Western Front August-December 1914

German Occupation of Mons (© Imperial War Museum: Q 70072)

The First Battle of Mons (23 August–28 September 1914). Includes:

  • the Retreat from Mons (23 August–6 September);
  • the First Battle of the Marne (6–10 September): 12,733 British casualties, 250,000 French casualties, probably 250,000 German casualties;
  • the First Battle of the Aisne (12–20 September 1914).

 

The First Battle of Ypres (12 October–22 November 1914). Includes:

  • the Battle of Messines (12 October–2 November);
  • the Battle of Armentières (13 October–2 November);
  • the Battle of Ypres (19 November–22 November);
  • the Battle of Langemarck (21–24 October);
  • the Battle of Geluvard (29–31 October): c.58,155 British casualties, c.50,000 French casualties, c. 134,300 German casualties.

 “One spent the day under the shadow of the European crisis.”

“We declared war on Germany before midnight yesterday … Greats list out: Edward Bridges and Hauer 1st; wrote to both. It was odd writing to Hauer, who is a German subject.”

“Here[,] not only New College but Balliol, Christ Church and Keble are turned into Territorial barracks.”

“The news from the seat of war was not good. The fall of Namur is an unexpected disaster.”

“The war news was on the whole reassuring.”

“The war news[,] so far as it went[,] was good.”

(C.C.J. Webb, Diary entries, 31 July, 6, 25, 26 and 27 August 1914)

 “News full & reassuring. English gallantry against heavy odds has been great: the German advance has been heavily paid for.”

“The Allies have begun to take the offensive: & apparently with success.”

“[…] good news of the Allies, who have thrust back the Germans across the Marne”.

“The news from the front was good these two days and increasingly so. The retreat of the Germans on the right became something like a rout. […] Wounded arrived in Oxford today – 120 including 40 Germans.”

“News continues good from the front.”

 

(C.C.J. Webb, Diary entries, 7, 8, 9, 12–13 and 14 September 1914)

“It is a strange first Sunday in Michaelmas Term, with so few undergraduates about.”

 (C.C.J. Webb Diary entry, 11 October 1914)

Heath, Percy Voltelin  4.ix.1914

Inigo-Jones, Henry Richmund  14.ix.1914

Houldsworth, William Gilbert  23.ix.1914

Mackenzie, Mark Kincaid  25.ix.1914

Turbutt, Gladwyn Maurice Revell  21.x.1914

McClure, Charles Russell  21.x.1914

Hartford, Hugh Irving St John  22.x.1914

Kelly, Edward Denis Festus  30.x.1914

Stadler, Ernst Maria Richard  30.x.1914

Macarthur-Onslow, Arthur William  5.xi.1914

Cadogan, Hon. William George Sydney  12.xi.1914

Loyd, Geoffrey Archibald  13.xi.1914