I’m not a Tommy but I play one on TV

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Mons, where the British Expeditionary Force saw its first action on Continental soil since Waterloo in 1815.  They fought well, but were heavily outnumbered (~4:1) and could not hold their position. Their retreat, alongside the French column, went on for two weeks, all the way to the outskirts of Paris, at which point they counterattacked touching off the Battle of the Marne.

BBC 3 recently produced a mini-series, Our World War, which is supposed to get at the heart of the soldier’s experience. All of the stories are based on historical even, and are largely taken from the diaries of the characters involved. The first episode, which can be found streaming here, follows a battalion at Mons as they try to maintain control of a bridge. A few of soldiers depicted won the first Victoria crosses of the war. The aesthetic is reminiscent of Call of Duty, electronic music plays throughout, and the language is modern, but somehow—somewhat surprisingly—it all works. (The liberal rags in the U.K .liked it, and the Tory rags panned it, if that makes sense.) Trailer below.

Sweet land of liberty

So this isn’t linked to August 1914, but it is worth noting that the national anthem of the German Empire, known as the “Kaiserhymne,” sounds awfully familiar.

The fall of Brussels

On August 19, the Sprouts fell back in the direction of Antwerp, and the Krauts occupied the Belgian capital unopposed the very next day. It was the only major European capital that was captured during the conflict (though Paris evaded the same fate by a taxi cab’s breadth). Some footage below.