org/the-mons-myth-a-reassessment-of-the-battle/",
   "kind": "web"
  }
 ],
 "cdb90": [
  266
 ],
 "order": 121,
 "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/mons/",
 "oob": [],
 "oob_lwtv": [],
 "scenarios": [],
 "orbat": null,
 "orbat_lwtv": null,
 "reading": {
  "prose": [
   {
    "work_id": "ia:frommonstoloos00stewuoft",
    "title": "From Mons to Loos",
    "in": null,
    "author": "Herbert Arthur Stewart",
    "life": "1878–",
    "year": 1916,
    "kind": "memoir",
    "library": "Internet Archive",
    "url": "https://archive.org/details/frommonstoloos00stewuoft",
    "language": "en",
    "contemporary": true,
    "subject": true,
    "references": 2,
    "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/from-mons-to-loos-c39bfc/"
   },
   {
    "work_id": "ia:infiringlinestor00adcouoft",
    "title": "In the firing line, stories of the war by land and sea",
    "in": null,
    "author": "Arthur St. John Adcock",
    "life": "1864–1930",
    "year": 1914,
    "kind": "memoir",
    "library": "Internet Archive",
    "url": "https://archive.org/details/infiringlinestor00adcouoft",
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    "contemporary": true,
    "subject": false,
    "references": 37,
    "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/in-the-firing-line-stories-of-the-war-by-land-and-sea-309471/"
   },
   {
    "work_id": "ia:britishsoldierhi00hardrich",
    "title": "The British soldier",
    "in": null,
    "author": "Edward Joseph Hardy",
    "life": "1849–1920",
    "year": 1915,
    "kind": "memoir",
    "library": "Internet Archive",
    "url": "https://archive.org/details/britishsoldierhi00hardrich",
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    "contemporary": true,
    "subject": false,
    "references": 15,
    "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/the-british-soldier-5da5a4/"
   },
   {
    "work_id": "ia:britishsoldierhi00harduoft",
    "title": "The British soldier, his courage and humour",
    "in": null,
    "author": "E. J. Hardy",
    "life": "1849–1920",
    "year": 1915,
    "kind": "memoir",
    "library": "Internet Archive",
    "url": "https://archive.org/details/britishsoldierhi00harduoft",
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   },
   {
    "work_id": "ia:atfrontwiththree00fortrich",
    "title": "At the front with three armies, my adventures in the great war",
    "in": null,
    "author": "Granville Roland Fortescue",
    "life": "1875–",
    "year": 1915,
    "kind": "memoir",
    "library": "Internet Archive",
    "url": "https://archive.org/details/atfrontwiththree00fortrich",
    "language": "en",
    "contemporary": true,
    "subject": false,
    "references": 7,
    "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/at-the-front-with-three-armies-my-adventures-in-the-great-wa-7a017f/"
   },
   {
    "work_id": "ia:fortydaysin191400mauruoft",
    "title": "Forty days in 1914",
    "in": null,
    "author": "Sir Frederick Maurice",
    "life": "1871–1951",
    "year": 1919,
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  {
   "file": "File:Captain Theodore Wright VC, Royal Engineers.png",
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   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Captain_Theodore_Wright_VC,_Royal_Engineers.png",
   "caption": "Gallaher Ltd cigarette card, 'Victoria Cross Heroes' series 2, no 33. 1915",
   "year": 1915,
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "artist": "Gallaher Ltd",
   "collection": null
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  {
   "file": "File:German Pontoon Companies try to cross Mons Canal 1914.jpg",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/German_Pontoon_Companies_try_to_cross_Mons_Canal_1914.jpg/500px-German_Pontoon_Companies_try_to_cross_Mons_Canal_1914.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
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   "caption": "\"One of the striking incidents in the defense of the British position at Mons was the holding of the south bank of the Mons to Conde canal. \"The fighting ceased during the night, ... than ever,\"' -writes G. H Perris in the Daily Chronicle. 'The Germans had evidently received re-enforcements Scouting",
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   "file": "File:Nov 29 1915 - Illustrated London News The Ghostly Bowmen of Mons fight the Germans.jpg",
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   "caption": "Nov 29 1915 - Illustrated London News, Christmas number, The Ghostly Bowmen of Mons, fight the Germans from a drawing by A. Forestier",
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   "file": "File:Three Germans Soldiers and a Vision YORAG 2006 817.jpg",
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   "caption": "Pencil and watercolour illustration of three German soldiers in the trenches, witnessing a vision of three angels or spirits during World War One",
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  "slug": "mons",
  "query": "Mons",
  "from": "1914-08-23",
  "to": "1914-09-06",
  "total": 6185,
  "rights": "Library of Congress, Chronicling America: newspapers published before 1931, in the public domain. Text machine-read from the scanned page.",
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   {
    "date": "1914-08-24",
    "paper": "The day book (chicago, ill.)",
    "place": "Chicago, Illinois",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045487/1914-08-24/ed-1/?sp=3",
    "snippet": "... German advance in check at [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] and that they had been in action since Sunday. But no comment on what is transpiring in the entire ter ritory where the greatest armies of modern times are locked in a titanic struggle is forthcoming. The British public was again warn ed today that it must not expect too much from the allies. London, Aug. 24. The location of the British over-seas expedition was revealed by the war office today, which admitted that these troops have been in the battle since Sunday. The official announcement said: \"The British expeditionary forces have been engaged with the enemy in the neighborhood of [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]], Bel gium, since early on Sunday. The ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1914-08-24",
    "paper": "Daily capital journal (Salem, Oregon)",
    "place": "Salem, Oregon",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn99063957/1914-08-24/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... from Audenarde to Brussels to [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] and Namur. The heaviest fighting was half way between Brussels and [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]]. If the Germans should be beaten experts said they would be in danger of having the column cut in two. The German army in Lux emburg had also assumed the offensive. In Alsace the war office said the French were holding their own, the Germans having been re pulsed at Mulhausen. The situation in Lorraine was pronounced \"satisfac tory\" though it was admitted that the French had aban doned Dononoa and Saales passes to prevent being cut off. wus made upon it am, that it has done business by false and untair represen tations. An injunction restraining ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1914-08-25",
    "paper": "The Bemidji daily pioneer (Bemidji, Minn.)",
    "place": "Bemidji, Minnesota",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86063381/1914-08-25/ed-1/?sp=4",
    "snippet": "... runs southwest from Brussels to [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] and the bot tom line extends east from [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] to Namur. The heaviest fighting is in the angle halfway between Brussels southwest to [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] and east of Char leroi Germans from the north and from the east are being hurled against the allied line seeking to break through by sheer weight of numbers. The German army from Luxemburg has been pushed through the heavily wooded and almost impassible terri tory to reinforce the army of thb north, which began its attack on Na mur last Friday. The admission that the English army has been thrown into the de fense line is accepted as indicating that there is real danger ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1914-08-26",
    "paper": "Grand Rapids herald-review (Grand Rapids, Itasca County, Minn)",
    "place": "Grand Rapids, Minnesota",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82002441/1914-08-26/ed-1/?sp=3",
    "snippet": "... runs southwest from Brussels to [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] and the bot tom line extends east from [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] to Numur. The heaviest fighting is in the angle halfway between Brussels southwest to [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] and east of Char leroi. Germans from the north and from the east are being hurled against the allied line seeking to break through by sheer weight of numbers. The German army from Luxemburg has been pushed through the heavily wooded and almost impassable terri tory to reinforce the army of the north, which began its attack on Na mur last Friday. The admission that the English army has been thrown into the de fense line is accepted as indicating that there is real danger ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1914-08-27",
    "paper": "The citizen (Berea, Ky.)",
    "place": "Berea, Kentucky",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85052076/1914-08-27/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... enemy In the neighborhood of [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]], and held their ground. Namur Is a strongly fortified city and was confi dently expected to present a formida ble obstacle to the German advance. There Is a yet no explanation of Its sudden fall. No doubt the Germans have attacked the allies In this part of Belgium with all their available force. The battle now raging from [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]] to Gere will last several days, and It will be necessary to await a definite report before a sound conclu ttaa can be reached as to the full ef fect of this first great engagement. Vienna, Aug. 25. Emperor Franz Joseph Is much worse. Ills death Is but a question ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1914-08-27",
    "paper": "Dakota County herald (Dakota City, Neb.)",
    "place": "Dakota City, Nebraska",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/2010270500/1914-08-27/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... Aug. 26. A dispatch from [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]], Belgium, to tho Dally Telegram desclbes the operations of the Gor man forces. \"The German advnace,\" it says, \"was like a great river bursting ItB banks. As soon as the Belgians v re tired to the entrenched camp at Ant werp the- German horde swept over the country without check, west tow ards Ghent and south toward [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]]. \"The Germans are committed to a great turning movement. Thoy aro Htriving to hold tho French along tho Mouse between Namur and DInant, while the armies to the west of that river are marching southward along a front many miles wide. One army threatens Mpns, with tho object of penetrating tho ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1914-08-29",
    "paper": "The forum (Springfield, Ill.;Springfield, Ill. ; Peoria, Ill.)",
    "place": "Springfield, Illinois",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86086415/1914-08-29/ed-1/?sp=5",
    "snippet": "... 1914, and that a sum [[tag]]mons[[/tag]] issued out of said Court against said defendnnt, returnable on the first Monday of September next, 1914, as is by law required. Now, unless you, the said James Mc Gee shall be and appear before the San gamon County Circuit Court, on the first day of the next term thereof, to beholden at the Court House, in the City of Spring field, on the first Monday of September A. D. 1914, and plead, answer or demur to said complainants bill of complaint, the same and the matters and things therein charged and stated will be taken as confessed, and a degree entered against you according to the prayer of ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1914-09-05",
    "paper": "The Idaho Springs siftings-news (Idaho Springs, Colo.)",
    "place": "Idaho Springs, Colorado",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn90051006/1914-09-05/ed-1/?sp=2",
    "snippet": "... and Couillet.\" Praises English at [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]]. One of the railway station staff at Feignies, on the frontier between France and Belgium, who saw some of the battle until he was ordered away, told of the scenes near [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]]. \"We at Feignies.\" he said, \"began to hear the artillery fire Saturday eve ning. All night we Jistened to the guns, and Sunday morning the w ound ed began to pass toward Maubeuge. thirteen miles south of [[tag]]Mons[[/tag]]. Shells commenced to fall near the railroad station near noon and we began to see the English artillery taking positions and serving their pieces with great precision. /l As our train was about to leave the station seven uhlans ..."
   }
  ]
 }
}