Angels of Mons — Forgotten History

Imagine this, you’re a British soldier at the outset of the Great War and you’re in the middle of your first major engagement. All day you have been repelling German assaults but there are just too many and they’re breaking through. Concentrated artillery fire and the unrelenting charges have taken their toll and your commander has issued a full retreat. However it isn’t that simple, the German barrages keep hammering your position and there is no safe way to escape. Then you look up, all across the battlefield you see them. Gleaming figures from a time long forgotten. As they draw back their bows and release you watch as thousands upon thousands of Germans fall. These angels may have just saved your life.

The Battle of Mons

At the start of World War One Germany marched through Belgium in accordance with their modified Schlieffen Plan, violating Belgian neutrality in the process. This violation of neutrality forced the British, who promised to enforce Belgium’s neutrality, to send an expeditionary force to stop the German forces. Once the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) landed in mainland Europe they coordinated with the French Army who was already mobilized against the Kaiser's forces. The BEF would take up position in the town of Mons, Belgium to help prevent the German Army from flanking the French.

On August 22 as the Germans made their way through Belgium, unaware that the BEF had even landed in mainland Europe, the British marched across the French border into Belgium and began constructing defenses. They found that their best position would be along the Canal du Centre on the edge of town, where the German Army would have to cross deep water in order to reach them. The BEF had limited time before the Germans were set to arrive so they hastily set about digging trenches, blowing up bridges, and sinking barges in order to deter the Germans canal crossing. Machine gun nests were set up on roofs of buildings and artillery was sighted in. High above in the sky German and British airplanes ran reconnaissance missions while on the ground both sides’ cavalry fought small skirmishes with each other, the battle was about to begin.

British soldiers firing at German soldiers across the canal

On the morning of August 23 German forces marched into Mons. Forming close ranks they attempted to march on the British positions but were easily repelled. Regrouping they marched again in more spread out ranks but were once again forced to retreat. This pattern continued for the rest of the morning as the Germans could not contend with the machine guns and the rapid fire from the British Lee Enfield rifle.

Somewhat accurate artist depiction of the battle, Courtesy of British Battles

Using planes as spotters the Germans began raining down accurate artillery fire on the British positions. Covered by the artillery the Germans made their way across the canal on one of the few remaining bridges, and with the threat of being outflanked the British were forced to retreat.

The Legend

It was during this retreat that the British soldiers witnessed something miraculous. They were having a difficult time retreating as the German artillery continued to rain down upon them and enemy soldiers kept pushing forward when the soldiers saw something strange. Glowing figures clad in armor and carrying longbows appeared before them. They drew back their strings and let their arrows fly, piercing the lines of oncoming Germans. Thousands upon thousands of enemy soldiers began to fall and the British were able to make a safe retreat. At least that is how the myth goes.

Artist rendition of the angels in Machen’s story, Courtesy of St. Margaret

In late September 1914, a month after the Battle of Mons, author and reporter Arthur Machen wrote a short story called The Bowmen and was subsequently published in The Evening Post. The story told of a British soldier witnessing angels from the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 being sent by Saint George to protect them. An excerpt from the story reads, “And as the soldier heard these voices he saw before him, beyond the trench, a long line of shapes, with a shining about them. They were like men who drew the bow, and with another shout, their cloud of arrows flew singing and tingling through the air towards the German hosts.” The story was a work of fiction but Machen was a well renowned reporter and many believed his story to be a true eyewitness account. It did not help matters that the story was on the front page of the paper either and that multiple other publications presented the story as fact. Even Catholic publications picked it up, using it to show that angels are real. Machen was distressed and tried to dispel the claims and tell people it was a story he made up. What made it worse was that since people believed it was a first hand account and not a story Machen did not even see any money from it.

Despite the story being made up it did help people at home who lost loved ones in the battle and was a morale boost for the British populace. At the time the Battle of Mons was one of the worst British defeats in recent history. The British government was more than content to let people believe the story as they needed as much of a morale boost as possible. Soldiers on the frontlines even believed the story and started telling of their own supposed supernatural experiences.

Another artist rendition of the angels, Courtesy of Visit Mons

There was some truth to the story however as some soldiers at the battle did claim to have seen angels hovering above them in the sky and some even claimed to have seen angels directly beside them. These claims however can be attributed to a lack of sleep and battle fatigue as many of the British soldiers had not slept in several days and were performing strenuous labor, and adding to that was the fact that this was the first major British battle of the war and tensions were high. There are other versions of the story that align more with these claims by the soldiers, such as them seeing a single angel appearing in the sky and protecting them during the retreat. However the story of the bowmen remains the most popular and widely believed.

Maybe True?

The rest of this is pure conjecture on my part but I felt it should be included. There’s a Doctor by the name of Richard Pearce who has written a book called Miracles and Angels. In the book he talks about the Angels of Mons and says that he interviewed numerous soldiers who did witness the angels. He collected numerous newspaper clippings about it and even found two French nurses from the time who said it was a true story. Most incredible of all he found a signed legal affidavit from a German soldier who said he saw the angels firing at them. If all this is true it’s either a case of mass hysteria or there could actually be more to it. I personally believe in the former but I have not read his book and was unable to obtain a copy before writing this article. What is presented in this section is what I found online so it goes without saying, take it with a pinch of salt. I do have the book ordered so when it arrives and I have a chance to read through it I may update this article later on. For now though I can only say that the Angels of Mons is a work of fiction that people mistakenly believed.

British soldiers waiting in their hastily dug trench, Courtesy of British Battles

Personal Thoughts

I had only heard about the Angels of Mons a few weeks ago and upon learning about it I knew I had to write an article about it. With World War One being my favorite war to learn about I’m always excited to find something that I had not known previously. I find it an entertaining story and the battle itself was incredibly interesting to learn about. I believe the battle kind of gets rid of some preconceived notions about the First World War. Usually we think of the Germans as the first to start trench warfare and to use machine guns to much of an effect but this battle shows that the British really had it in mind early on in the war. Of course they did not have an idea of how big trench warfare would become and they did believe it would be a quick war as most did during the first few months, but I think the battle shows the defensive mindedness of the British and how well they knew their enemy. I also found it interesting to read about the cavalry being used as not long after the war started horses were mostly shifted to carrying supplies rather than actual fighting.

Link to the full short story The Bowmen- http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Bowm849.shtml