Battle of Mons

Battle of Mons
Part of the Battle of the Frontiers of the First World War
British soldiers from the Royal Fusiliers resting in the town square at Mons before entering the line prior to the Battle of Mons. The Royal Fusiliers faced some of the heaviest fighting in the battle and earned the first Victoria Cross of the war.
Date 23 August 1914 Location Mons, Belgium 50°27′N 03°57′E / 50.450°N 3.950°E / 50.450; 3.950 Result See Analysis section Territorial changes British withdraw to defensive line along Valenciennes–Maubeuge road before retreating 250 mi to outskirts of Paris
Belligerents
United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sir John French Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien Sir Douglas Haig	Alexander von Kluck
Strength
2 corps 1 cavalry division 1 cavalry brigade 300 guns	4 corps 3 cavalry divisions 600 guns
Casualties and losses
1,638	2,000–5,000
Mons class=notpageimage| Mons: Belgian town and capital of Hainaut

The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with Germany on the French borders. At Mons, the British Army attempted to hold the line of the Mons–Condé Canal against the advancing German 1st Army. Although the British fought well and inflicted disproportionate casualties on the numerically superior Germans, they were eventually forced to retreat due both to the greater strength of the Germans and the sudden retreat of the French Fifth Army, which exposed the British right flank. Though initially planned as a simple tactical withdrawal and executed in good order, the British retreat from Mons lasted for two weeks and took the BEF to the outskirts of Paris before it counter-attacked in concert with the French, at the Battle of the Marne.