[1914-2014 ] Angel of Mons

 

The Angels of Mons is a popular legend about a group of angels who supposedly protected members of the British Army in the Battle of Mons at the outset of World War I.

On 22–23 August 1914, the first major engagement of the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War occurred at the Battle of Mons. Advancing German forces were thrown back by heavily outnumbered British troops, who suffered heavy casualties and, being outflanked, were forced into rapid retreat the next day. The retreat and the battle were rapidly perceived by the British public as being a key moment in the war. Despite the censorship going on in Britain at the time, this battle was the first indication the British public had that defeating Germany would not be as easy as some had thought. Considering the numbers of German troops involved in the battle, the British ability to hold them off for as long as they did seemed remarkable, and army recruitment shot up in the weeks that followed

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The Battle of Mons has attained an almost mythic status. In British historical writing, it has a reputation as an unlikely victory against overwhelming odds, similar to the English victory at the Battle of Agincourt.^[47] Mons gained a myth, a miraculous tale that the Angels of Mons – angelic warriors sometimes described as phantom longbowmen from Agincourt – had saved the British army by halting the German troops

The British Official Historian J. E. Edmonds recorded "just over" 1,600 British casualties, most in the two battalions of the 8th Brigade which had defended the salient and wrote that German losses "must have been very heavy", which explained German inertia after dark, when the 8th Brigade was vulnerable, other gaps existed in the British line and the retirement had begun.^[51] John Keegan estimates German losses to have been around 5,000 men.^[1] In 1997 D. Lomas recorded German losses as 3,000–5,000 men.
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Le canal Mons-Condé a été construit à partir de 1800 par l'ingénieur Augustin Honnorez et mis en service en 1818 pour faciliter le transport du charbon des mines du Borinage vers l’Escaut et vers la France (la territoire belge faisait partie de l'Empire à l'époque napoléonienne)....


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