Tableau de Marcel Gilles © collections Ville de MonsThe Legend of the Angels of Mons
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Tableau de Marcel Gilles © collections Ville de MonsTableau de Marcel Gilles © collections Ville de MonsEncircled by Germans five times their number, 4,000 Commonwealth soldiers make their way through and emerge unscathed from certain death. Barely back at camp, a rumor spreads: angels from the sky are said to have shown them the way.
As the Battle of Mons rages on and the number of British soldiers already fallen to enemy fire continues to rise, the 8th Brigade fiercely defends the Mons salient. By the evening of August 23, as night falls, the situation is dire. The 21,000 Germans involved in the battle have overwhelmed Mons from the East. They occupy the city and threaten the British rear. On the right, the situation is just as catastrophic, as the Commonwealth soldiers face the 7th Regiment of Bremen, which holds Spiennes. Yet, the 8th Brigade miraculously manages to escape. They carve their way through the darkness and reach their camp.
The story might have ended there if a rumor hadn’t spread among the soldiers. Some claimed to have seen angels in the form of archers. These angels supposedly stopped the Germans in their tracks, allowing the soldiers to retreat. Fiction or reality? It’s hard to say, of course. The Great War gave rise to many legends. In several places along the front, soldiers were said to have received help from celestial figures to stay alive.
Tableau de Marcel Gilles © collections Ville de Mons
Droits réservésThe church and then the British crown seized upon the event to encourage the soldiers to continue their efforts. Shortly after the events, the supernatural writer Arthur Machen published a short story in the London Evening News, dramatizing the event. He told the tale of a British soldier helped by archers to escape the clutches of the German army. The man mentioned Saint George, the patron saint of soldiers and a legendary figure in the city of Mons.
Although he quickly confessed to having invented the entire story, the doubt was no longer allowed. The legend took on various forms. The angels were depicted in different ways, sometimes as a glowing cloud, sometimes as a winged knight. Particularly famous, the legend of Mons still generates a great deal of interest today, 100 years after the beginning of the conflict.
