New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-02
Crisis in Mons Retreat.

The story Of the British retreat from
Mons has been much written about, but
il has never really been written. Doubt
less we shall wait for the whole story
until long after the end of the war.
Later and greater battles have made US
forget this unique episode in warfare.
II looks, indeed, like a small affair But
the little" British army was larger
than the Northern army at Gettysburg,
and this retreat, which was one con-
tinuous battle, lasted three times as
long az Gettysburg. And here, months
afterward, is one new story of Mons.
The real climax Of the affair occurred
not on that last night when the British
army. now southeast Of Paris, was look
ing for good place TO make stand
and die. The pinch, the tight squeeze,
came at lie Cateau, two or three days
before. That morning, at dawn, the
Germans almost surrounded the Brit
ish. Smith -Dorrien's division was
caught Just as it was getting out OF It's
bivouac: some of the men rolled over
and fought lying where they had slept.
A big army, of course, does not
march by one road, but by columns
along several parallel roads. And carry
that morning, when the British were
retreating as fast as they could go
"acting as pacemakers for lou OF
bloody Germans" some Tommy Atkins
has said-two columns came to point
where their roads crossed. 10 keep
two columns marching properly in such
circumstances is difficult at any time.
But here. TO make matters worse, a
German battery got position, found the
range and began to fire shrapnel
toward that very point
Hero Never Found.
The columns hesitated, stopped, be-
gan t. pile up. Something like panic
ran along the line. A little more, and
the blockade might have become a
Jam, a hell of confusion, a rout. AT
this moment an officer wearing the
red tabs of the staff came riding along
the line He took in the situation, he
drew up his horse and, with the
shrapnel bursting about him, he
started to restore traffic at the cross
roads. lie raised his hand to halt this
column: he beckoned to start that one.
He Communicated squads Of men TO
get overturned baggage wagons out OF
the way. All that morning contln-
uous target for the Germans. he
worked with the GOODNESS, the quiet
command, the expedition of a traffic
policeman on Fifth Avenue. And he
got both columns through.
Now here comes the extraordinary
part of the story. His work that day
became the talk Of the army. Every
one felt that he deserved the Victoria
Cross. Bat no one, at latest accounts,
had been able TO identify him. The
officers struggling there on the line
took it for granted that headquarters
sent hir. That wasn't true; headquar-
tiers knew nothing of the jam of the
crossroads None of the officers in the
two columns recognized him or even
identified his ronk. He wore the red of
the staff; that was enough for them.
And inquiries at headquarters brought
no results.
It is likely that he was one of the
staff officers killed in the next two or
three days 1t is also likely that he is
still working at headquarters, and,
being a typical shy Briton of the kind
that resents making a fool out Of a
fellow" he has never admitted his
identity. The Briton is built that way.