0:00:27 > 0:00:31In August 1914, the "war to end all wars"
0:00:31 > 0:00:35blazed through Belgium and northern France.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40Over the next few months, an old world of swords, lances and bugles
0:00:40 > 0:00:44would be shattered by the machine gun and the howitzer.
0:00:44 > 0:00:50Most of the British troops in the first battles in the Great War
0:00:50 > 0:00:55would not survive this new age of industrialised slaughter.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58In the first few days of the campaign,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01they marched across a landscape
0:01:01 > 0:01:05that previous generations of British soldiers knew.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Here at the battlefield of Malplaquet,
0:01:08 > 0:01:12in 1709, the Duke of Malborough won his bloodiest victory.
0:01:12 > 0:01:19The smoky carnage of the battles of the horse and musket era
0:01:19 > 0:01:24must have seemed a world away to the schoolboys of Edwardian England.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27But in 1914, the British Expeditionary Force
0:01:27 > 0:01:30marched past this very spot.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Two regiments even spent the night overlooking the battlefield
0:01:34 > 0:01:37where their ancestors had fallen.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42The British were moving up on the left of their French ally
0:01:42 > 0:01:47in an offensive intended to win the war at a stroke.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51In fact, they found themselves squarely in the path of German armies
0:01:51 > 0:01:54pouring down through Belgium.
0:01:55 > 0:02:01This monkey, his head rubbed smooth by countless hands for good luck,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04sits at the crossroads of military history.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06We're in the town of Mons,
0:02:06 > 0:02:12now in southern Belgium, but for centuries a border garrison town.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16That character is still called the Guard Room Monkey.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20In the Middle Ages, Mons was famous for textiles.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25But early this century, it was the capital of Belgium's Black Country.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30Mons was fought through rather than fought over.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33Its centre would still be recognisable
0:02:33 > 0:02:36to the men in the British Expeditionary Force.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41Their mobilisation had been a weird parody of a summer holiday:
0:02:41 > 0:02:43a train journey and a walk in the country.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50The men who came here in 1914 expected a war of movement
0:02:50 > 0:02:52which would be over by Christmas.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56It would be won by guts and determination.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59A British training pamphlet declares, "The object of infantry
0:02:59 > 0:03:04"in the attack is to get too close quarters as quickly as possible.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08"During the delivery of the assault the men will cheer.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11"Bugles will be sounded and pipes played."
0:03:12 > 0:03:17The soldiers who reached Mons on the 22nd August, 1914,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20were footsore and weary after marching up
0:03:20 > 0:03:24from their concentration area south of the French border
0:03:24 > 0:03:27and gladly rested in the Grand Place.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32But they were advancing against an enemy they believed was in trouble.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37They were greeted as heroes by the local population,
0:03:37 > 0:03:42which pressed food and wine on them, sometimes in unwise quantities.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47The soldiers here were from 4th Royal Fusiliers.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51They didn't know that only a few miles away,
0:03:51 > 0:03:56tens of thousands of Germans were swinging down on them like a mallet.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Nor did they know that within 24 hours,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03many of them would be wounded or dead.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07As the church bells rang out over Mons
0:04:07 > 0:04:10on Sunday, 23rd of August,
0:04:10 > 0:04:13they might have been sounding the death knell
0:04:13 > 0:04:17for a world that was coming to the end of the line.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22Two miles north of Mons is the tiny railway station of Obourg,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26sitting alongside the Mons-Conde canal.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33On the 23rd of August, the British held the canal
0:04:33 > 0:04:35and early that morning,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39German cavalry scouts appeared on the far bank
0:04:39 > 0:04:42with infantry and guns close behind them.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45The canal was an effective barrier
0:04:45 > 0:04:49behind which the British could hold off the Germans for a time.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52The fighting here was really vicious.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57Although the Germans couldn't get across the canal,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01just behind me, they were able to work across the open country
0:05:01 > 0:05:03and come up into the Middlesex flank.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08The soldiers fought on desperately though their commander was killed.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13They got through and an unknown hero climbed onto the station roof
0:05:13 > 0:05:15and kept the Germans back - he was eventually killed.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19I come here often, but it never fails to move me.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23When the station was demolished in 1981,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26the Belgians left a bit of wall
0:05:26 > 0:05:30commemorating that unknown Tom, Dick or Harry,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33who gave his life defending his mates.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46# Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag... #
0:05:46 > 0:05:51The British Expeditionary Force was a musical army.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Its songs were the real soundtrack of that summer.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01# What's the use of worrying? It never... #
0:06:01 > 0:06:03A short walk along the canal
0:06:03 > 0:06:07takes us to the next village westwards, Nimy.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11# And smile, smile, smile! #
0:06:14 > 0:06:17We've walked up the canal to the railway bridge at Nimy
0:06:17 > 0:06:21and the next battalion along, 4th Royal Fusiliers.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26The canal then was a bit narrower and there was a swing bridge
0:06:26 > 0:06:31in place of that ugly concrete monstrosity.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34Most of the men up here were Londoners,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38reservists called back to the colours on the outbreak of war -
0:06:38 > 0:06:43big black moustaches and a knowing eye for a mademoiselle.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47The battalion's two machine guns were just up here,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51like pimples on the chin of the British position.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54They were commanded by Lt Maurice Dease,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57an Irishman from County Mayo.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02The machine gunners were an obvious target for German artillery
0:07:02 > 0:07:05and soon they were all killed or wounded.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07Dease himself was hit several times.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11Then Private Sid Godley of the rifle company
0:07:11 > 0:07:14admitted to knowing how to work one of these.
0:07:14 > 0:07:20He came up here, dragged the dead and wounded to one side,
0:07:20 > 0:07:25and kept firing till his friends had left and he was out of ammunition.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Then he smashed it on the bridge, threw it into the canal,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32and skulked off into Nimy, bleeding profusely.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37Dease and Godley were awarded the war's first two Victoria Crosses.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Dease died of his wounds and is buried nearby.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42Godley survived in a POW camp.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47His mates remembered him as an unlikely hero -
0:07:47 > 0:07:51dour and inclined to be dangerous in a barrack room.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55But then, heroes are like that sometimes.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58As the day went on, the German attack
0:07:58 > 0:08:00spread down the line of the canal.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05It was brought to a dead stop by this, the Enfield rifle,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08in the hands of men who knew how to use it.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13They'd shot for their pay. Being a marksman brought you extra money -
0:08:13 > 0:08:18for the wet canteen or for a tart to put a little comfort into soldiering.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23These were not men given to great reflections on right or wrong.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28They were hard men and, frankly, a lot of them enjoyed it.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33This is an account by John Lucy of the Royal Irish Rifles.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36"Our rapid fire was appalling even to us.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38"The worst marksman could not miss.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43"We had only to fire into the brown of the masses of the enemy,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46"who, on the fronts of our two companies,
0:08:46 > 0:08:51"were continually and uselessly reinforced
0:08:51 > 0:08:54"at the short range of 300 yards.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58"Such tactics amazed us and, after the first shock
0:08:58 > 0:09:02"of seeing men helplessly falling as they were hit,
0:09:02 > 0:09:06"gave us a great sense of power and pleasure."
0:09:06 > 0:09:09# It's a long way to Tipperary
0:09:09 > 0:09:12# It's a long way to go
0:09:12 > 0:09:15# It's a long way to Tipperary
0:09:15 > 0:09:22# To the sweetest girl I know! Goodbye, Piccadilly... #
0:09:22 > 0:09:27British units were strung out along the length of the canal.
0:09:27 > 0:09:33As the day went on, the German attack spread to the west.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44The British line was over by that unmilitary-looking service station.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49It was being attacked by 12th Brandenburg Grenadiers.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54One commander was a 46-year-old reserve officer called Walter Bloem.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58He'd been snatched from a comfortable literary existence
0:09:58 > 0:10:03to meet the demands of what he called The Tear Season.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08Bloem's first problem was getting his company across this field
0:10:08 > 0:10:09under heavy fire.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Bloem and his company headquarters got to about here,
0:10:17 > 0:10:22where there was enough of a bank to keep that rifle-fire off them.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27He then saw a corporal, a gentleman ranker he hadn't previously noticed,
0:10:27 > 0:10:32offer a bottle of champagne to one of his officers.
0:10:32 > 0:10:33The four of them, Bloem,
0:10:33 > 0:10:38his orderly, the corporal and the lieutenant, finished the bottle.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43How useful a sharpener is to men in that desperate situation.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45No less useful to me!
0:10:47 > 0:10:52When the bottle was finished, Bloem got his company together
0:10:52 > 0:10:53for the last rush.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56We'll let him take us over the top.
0:11:02 > 0:11:08"The enemy must have been waiting to get us all together at close range,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11"for immediately the line rose,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15"it was as if the hounds of hell had been loosed at us,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18"as a mass of lead swept in amongst us.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23"'Graser!' I called out. No answer. "Where's Lt Graser?"
0:11:23 > 0:11:27"And then, from amongst the cries and groans all round
0:11:27 > 0:11:29"came a low-voiced reply.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33"'Lt Graser is dead, sir, just this moment.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37"'Shot through the head and heart as he fell. He's here.'
0:11:37 > 0:11:41"'Within seconds, almost all this convivial little group
0:11:41 > 0:11:43"'had been killed or wounded.'"
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Although their line held,
0:11:53 > 0:11:58the British realised that by staying put, they risked encirclement,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02as the Germans pushed past on both flanks.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05A little force of Norfolks and Cheshires
0:12:05 > 0:12:09was left near the village of Elouges to cover the retreat.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13They even gave a last hurrah, a cavalry charge.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17The cavalry charged down the line of this Roman road,
0:12:17 > 0:12:224th Dragoon Guards on the left, 9th Lancers on the right.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26The Lancers were commanded by Col David Campbell,
0:12:26 > 0:12:31a flamboyant character who had won the Grand National on his horse Sora,
0:12:31 > 0:12:35and was inevitably nicknamed Sora Campbell.
0:12:35 > 0:12:41And see what the Lancers carried under the arm at the engage.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48There were many versions of what happened next -
0:12:48 > 0:12:52verse of varying quality and paintings like this one,
0:12:52 > 0:12:57portraying heroic lancers spearing German gunners.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00But all this is pure moonshine.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02The cavalry hurtled down here,
0:13:02 > 0:13:07heading for the German guns just the other side of the sugar factory.
0:13:07 > 0:13:13They were stopped by wire, not fire. An innocent Belgian farmer's fence.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16But it ran right in front of the German gun line
0:13:16 > 0:13:19and they simply couldn't get beyond it.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Capt Francis Grenfell remembered
0:13:22 > 0:13:25they ran up and down in front of it like rabbits.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29Of course, they were easy targets, as Harry Easton tells us.
0:13:31 > 0:13:37Something hit my horse in the neck, just in front of me, and it fell.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41It took me out of the saddle and I lost the horse.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43Well, I lost the lot.
0:13:45 > 0:13:52And I am reminded of the Biblical saying of "Though I walk
0:13:52 > 0:13:57"through the valley of death, I had no staff to comfort me."
0:13:57 > 0:14:01Major Tom Bridges of the 4th Dragoon Guards was luckier.
0:14:01 > 0:14:02His horse was hit just here.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05He was dragged into a farm building.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Just as the Germans appeared,
0:14:07 > 0:14:12someone threw him onto a spare horse and he galloped up the Roman road.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17He lost that horse as well. And he was sitting, wondering what to do...
0:14:17 > 0:14:19when the Brigade signals officer
0:14:19 > 0:14:24purred up in a blue and silver Rolls-Royce and wafted him to safety.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27But there was no safety for the Cheshires.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31The order to withdraw never reached them,
0:14:31 > 0:14:39and they were engulfed as German infantry fought its way in with bayonet and rifle butt.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43The action at Elouges cost 2nd Corps 2,000 men -
0:14:43 > 0:14:45more than the battle of Mons.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Yet it allowed the BEF to begin its retreat.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53The men were already tired by marching up to Mons
0:14:53 > 0:14:58and they became tireder still marching away from it.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00They crossed the border into France
0:15:00 > 0:15:05and Mons' industrial suburbs were replaced by rich farming country.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09The retreat imposed a huge strain on British commanders.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14And on August 25th, Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, 2nd Corps Commander,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18found himself separated from the rest of the BEF
0:15:18 > 0:15:21by the Great Forest of Mormal.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28We're twenty miles south of Mons and two days into the retreat.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33The mighty forest of Mormal lay like a wedge behind the British Army.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37It forced Haig's 1st Corps off to the east
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and Smith-Dorrien's 2nd Corps to the west.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Already, men were marching in a sort of trance.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49Private Frank Richards of the Royal Welch Fusiliers,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52who slogged down this road with his mates,
0:15:52 > 0:15:57remembered one of them believing he saw a castle twinkling in the woods.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59They knew the Germans were close.
0:15:59 > 0:16:04Nightly, the horizon was lit from burning villages.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Many found the plight of refugees hardest to take.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12Alan Hanbury-Sparrow wrote of, "this broken torrent of dusty misery,
0:16:12 > 0:16:18"wains drawn by great percherons, wagons tugged by oxen.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22"Bicycles, tricycles, barrows and shandrydans,
0:16:22 > 0:16:27"coagulate and concertina painfully along this via dolorosa."
0:16:27 > 0:16:30The "via dolorosa" was to lead to the south,
0:16:30 > 0:16:31to Le Cateau.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59The retreat from Mons was sheer hell, especially for the reservists.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02They'd been issued with new boots
0:17:02 > 0:17:06and these had caused dreadful blisters on the march up.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14I've seen infantry there with their feet bleeding.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16I've seen men with their boots off and puttees wrapped round them.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20I've seen men sobbing and turning around,
0:17:20 > 0:17:23asking our officers, "Why the hell can't we fight?
0:17:23 > 0:17:26"Why won't you let us fight?"
0:17:26 > 0:17:31If we had an average sleep of two to three hours a day,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33that's as much as we got.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51And now they had the weather to contend with -
0:17:51 > 0:17:56scorching hot summer days mixed with sudden downpours.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16This is the school in the northern French town of Le Cateau,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19birthplace of the painter Matisse.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24During the battle of Mons, general headquarters was in this building.
0:18:24 > 0:18:29As the British army fell back on Le Cateau, Capt James Jack,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32a newly-appointed staff officer,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36was sent to find out what orders there were for his brigade.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40When he arrived he was met by an elegant staff officer
0:18:40 > 0:18:43who sent him into town for something to eat.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46Jack needed no second bidding
0:18:46 > 0:18:50and stuffed himself with omelettes and bread rolls.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55But when he came back, the place was empty.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59There was, he said, "not even a pencil left behind."
0:19:03 > 0:19:06While HQ was quick to retreat,
0:19:06 > 0:19:10tired men on blistered feet were much slower.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14By nightfall they were still drifting in to Le Cateau.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18General Smith-Dorrien decided to stand and fight.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23But he would do so outnumbered, outgunned and alone.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26His gamble was that he could deliver a stopping blow
0:19:26 > 0:19:29that would check the relentless pursuit.
0:19:29 > 0:19:36The Germans appeared invincible, but they too were exhausted.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40Most of them had been marching, day after day, for almost three weeks.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45They had also been surprised by the ferocity of the British at Mons.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Smith-Dorrien's gamble wasn't quite as foolhardy as it might have seemed.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57# Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
0:19:57 > 0:20:00# And smile, smile, smile...
0:20:00 > 0:20:05# While you have lucifers to light your fag,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08# Smile, boys, that's the style!
0:20:08 > 0:20:12# What's the use of worrying?
0:20:12 > 0:20:16# It never was worthwhile! So...! #
0:20:16 > 0:20:22Le Cateau was the sort of battlefield the men of 1914 expected.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26It was perfect country for an infantry battle -
0:20:26 > 0:20:28open, rolling fields.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31But it offered little cover from German shells
0:20:31 > 0:20:35and the British were to suffer grievously as a result.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37One of the men who fought here
0:20:37 > 0:20:43described it as Salisbury Plain without the trees. But he was wrong.
0:20:43 > 0:20:44There was one tree.
0:20:44 > 0:20:50Shown on the maps then, as now, as l'Arbre Rond - the round tree.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53This, I have to say, is a modern replacement.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56It was an obvious aiming mark
0:20:56 > 0:20:58and it enabled German gunners
0:20:58 > 0:21:03to drop their shells right here in the sunken lane, causing casualties.
0:21:03 > 0:21:09Lt-Col Ballard of the Norfolks gave orders for it to be cut down.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13This was almost finished when the wind changed,
0:21:13 > 0:21:18threatening to blow the tree down, blocking the sunken road.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22Then Brigade Commander, Count Gleichen,
0:21:22 > 0:21:27told Ballard that on no account was this valuable route to be blocked.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30The Pioneers had to guy the tree up with ropes
0:21:30 > 0:21:34until they could pull it down into the field behind them.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39A bizarre thing - worrying about tree-felling during a battle.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Evidence of the fighting at Le Cateau can still be found
0:21:45 > 0:21:47in the fields around the town.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52This is a relatively safe piece of First World War debris.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57It is a German cartridge for the Mauser 98 infantry rifle.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59We can tell that it is German because it is rimless.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04The British version was fatter and had a pronounced rim, here.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Fired in 1914, lying here ever since.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15As the morning of the 26th of August wore on,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19the British took a terrible pounding from the German guns.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Smith-Dorrien's artillery commandos
0:22:24 > 0:22:28had pushed their guns right up into the infantry line.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30And when it was time to pull back,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33the horses had to be sent forward to extract them.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38Le Cateau was to be the last time in British military history
0:22:38 > 0:22:43when guns were fought the way they had been at Waterloo,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46wheel-to-wheel within sight of the enemy.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51This track was the gun line of 122 battery, Royal Field Artillery.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56Its six 18-pounder guns were just there, drawn up in the open.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00They took a dreadful hammering,
0:23:00 > 0:23:05first from German artillery, then from infantry and machine guns.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09The Germans got some machine guns into the church spire.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13Eventually, Smith-Dorrien decided the job was done.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15He'd delivered a stopping blow,
0:23:15 > 0:23:21and it was time to break clear if he was to have anything left to move.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38The two guns here were commanded by Lt Lionel Lutyens,
0:23:38 > 0:23:42who wrote home telling us exactly what had happened.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46One of his guns was just over here.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49The team came in, got over the bank,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53hooked the gun in and got it safely away.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Lutyens said, "It was very smart and good."
0:23:56 > 0:23:59But the next team came in here.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04The bank was a bit too high and the horses wouldn't take it.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07A machine gunner, perhaps one in the church tower,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11brought down the drivers and then the horses too.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15To Lutyens, there seemed to be nobody left alive.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18He then glanced into the sunken road
0:24:18 > 0:24:22and saw that his trusty groom had kept his charger Bronco.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26He managed to get one foot up into Bronco's stirrup
0:24:26 > 0:24:29and Bronco began to move backwards.
0:24:29 > 0:24:34Lutyens remembered that he was "shaking with excitement and funk."
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Then he was into the saddle and away up the hill.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44By evening, it seemed that Smith-Dorrien's gamble had worked.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49The survivors slipped away from the battlefield in broad daylight.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52There were many days of retreat ahead,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55but the pursuit would never again be so close.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Some of them came back through this village of Bertry.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02And the extraordinary tale of one of them
0:25:02 > 0:25:05is still remembered by the local inhabitants.
0:25:07 > 0:25:14THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH
0:25:19 > 0:25:23I am here being looked after by the station master at Bertry,
0:25:23 > 0:25:24and his father.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27And they are telling the story about Private Fowler and Corporal Hull,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30of the 11th Hussars, who got cut off here in the village
0:25:30 > 0:25:32and were looked after by the inhabitants.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Hull unfortunately was caught by the Germans
0:25:35 > 0:25:37and as he was in civilian clothes he was shot.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39The head of the house that had looked after him
0:25:39 > 0:25:43was deported to Germany and never seen again. But Fowler was luckier.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47He was looked after by Madame Belmont, who kept him
0:25:47 > 0:25:50in a wardrobe for most of the day, and he was allowed out at night.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53He actually spent the whole war like that.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59In October 1918, a patrol of the 11th Hussars, led by Major Drake,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01came back into the village.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04They saw a strange dishevelled creature
0:26:04 > 0:26:07being led along by a patrol of Canadians.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09As they went past he shouted out,
0:26:09 > 0:26:13"I know him, that is Mr Drake, my troop officer!"
0:26:13 > 0:26:16And it was in fact Fowler recognising Drake,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19who had been his troop leader in 1914.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24Le Cateau is largely forgotten today,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28overshadowed by bigger, bloodier battles.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32But it gave the British a reprieve
0:26:32 > 0:26:38and helped give the Allies time to regroup for a counter-offensive,
0:26:38 > 0:26:43one of many that would eventually cripple an entire generation.
0:26:43 > 0:26:44By the end of 1914,
0:26:44 > 0:26:48of those thousand-strong battalions we've followed,
0:26:48 > 0:26:53there remained, on average, one officer and thirty men.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58It's as well that soldiers can't see the future.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00The day after Le Cateau,
0:27:00 > 0:27:05some of Smith-Dorrien's men crossed a little river here in Voyennes
0:27:05 > 0:27:09in exactly the same spot as Henry V,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12on his way to Agincourt, 499 years before.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16The river? It's called the Somme.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49Subtitles by Anne Morgan BBC 1996