LAND AND WATER 
Scptcuiltor 5, 1914 
ihe rJ<'ht tlirou-'h Cluiiloiol ami along the lower Sauibre to Naiuur (where the Samhre falls into 
the Uexi-^o) was" held I)y the -jth Freueh Army, induainn; Al<>;-eruui troops. There were, i^erhaps, 
ui)on the whole of tliis line live army cor])s, iucliuling the two of the l^^nglish contuigent ; there may 
have been six, hut the lesser number is the more proba])le. It was against this line, from Moiis 
to Namui-, tliat the A\hole v.eight of the Gennan shock was delivered. AVlicther eight or 
whether ten Army Coi'ps attacked we do not know, Ijut \\e are certain froni tlie nature of the 
lighting that the otl'eusive (us was to be expected) came on in much larger numbers than the defensive 
The Am-lo-French line from IShms to Namnr stood the sliock thoroughly during those two days. 
The wei'dit (>l" tliis attack came against the centre, upon Churlcroi ; it was tliere delivered a' once with, 
the intention of breaking tlie line of the Sandn-c and also of securing the passage of the river. That 
attjK'k, tliouirh the line swayed backwards and forwards across tlic Sambre at this point, failed in its 
junuediate object. The Allied line was not broken by the (urman aswiult. 
At 2 o'clock, however, of that siimc Sunday, August .:2ord, about the foi-tieth horn- of the struggle, 
iJie eastern forts whicli defend Namnr down the Meuse valley v.ere silenced by the siege howitzer fire 
of tlic Oennans; and tln-ough a gap of about seven miles so opened, the Gennans entered the town and 
tlicnceforward commanded the bridges over the two rivers. 1'hey Avere not pei-haps in full command 
ii those bridges till about •") o'clock in the afternoon, but tlic fact that they would be in command of 
them was known to the Erench commanders not long after 2 o'clock, when these eastern forts 
weix! silenced. 
As I e.\])laiu(Hl in my notes of last Meek, it Avas the fall of Namnr Avith its bridge-heads Avhieli 
clianged the whole aspect of the campaign. Until that moment a counter-offensive through the 
j\rdennes Avas the French g-ame, after it a purely defensi\e strategy was imposed. The Allied line 
l)etween ]\rons and Namur, Avhich the Germans had tried to l)reak and had failed to break, now had to 
fall back because the fortress protecting its right \vas gone. The Fi-ench round Charleroi, getting the 
news first, began to letire on the Sunday e\ening, and the English to their left immediately afterwards 
in the darkness Ix'twecn Sunday and Monday. 1 illustrate tliis by the aecom2)an3-ing diagrams, because. 
TKF ENGLISH 
MONS 
CHARLEROI 
NAMUR 
TO Mt 
BKITCK SHOWrsO KOW THS rALL (IV yxUVV. IN THE I:.\BLT AFTEEXOON OP SUNDAY, AUGUST 2aEP, IX VOL' 
liKirKEirtNT OF THE WIIOI.B AI.I.IVD LINE, PROCKEDIXO TBOM lilGlIT TO LEFT, AND NOT UNDERTAKEN ON J 
WIIKKB WAS TlIK ENGLISH CONTIN'iK.NT, TILL DABKNESS HAD JALLKN. 
VKD AN I3I3IF.DIATB 
ItK KXTKEKE LEFT, 
though the matter Avas described last week, it not only bears reiteration, hut needs it. The fall of 
Namur has changed, prolonged, and, perhaps, made more decisive the Avhole European War. 
The i rench counter-offensive through the Ardennes to the east of the Meuse, pivoting on 
JNamur, and uitcndcd to thrust up against the German communications in Eclgium, could no longer 
pivot on ^ainur, because Namur was gone. It had also to fall back. The Allied troops which had 
held ti.e line of the Sambre, prolonged from Namur to Mons, fell back, heavily pressed by the enemy, 
to the po.sition Candn-ai-Le Cateau-Mezlcres. There were, as a fact, troops beyond Cambrai toAvards 
Arras ; and there Avere, of course, many troops protecting the line of the Upper :srcuse between 
Mezicres and Verdun. ^^ 
. ,-^\"'V^\'i" J;*^ ""^'^''^ fro"'' *1'<^ "liip at the head of these comments, that the English contingent 
Which had held tlie country round about Mons had not fallen directly back, but backwards a»d to the 
/.y/; at the ^alnc• tune. Hie retreat was diagonal. For the line Cambrai-Lc Catcau is not directly 
bchnid the hue :Mons-Charleroi, but at an oblique thereto. 
1..„. ir -r"^" ?^ f^''' 'f * '^"'■'"•" ^^'"^ ''■^^'^l^ «f ^^>«<^ ^"cti-cat meant, of course, that the march was 
longei tlum ,t would havebeen if it had been a direct falling back. It Avas immensely arduous, kept 
up moie <>\ Irss <l:iy and iiigld, and involving heavy losses in men who could not kerp up and men Avho 
