Hi, my name's Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube channel The History Squad. Now today's video
has been voted for by my Patreon members thanks guys. This is the video about the Angel of Mons a
supernatural phenomenon that rose out of the First World War so we're gonna have a little look first
of all a bit of a background look into the Battle of Mons. So the Battle of Mons, August 1914,
what a show. The British mobilized their British Expeditionary Force 100,000 men on the 4th of
August, their commander-in-chief General Sir John French. By the 17th they're actually in
France moving up into Belgium. It was actually the Germans attacking Belgium that dragged the
British in. They are going to go straight for the German army 240 000 men coming the other way under
General von Kluck. It's a German steamroller, but the British together with the French and the
Belgians are going to push the Germans all the way back through well that's what they thought.
In fact Sir John French didn't know what was really going on and a British pilot, bless him
a young man in his airplane. Now think about that 1914, airplanes are still a novelty and this guy
is flying around trying to find the Germans and he finds them and it sounds like he's found the
main body of the German army on the battlefield of Waterloo. Now it's interesting because the
last time the British faced these kind of odds 100,000 stick 240,000 was actually at the Battle
of Waterloo, hey just a little bit of information there. He flies back, he lands his kite as it
were, he gets to headquarters. Sir important information. Oh what is it? I found the German
Army sir? Oh where, where were they? Battlefield of Waterloo sir, just outside of Brussels.
So you fly an airplane do you? Now can you imagine this conversation going on? Yes sir.
Do they go very fast? Yes. Is it cold up there? Well it can be sir. Does the wind blow into your
face? Yes sir. Could you have imagined those German soldiers, could you have miscalculated?
They dismissed the intelligence.
They could have had the upper hand there, they could have dug in and waited but they didn't they
pursued North. When they get to the other side of the industrial town, the coaling town of Mons,
the British Army have to dig in. News is now rushing in. The Dragoon Guards are sent out on
patrol. British soldiers, the Royal Fusiliers the Middlesex Regiment they all dig in on this side
of the canal, Bridges are going to be blown up, this is all that's going to be organized
and the Dragoons actually find a patrol of Uhlan Lancers, the the German Lancers there and they
charge after them, and they engage them a point of sword. The first German Soldier killed by
the British was killed in this attack and the British officer who killed him says ‘He died
like a gentleman he was killed by the sword” and that officer wouldn't, the British officer,
wouldn't clean his sword until he was told because he kept saying look this is the first blood to me.
Well the first blood to the Germans was going to be very shortly. So what happens next is quite
incredible the British Army dug in, they're going to stop the Germans. The Germans believed that
the British had got mass machine guns, well they hadn’t, they got two machine guns per Battalion,
a battalion could be 600 men up to a thousand. What they had was their short magazine the Enfield
rifle, this is mine, and a Colonel McMahon had actually trained his Royal Fuseliers, the British
army, he was in charge of the musketry school at Hythe, how to fire this in the mad minute. He had
trained his troops in musketry and he was really committed to getting his troops to be able to
fire 15 aimed shots a minute. Now I've done this on the range with this rifle and I'll tell you,
wow! But you have to train. I'll show you how they did it. So, you have a round in the breach, as
soon as you put it forward, you're holding it in the aim, pull the trigger with your little finger.
As long as you hold the rifle in the aim, or even rest it, and these soldiers were
good at it. The other thing about these British soldiers, many of them had served abroad before,
many of them were your old sweats and they were used to engaging the enemy face to face,
but imagine facing a bayonet. On guard! Great isn’t it, I hope I made somebody jump because
I like doing that. So the Germans attack all along the canal and British soldiers opened fire.
Their rapid fire, 15 aim shots a minute, plus two Vickers heavy machine guns
per battalion that's per 600 men. 600 bullets per minute plus, away they go.
But the Germans didn't know what was waiting for them, and they threw their might at the British.
Now the British couldn't hold on, the Germans there are so many of them, they're getting
across the canal that they were, the British were defending on the north side of Mons. The Germans
are pushing round on their flanks so the British have got to pull back, it's called the retreat
from Mons, and this is where our story really begins. Now I've marched as a British soldier I've
marched, uh I think about 25 miles is my maximum I've ever marched with all my kit on and uh it's
horrible. Any soldier who is marched like that will tell you the same thing at the end of it your
feet are on fire your shoulders are killing you and you shimf, moan, grouse, complain call it what
you will, and the British army is falling back in this uniform with 70 pound of kit on their back.
The cavalry with their horses they are out there, everybody falling back, holding. Guys
are left behind to hold the Germans then they've got to catch up, and this went on for days.
Short of water, short of rations and some of the soldiers the British soldiers began to see
strange things. So on the retreat from Mons, there are eyewitness accounts to some of the
strange happenings that were going on. This is a massive protracted battle and just to let
you know I've made a little diorama of um British soldiers behind a wall. I took this from an actual
um picture from the First World War so we'll have a look at that and you'll see how the British are
behind cover and the Germans are advancing. But then the British would have to move,
stand, fight, move again, day after day those 25 miles a day. But some of these British soldiers
had been called into the colors, had been called up, they were reservists and they've
been issued with new boots. Now British army boots that are real pain, I got one here.
This is one of your reproduction British Army First World War boots, studded,
but this one has marched all over the Somme, Ypres, you tell it, I've, you mentioned the First
World War Western Front, I've marched in these boots and they’re worn in. But if you have them
brand new they'll rip you to pieces, so many a British soldier has thrown off his boots and he's
hobbling along with bleeding feet. The state of the British. When the French witnessed the state
of the British army they said we were finished, we were broken. Well I'll tell you something
about us Brits we might look exhausted, we might have our back against the wall,
but we ain't finished, and time and time again the Germans found out this to be true. But then
strange things were happening, this is the 26th of August so in the middle of the battle there.
568th anniversary of the battle of Crecy and strange lights appear in the sky.
Some men saw angels, others saw a great figure on a horse. I've got him here,
Saint George charging forward. Others saw bowmen of Crect shooting arrows into the Germans.
I've known about this since I was a kid sat on my granddad's knee and he told me all about the
Angel of Mons wow, what a subject. But what was it? Well Frank Richards from the Second
Royal Welsh Fuseliers, he um witnessed the whole thing, but he says this. We were so exhausted
through lack of water and tired, that the man next to me says “oh look Dick, look over there
it's a castle” he says but when I looked there was nothing. Men were hallucinating all around.
But there's a piece from the German side as well where a German soldier said we'd got
the British beat ,there was just a thin line of them and we were going to take them out
when thousands of British soldiers appeared behind the thin line. So many glinting, shining
that we stopped and pulled back. So what was going on? What were these supernatural apparitions?
Bowmen from Crecy, Saint George, Angel. One soldier described her as being slim with her
wings folded on her back these are details aren't they and the young German Soldier who saw British
soldiers advancing behind the thin line of Brits in front of him. Wll some French officers
dismissed it, they said yes this time of year in northern France and Southern Belgium you have the
Aurora Borealis, the northern lights and they were indeed dancing around. A British chaplain,
padre from the army he says ‘Ah I saw the lights and then I realized what they were,
the British had brought up searchlights because the Germans were advancing of a night time
and the searchlights were going all across the battlefield and bouncing and that kind of thing’.
Well was it just the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights? Was it the reflection of the searchlights
or just the imagination of exhausted soldiers? Well there is a horror writer Arthur Machen
reckons he wrote the story about the Angel of Mons and the bowmen appearing, in fact a picture based
on his story appeared in the times supplement uh in 1915 showing British Tommy's fighting.
So is it all in our imagination? Well I don't know, but I'll tell you this you go to Mons,
there's not a lot there, nice little town. But go to the Commonwealth war grave St Symphorien.
It's the most atmospheric place I've ever visited on the entire Western Front that's for sure.
There are British and Germans buried in that Cemetery. The first British soldier killed
and the last of ours, he was Canadian, are buried almost on the same road. But Lieutenant Dease,
he's buried there. He was awarded, posthumously of course, the Victoria Cross for his action in
manning a machine gun and holding the Germans back but that's a story for another day.
Well I hope you enjoyed our little video a bit of a different slant on the World War One,
the Great War. Now if you did like it like share and subscribe and don't forget please to turn
on the old notifications button so you can be notified about our videos coming down the line.
But now I must give a special shout out a mention to some of my patreon members Count Bratcular
how's that for a handle love it. Sebastian Bender and Michael Swathen,
hey guys thanks a million and I will see you all soon. Bye for now.