All over by Christmas, that was the fervent hope of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as it made its way across the channel in the heady, humid days of August 1914. The BEF has a strong claim to have been the most professional fighting force to have ever left these shores. However, the BEF was small in comparison to its allies and enemies – prompting the Kaiser to dismiss them as a “contemptible little army.”
As the Kaiser’s men made their way across Belgium seeking a swing down to Paris as part of the Schieffelin Plan, the BEF had to meet their foe and stop this advance.
Sophie’s Great War Tours offers bespoke tours of the sites of the early engagements of the First World War. See where the BEF first encountered the oncoming Germans at Mons on 23rd August and Le Cateau three days later.
Following the early battles of the BEF also allows you an opportunity to see, by an ironic twist of fate, the sites of where four long years later the British Army would finish the war.