Sir John French, worried at being cut off from the English Channel, visited Sordet at Avesnes on 24 August, and was informed that the Allied west flank was being defended by Territorial Army forces (reservists aged between 35 and 48) under Albert d'Amade at Arras and by the Lille garrison. Sir John asked Sordet to cover the British left, but Sordet initially asked to consult his own chain of command first. Sordet told Sir John that his horses were too tired to move, but he actually moved a long distance afterwards, a fact which Major-General Snow, commander of British 4th Division, later cited as evidence that Sordet is unlikely to have done much during the Battle of Le Cateau. At 10am on 24 August Lanrezac, concerned that Sir John French might be falling back on his lines of communication and away from the French forces, ordered Sordet to fall back on Landrecies on the next day, between the BEF and the Fifth Army. Lanrezac changed his mind an hour or so later and ordered Sordet to fall back to the BEF left as previously ordered.