^ 
LAND AKD WATEPw 
SeptemlxT 5, 1914 
the rio-lit tlirougli Charlcroi ami along the lower Saiiibrc to Nauuir (wLeiv tlie Samljro falLs into 
the ]\feuse) was h fid by the 5th French Army, iucluduig Algerian troops. There were, perha)»s. 
upon the whole of this lino live army corps, including the two of the English contingent: there may 
liave been six, but the lesser number is the more probable. It was against this line, from JMons 
to Xamur, tliat the whole weight of the (lerman . shook Avas delivered. AVhethor eight or 
whether ten Army Corps attacked we do not know, but we are certain from the nature of the 
lio-htin*' that the oil'ensive (as was to be expeotedj eamo on in much laiger numbers than the defensive 
it had to meet. 
The Anglo-French line from IMtms to Kamur stood the shock thoroughly during tlios.^ two days. 
The weight of this attack came against the centre, uj)on Charleroi; it was there delivered ii'; once with 
the intention of breaking the line of the Sambre and also of securing the passage of the river. That 
attack, thouo-h the line swayed backwards and forwards across the Sajnbre at this point, failed in ifs 
immediate object. The Allied line was not broken by the (Jennan assault. 
At 2 o'clock, however, of that same Sunday, August •23rd, about the fortieth hour of the struggle, 
the eastern forts which defend Namur down the Meuse valley were silenced by the siege howitzer 'iv\' 
of the Germans; and through a gap of about .«evi'u miles so opened, the Germans entered the town an<l 
thenceforward conunanded the bridges over the two rivers. They were not perhaps in full command 
of those bridges till about 5 o'clock in the aftei-noon, but tlie fact that they would be in connnand ol' 
them was known to the French commanders not long after ~ o'clock, when these eastern forts 
Avere silenced. 
As I explained in nn' notes of last week, it was the fall of Kamur with its bridge-heads which 
changed the whole aspect of the campaign. Until that moment a counter-offensive tiirough tlie 
Ardennes was the French game, after it a jmrely defensi\e strategy was imposed. The Allied line 
between Mons and Namur, which the Crermans had tried to break and had failed to brealc, now had to 
fall back because the fortress protecting its right was gone. The French round Charleroi, getting the 
news hrst, began to retire on the Sunday evening, and the hhiglish to their left immediately afterwards 
in the darkness between Sunday and Monday. 1 illu.sti-ute this by the accompatiying diagrams, because. 
THE ENGLISH 
CONTINGENT' 
TO CAMBRA! 
MONS 
CHARLEROI 
NAMUP 
r 
TO LE CATEAU 
TO ME 
SKV.TCH SHOWJNO lICiW THK lALL OF XAMUB IN THB E.VEr.T AFTKKXOON OF SUNDAT, AUGUST 23RI), I.\70LV'ED AX IMJIKMATS 
BET1U1::V8NT OF THK WilOLK ALLIED LIXK, PBOCKEDIXO IP.OM EIGHT TO LUFT, AXD KOT UNDHRTAKEX OX THB KXTEESIB LKFT, 
WHEBM WAS THK EXOLISH CONTIXOKXT, TILL UABKXESS HAD FALLEX. 
though the matter was described last week, it not only bears reiteration, but needs it. The fall of 
iS'annir has changed, prolonged, and, perhaps, made more decisive the whole European War. 
The French counter-offensive through the Ardennes to the east of the Meuse, pivoting on 
Kamur, and hitended to thrust iip against the Gennan eommimications in Belgium, coidd no longer 
pivot on Namur, becau.se Nanuir was gone, it had also to fall back. The Allied troops which had 
held the line of the Sanibre, ])i'olonged from Kannir to Mons, fell back, heavily pressed by the enemy, 
to the position Cambrai-Le Cateau-Mezih-es. There were, as a fact, troops beyond Cambrai towards 
Arras ; and there were, of coui-sc, many troops protecting the line of the Upper Meuse between 
!Mezicres and Verdun. 
Kow it will be noted from the map at the head of these connnents, that the Engli.sh contingent 
which had held the country round about Mons had not fallen directly back. Init backwards and io the 
Jeff at the same time. Tlie retreat was diagonal. For the line Ca"m1)rai-Lo Cateau is not directly 
behind the line ^^lons-Charleroi, but at an oblique thereto. 
This 'oearing to tiie left during the whole of that r.-treat nx-int, of course, that the march Avas 
longer than it would have been if it had been a direct falling back. It Avas immensely arduous, kept 
up morc or less day and night, and involving heavy losses in men Avho co\dd not keep up and men who 
2* 
