The strange account of the day “angels” saved British troops during WWI

Michie

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Was it St. George? St. Michael? Multiple accounts testified to a heavenly host on the fields of France in August 1914.

Nations and their armies have often gone to war believing “God is on our side.” In a little-known incident at the outset of World War I, that sentiment seemed to have been visibly affirmed for a number of British soldiers.

In early August 1914, soon after tensions on multiple fronts and levels erupted into war, Great Britain dispatched the British Expeditionary Force to counter the German invasion of Belgium. The Germans had their sights on Paris, and the BEF met the German Army at the Belgian town of Mons, southwest of Brussels.

The BEF was vastly outnumbered but fought valiantly against the forces of the Second Reich. Unfortunately, they could not hold the line. As they retreated, the Germans pursued them.

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The strange account of the day “angels” saved British troops during WWI

 

Gnarwhal

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Was it St. George? St. Michael? Multiple accounts testified to a heavenly host on the fields of France in August 1914.

Nations and their armies have often gone to war believing “God is on our side.” In a little-known incident at the outset of World War I, that sentiment seemed to have been visibly affirmed for a number of British soldiers.

In early August 1914, soon after tensions on multiple fronts and levels erupted into war, Great Britain dispatched the British Expeditionary Force to counter the German invasion of Belgium. The Germans had their sights on Paris, and the BEF met the German Army at the Belgian town of Mons, southwest of Brussels.

The BEF was vastly outnumbered but fought valiantly against the forces of the Second Reich. Unfortunately, they could not hold the line. As they retreated, the Germans pursued them.

Continued below.
The strange account of the day “angels” saved British troops during WWI

I find it so interesting that a lot of WWI stories and history is coming to the forefront lately, perhaps because we're at the century mark since the armistice. I like it though, I think we Americans are grossly under-informed about that war because our involvement was significantly smaller than in WWII, so it's good that we're being exposed to more stories from that time.
 
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Michie

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My great grandfather served in WWI. Got a metal plate in his head. He was mean to begin with from what I hear but came back doubly so.
I find it so interesting that a lot of WWI stories and history is coming to the forefront lately, perhaps because we're at the century mark since the armistice. I like it though, I think we Americans are grossly under-informed about that war because our involvement was significantly smaller than in WWII, so it's good that we're being exposed to more stories from that time.
 
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Gnarwhal

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My great grandfather served in WWI. Got a metal plate in his head. He was mean to begin with from what I hear but came back doubly so.

How'd he end up with the plate? Shrapnel from artillery fire?

It's fascinating when you think about it, that the war happened when the world was in this transitionary phase. So it was this amalgamation of antiquated combat tactics (like sounding organized charges out of the trenches) and modern military technology (like tanks, machine guns, and unfortunately chemical weapons). It seems like that really exacerbated the casualty count beyond what might've been had the strategy been in line with the war machinery, or vice-versa.

I never knew him, but my mom's great-uncle Hugh (my great-grandfather's brother) was blinded by gas (mustard gas, I think) in the war. Incredible the impacts just that had on men. My favorite baseball player ever, Christy Mathewson (a pitcher for the then-New York Giants) died young—age 45—after he served in the Chemical Service and was accidentally gassed in training, he later died in 1925 after he contracted tuberculosis two years earlier, which was at least partially attributed to his exposure to the gas.
 
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Michie

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How'd he end up with the plate? Shrapnel from artillery fire?

It's fascinating when you think about it, that the war happened when the world was in this transitionary phase. So it was this amalgamation of antiquated combat tactics (like sounding organized charges out of the trenches) and modern military technology (like tanks, machine guns, and unfortunately chemical weapons). It seems like that really exacerbated the casualty count beyond what might've been had the strategy been in line with the war machinery, or vice-versa.

I never knew him, but my mom's great-uncle Hugh (my great-grandfather's brother) was blinded by gas (mustard gas, I think) in the war. Incredible the impacts just that had on men. My favorite baseball player ever, Christy Mathewson (a pitcher for the then-New York Giants) died young—age 45—after he served in the Chemical Service and was accidentally gassed in training, he later died in 1925 after he contracted tuberculosis two years earlier, which was at least partially attributed to his exposure to the gas.

I’m not sure. All I know is he suffered from some sort of head injury. My grandmother despised him and did not have good memories when growing up. It was suspected he was a bigamist so she did not like talking about him. I’m sure it would be easy enough to figure out if I put some time into searching records, etc.
 
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Runner12

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No offense, but the Angels of Mons tale is well-known, well-documented fiction. It simply has no basis in fact. The Wikipedia article is a good short introduction: Angels of Mons - Wikipedia.

As a Christian and a member of the Society for Psychical Research (which originally investigated the story), I'd love for it to be true or at least to have some basis in fact - but it simply does not.
 
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Bob Crowley

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My great grandfather served in WWI. Got a metal plate in his head. He was mean to begin with from what I hear but came back doubly so.

My grandfather on my father's side, whom I don't remember as he died when I was about a year old, was gassed on the Western Front. He survived, but his lungs were damaged, which probably contributed to his early death.

Apparently the fighting was so deadly that he told my father or the family that none of them expected to come back. World War I was the most costly war for Australians, more so than World War II.

Out of 416,000 men who enlisted, 60,000 were killed (one in seven) and another 156,000 were gassed, wounded or captured. In total just over half of the enlistments were killed, wounded, gassed or captured.

The British and French probably had a similar toll. That was why Hitler was able to exploit appeasement with his opponents. There was no appetite for another war, since most of the politicians of the time had fought in World War I, or seen it's effects.

10 myths about WW1 debunked

Some 12% of the British army's ordinary soldiers were killed during the war, compared with 17% of its officers. Eton alone lost more than 1,000 former pupils - 20% of those who served. UK wartime Prime Minister Herbert Asquith lost a son, while future Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law lost two. Anthony Eden lost two brothers, another brother of his was terribly wounded, and an uncle was captured.
 
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Bob Crowley

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Not in the same category, but I've often claimed that the night my father died, he turned up in my room. We argued and conversed and at the end he gave this absolutely terrifying scream and then disappeared.

I don't often hear other people with similar stories, although I have heard a handful of accounts where somebody has seen something of a similar nature.

But on Friday afternoon I was talking to an elderly lady, also Catholic (although I'm not sure if she's practicing or not) who told me that when her husband died, he also turned up. He sat on the foot of the bed, and apologised for all the abuse and violence he'd inflicted on her. She didn't say if he disappeared in the same dramatic fashion as my father, but she was quite insistent he sat on the foot of the bed, and talked.

She knew he was dying anyway as he'd had a brain embolism and he was being kept alive by machines in hospital, being effectively brain dead. The staff had told her they's switch off the machines the next day, and if he couldn't breathe on his own, he would die.

He died that night before they'd made the decision, and turned up in her bedroom. She said she didn't know what was going on and freaked out about it.

She had five children and he used to treat one daughter very badly. She also had the the same experience of him turning up and apologising , again sitting on the foot of the bed. It seems he was sent to the two people he'd hurt the most.

So I'm not the only one. Except that in my case we had a full blown conversation, much of which I still remember (41 years ago now) and I personally believe that going by the hair-raising scream just before he disappeared into eternity, I think he went to hell. It was obvious something was coming for him.

Between Archangels turning up to rescue just one Marine in Korea, with a total death toll of five million people, and reports of dead relatives turning up, as one Presbyterian pastor said to me, "There's a very strange psychic world out there."

I remember reading an account by a New Zealand man. He wrote that his brother had a very close relationship with their grandmother. His brother was in the navy so when the grand mother died, he wasn't told until the other brother could get in contact with him. But when he was told, he said he already knew. He stated the grandmother (like the woman's husband) sat on the foot of his bed and talked to him.

The problem was that he was on a NZ naval vessel way out in the Pacific Ocean somewhere at the time.

I'll bet a lot more people have had similar experiences, but they don't say anything because other people don't believe them.
 
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eastcoast_bsc

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My father served in Korea and always told me the story that when he arrived and was assigned to his platoon they got hit with incoming mortar and being only 19 he was hugging the ground and made all kinds of promises to God . He often felt guilty for not living up to his promises.

Another time later in his stay a lieutenant told him to him to lead his platoon up a hill and collect any weapons that were left behind. The previous night the Chinese had overrun the hill. My father was shaking because he knew the Chinese would still be there. Keep in mind the Chinese supported the North Koreans and often fought by their side and would attack in waves.

Just as he was ready to lead his platoon up the side of the hill a captain confronted the lieutenant and said that if he wasn’t going up the hill then neither were the enlisted troops.

saved their lives.
 
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Gnarwhal

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My father served in Korea and always told me the story that when he arrived and was assigned to his platoon they got hit with incoming mortar and being only 19 he was hugging the ground and made all kinds of promises to God . He often felt guilty for not living up to his promises.

Another time later in his stay a lieutenant told him to him to lead his platoon up a hill and collect any weapons that were left behind. The previous night the Chinese had overrun the hill. My father was shaking because he knew the Chinese would still be there. Keep in mind the Chinese supported the North Koreans and often fought by their side and would attack in waves.

Just as he was ready to lead his platoon up the side of the hill a captain confronted the lieutenant and said that if he wasn’t going up the hill then neither were the enlisted troops.

saved their lives.

Thank God for that Captain.
 
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