http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/2226762404

Retreat of I Corps 1914

On 23 August 1914 it was only the two divisions of General Smith-Dorrien's II Corps that were directly engaged with the German First Army along the line of the Mons-Conde Canal. As the British Expeditionary Force withdrew from Mons and bivouacked around Bavay on 25 August, Sir John French and his GHQ advisors - unsure of the condition of the routes through the Forêt de Mormal - ordered the British Expeditionary Force to continue their retirement the next day and to avoid the 35 square miles of forest roads.Consequently II Corps used the roads to the west of the Forêt de Mormal and Sir Douglas.

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