August 1914

Mons and the British Expeditionary Force's withdrawal in August 1914 is a well-known episode of the First World War, but this book looks at the officers who failed under German pressure. Colonels Elkington and Mainwaring tried to surrender rather than keep fighting, and both were publicly shamed for it.

John Hutton renders the disorder of the retreat in vivid detail and shows how stress, uncertainty and exhaustion can push even courageous men to a dangerous mental breaking point. The book then follows Elkington's road back: he joined the French Foreign Legion, served with courage, was seriously wounded, and was reinstated by King George V.

The attempted surrender at St. Quentin is a central episode in the account, which presents it as one of the more striking stories to emerge from the Great War.