Obourg

The British Expeditionary Force arrived on the 21st, cavalry patrols clashed on the 22nd, and on the 23rd nine and a half British battalions along a nine-mile front fought all day to hold off four German divisions from von Kluck's …

1914-08-23

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The British Expeditionary Force arrived on the 21st, cavalry patrols clashed on the 22nd, and on the 23rd nine and a half British battalions along a nine-mile front fought all day to hold off four German divisions from von Kluck's First Army. They inflicted heavy casualties on the brave Germans advancing four abreast, but were forced back by numbers. Obourg was defended by the 4th Battalion Middlesex Regiment. Two companies were along the canal, with D Company in the fortified railway station and another company in resewe in some nearby woods. The Germans pressed hard against these positions, inflicting heavy losses with artillery from the higher positions on the opposite side of the canal. The position was successfully held for two hours, but later in the day the line faltered and the enemy began to outflank the battalion, which began a withdrawal. A rear-guard action was fought at the railway station, with an unknown private firing from the station roof until finally hit and killed.

Obourg , Belgium

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.

Wikipedia: Battle of Mons

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