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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2023
Introduction
When Britain went to war on 4 August 1914 it had a small professional army which, by the standards of France and Germany, was tiny. Because of the demands of Empire the army was also far-flung. The 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, for example, was in South Africa, where it had been since the end of the Second Boer War in May 1902. The battalion mobilized at Robert's Heights on 10 August 1914. Robert's Heights was in Pretoria and was renamed Voortrekkerhoogte (Voortrekker Heights) by the South African government in 1939. The Voortrekker Monument is located there. The battalion returned to England in a convoy of steamers escorted by two cruisers. It went into camp at Lyndhurst, Hampshire, and formed part of 21st Infantry Brigade, 7th Division.
By the time the battalion arrived in Belgium on 7 October 1914 the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, which formed part of 15th Brigade, 5th Division, had already done much fighting, being part of the original British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It was on the periphery of the fighting at Mons, the first major battle of the war to involve the BEF, which was fought over 23 and 24 August and at which the army lost about 1,600 killed, wounded and missing. The BEF, outnumbered, then fell back south, turning to engage the pursuing Germans at le Cateau-Cambrésis on 26 August, where the Bedfords were more heavily engaged. The army lost 7,812 killed, wounded and missing at this battle.
The retreat continued until the BEF found itself south of the River Marne near Paris. By this time the Germans had outrun their lines of supply and the French and the BEF counterattacked. The 1st Bedfords were engaged at Saint-Cyr and Ouen on 8 September, re-crossing the Marne at Saâcy the next day and engaging the Germans at Bézu-le-Guéry, pursuing the Germans, now retreating in their turn, until reaching the River Aisne on 12 September. They crossed the river and attacked the Germans on the north bank at Missy-sur-Aisne on 13 September and then remained in this vicinity until 2 October, when they began to move north, arriving at a place which would become all too familiar to the 2nd Battalion, Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée, on the 12th of that month.
The major action at the end of 1914 was around the Belgian town of Ypres, or Ieper in Flemish, when the four-year siege by the Germans began.
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