The 2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles And

On the morning of Sunday, August the 23rd, two of the three Army Corps, which compose the forces were marched along a front of about 25 miles east and west of Mons, a Belgium town. The First Army Corps was under Sir Douglas Haig and the second under Sir Horace Smith Dorrien.The British Expeditionary Force regulars in 1914 proudly accepted the nickname ' The Old Contemptibles ' which came from Kaiser's Wilhelm II's disparaging order ' to exterminate the treacherous English and walk over General French's contemptible little army '. When the Old Contemptibles went to war considering the long service given to the British Army by the Irish, it should come as no surprise that the first rifle shot fired by the on the Contiment in nearly a century was fired by an Irishman (bearing in mind that the first Victoria Cross won during the Great War was also by an Irishman ) Corporal E. Thomas from Tipperary. His ' C ' squadron of the 4th Irish Dragoon Guards ( i will be covering this regiment later ) were out in front doing outpost duty when it came into action against a patrol of German Uhlans in the first contact between the BEF and the First Germany Army at about 7.00am on 22nd August 1914 at the village of Casteau some five miles from Mons. A stone memorial now marks the spot. The Uhlans came leisurely down the road; then as if they smelled a rat they halted and turned back. Thomas remembers that Hornby's 1st Troop caught up with them in the village, scattering them and some Cuirassiers with their swords. When Thomas's 4th Troop arrived in support, Hornby ordered ' dismounted action !...Bullets were flying past us...i could see a German cavalry officer some four hundred yards away....mounted in full view..i took aim sqeezed the trigger ..he fell to the ground obviously wounded.' Thomas undoubtedly fired the first British shot of the war' writes the historian of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards equally undoubtedly Captain Charles Hornby was the first man to kill a German for which he won a DSO

Below, a Uhlan patrol is ambushed. Note the distictive Uhlan hat.

The following day the battle of Mons started about 12.30, not a German was then in sight, but an enemy aeroplane circled overhead like a hawk hurling down for prey. Shortly afterwards there was a burst of shrapnel over the BEF lines followed by the booming of distant artillery.One veteran wrote an account of his experiences " It was a beautiful day and many of the men of my regiment, which was the Royal Irish Rifles, were billeted just outside Mons. Many of us were bare but for our trousers availing ourselves to the warm sunshine to wash and dry our shirts and socks after our long tramp through France and Belgium, our bugles got orders to sound the stand to arms. The Germans were then advancing in overwhelming numbers, soon the sharp crackle of musketry was added to the cannonading of the guns and the sabre and lance of the Germans gleamed in the sun. We were one of the first regiments to exchange shots with the Germans. With us were the Grenadier, Coldstream and Irish Guards and to the right of us were the 18th Royal Irish, the Middlesex and the Gordons.

The Germans kept pressing very hard all afternoon but we held our ground. Just before dusk the Uhlans made a charge on our lines as they were coming towards us, we opened a rapid fire on them. Many of them fell but what was left of them kept on coming. As they were closing on us we got the order to charge; every man that was able got to his feet and was off towards them yelling like a madman. When the Uhlans seen the mass of steel coming towards them, they turned their horses around and were off and we helped them along with rifle fire and the boys got no more excited than if they had been witnessing the finish of the Grand National.We got back to our position again and soon afterwards came wave after wave of their infantry, but we managed to keep them in check until midnight, although we had many casualties" At midnight the orders came from Sir John French to retire ( Sir John French although born in England always considered himself an Irishman, tracing his lineage from fourteenth-century Norman settlers in Wexford ) By that time t he had found out that he was vastly outnumbered by men and guns. Then the retreat started and lasted about 12 days.

The British fought a brilliant rearguard action all along the whole line and backwards for a distance of about 80 miles which was covered by forced marches at night as well as by day, hardly for an hour were the British forces permitted any rest. The Germans were continually pressing doen on the BEF, but the Old Contempitables continued to fight brilliantly against overwhelming masses of advancing German Infantry. The Germans tried to turn the retreat into a route, but failed to do so. The retirement was a splendid military achievement, and time and again the rear guard checked the advancing enemy allowing to main force to retire.

Above, British Infantry stop by the road side during their exhausting retreat and are served refreshments by local villagers but the German masses ( right ) are hot on their heels.

On Wednesday, August the 26th a real stand was made against the enemy at Le-Cotue and Landrecies. The Germans were given a taste of the fighting qualities of the " contemptible little army " The british were extended out in front of Le-Cotue and Landrecies, where the Germans were fighting desperately. " The word was passed along the line that we were to charge. When our buglers sounded the charge everyone went charging forward yelling like madmen. We charged through and through them, stabbing and hacking at each other until the Germans broke and ran like frightened hares in terror of hounds. " That same day was the day that the third army corps was brought into action. One division was brought hurriedly up to Le-Catuea by train.

"They took up position on our flanks where the Germans were trying to get around us, but we managed to hold him long enough to let our main body get away, although we lost heavily to them at Le- Catuea. What was left of us continued on with the retreat, our rearguards holding them in check. By August the 29th we had retreated back as far as Soissons. Before the german masses, the retreat was further complicated by the flight of almost the entire population of Northern France , the majority of them women and children. On September the 1st we had to make another stand against them at Uillers-Cotters for another of their fierce onslaughts, which they delivered against us whenever we tried to stop their persuit. We had little rest since the commencement of the retreat, with the Germans always at our heels. Only the day before we had the longest and most trying forced march with very little food, as our transport had to keep far in advance of our column to avoid capture. At Uillers-Cotters, our commanding officer was congratulating us for out grit and vitality when a runner came along and handed him a message. The message read that the Germans were approaching under cover of the woods.

Our Colonel rode up and down the line shouting " form up! " We formed up and fixed our bayonets and entered the woods and almost immediately caught site of the Germans. We blazed away at them and they blazed away at us through the trees and undergrowth, and also hand to hand fighting. We inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, but we also had many casualties. It was not the Germans fault that any of us got away alive as they were fighting desperately to surround us, but they failed " By September the 3rd the whole of the British Army had crossed the Marne, and the retreat was brought to an end without any grave disasters. General French had out generalled and out marched Von-Kluck, but the Germans were also over the river by the 5th. The Contemptible little Army retreated through Northern France before a mighty and irresistable wind of steel and lead, but it did not overtake and desperse them. So marvelously quick did the Contemptible littel Army recover that on September 7th they joined the French and helped turn back the Germans from the gates of Paris and push them back over the Marne and the Aisne.

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It was already becoming a bitter time for the Irish Guards, having lost their commanding officer only a few weeks after they had reached France they would face one of the bloodiest battles of 1914, Ypres , which began on the 19th of October. The battle would rip the heart out of the old regular army, just like the Somme would rip the heart out of New Army. The Battalion was in the thick of it fot the duration of ' First Ypres ' taking part in the major actions of ' First Ypres, at Langemarck, Gheluvelt and Nonne Bosschen. By the end of ' First Ypres'

on the 22nd November the Battalion had suffered over 700 casualties. The 2nd Division that the Irish Guards were part of suffered 5,769 offiers and men killed.

The rest of 1914 and early 1915 was spent in the trenches with little happening, yet still danger faced the soldier everyday from snipers and shells. In February 1915, Lance Corporal Micheal O' Leary performed an astonishing act of bravery at Cuinchy, where attack and counter attack had been taking place between the British and Germans there from the 29th January to early February . On the 1st of February the Lance Corporal was part of a storming party which attacked an enemy barricade, during the attack the the party suffered casualties and a group of the storming party got caught up in their own artillery bombardment. The Lance Corporal rushed forward, shooting five Germans before attacking a further three in a machine gun position at the next barricade, capturing two Germans in the process. The Trench and many prisoners were taken thanks to the actions of the Lance Corporal. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first VC the Irish Guards won in the war.

In May 1915 the 1st Irish Guards took part in the Battle of Festubert, though did not see much action, no doubt a good thing to many of the Guards in the trenches. In July 1915, the 2nd ( Reserve ) Battalion was redesignated the 3rd ( Reserve ) Battalion and another Battalion, the 2nd Battalion was formed at Waverly Barracks. In August that year the 1st irish Guards, and the rest of the 4th ( Guards ) Brigade moved to the Guards Division. The brigade was redesignated the 1st Guards Brigade. In September that year, the Battalion as well as the 2nd irish Guards, who had reached France in August, took part in the Battle of Loos, which lasted from 25th September to early October. The Irish Guards spent the much the remainder of 1915 in the trenches, but on the 1st of July 1916 the battle of the Somme began. It was and still is the bloodiest day in Military History. The 1st Irish Guards took part in an action at Flers-Courcelette where they suffered rather severe casualties in the attack but performed bravely in the face of terrible withering fire from the German machine-guns. The Battalion also took part in the action at Morval. They were involved in the capture of the northern part of the village,

during the action they were relieved the following day by the 2nd Irish Guards. The Ist Irish Guards suffered quite heavily during the Morval engagement.