Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24489 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Synopsis
Le Cateau (26-27 August 1914) was the second major action fought by the BEF in the Great War. His men exhausted after fighting at Mons and by the subsequent speedy retreat, Lieutenant-General Horace Smith-Dorrien (commanding II Corps) decided that he had to make a stand in the vicinity of Le Cateau. There his men took on elements of four German corps in an action that succeeded in giving the BEF a respite, but at considerable cost. Amongst other elements of controversy in the conduct of the battle was the handling of the Royal Artillery. The battle also undermined the already fraught relationship between Smith-Dorrien and the BEF's commander, John French. The battlefield today remains largely as it was, open countryside, and it is an ideal location to view one of the most significant British battlefields of the early days of the war. In this action no less than five Victoria Crosses were won, three of them in one howitzer battery and two by men of the 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.

From the Author
This book: Le Cateau, one of the Battleground Europe guides was co-written By Nigel Cave and me Jack Sheldon. You already list my various other titles and I should be grateful if you would list Le Cateau under my name as well as Nigel Cave's

Customer Reviews

Much more than mere battlefield guide
Pen & Sword's ever-growing Battleground series are generally a good mix of history and battlefield guide. The quality of the series varies (most are good, some are excellent). Le Cateau is outstanding - probably the best produced. To call it a mere battlefield guide would be to do it a great disservice. This is first and foremost an excellently-illustrated account of a battle often (unfairly) overshadowed by the action at Mons a few days before. Indeed, there are scores of images - for the most part they've reproduced excellently.

What lifts the book above the rest of the series is the narrative, however. Nigel Cave provides some first-rate first person accounts from British participants; Jack Sheldon does the same from the German viewpoint - a viewpoint long missing from Le Cateau. The result is as good, comprehensive and even-handed account of Le Cateau as you'll find. Add to that the 50 or so pages devoted to touring the battlefield and its cemeteries and you have an indispensable addition to our literature on the battles of 1914.