In August 1914, as the British Expeditionary Force marched through Belgium to meet up with French forces, they suddenly and unexpectedly found themselves confronted by the main thrust of the advancing German army. Although they were vastly outnumbered, this highly-trained force of army regulars held off the attack so effectively that the Germans remained unaware of the tiny size of the force that opposed them. It was in these extreme circumstances that the wounded and dying soldiers were said to have seen strange angelic forms in the sky that protected them from slaughter.
In the years that followed, tales of 'angels at Mons' were widely reported in the press and quickly spread throughout the Empire. The story entered popular culture with amazing speed and lives on today in folklore and legend. Many veterans of the war and thousands on the Home Front continued to believe in the Angel of Mons for the rest of their lives.
The Angel of Mons recounts the tale of the advancement of German troops through Mons in 1914, to meet the ill-prepared British Expeditionary Force. The British troops were forced to retreat, with little hope of saving the lives of those at the front. It is in these extreme circumstances that many of the wounded and dying soldiers brought back from the Western Front, reported having been rescued by strange angelic forms in the sky that protected them from massacre - The Angel of Mons.
David Clarke follows this and other myths and rumours in an effort to trace the reality behind the Angel of Mons and discover what it was the soldiers saw.
Product Details
- Author: David Clarke
- ISBN-13: 978-0470862773
- Published on: 2004-06-28
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 288 pages
