Although the years 1915-1918 saw titanic battles on the Western Front, many British military professionals and historians consider their army's greatest moment to have been a small battle fought at the beginning of the war in August, 1914. In those simpler days a fully-equipped British Expeditionary Force could be on French soil and locked in combat with the Germans a mere eight weeks after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

As the Anglo-French forces retreated toward their decisive stand on the Marne, the British Army, made up entirely of prewar professionals, turned and fought a delaying action against the Germans along the Mons canal. The detailed narrative associated with the Battleground Europe series, backed up by numerous illustrations and maps, has never been put to better use than in describing this unique engagement in which both modern weapons and traditional cavalry charges played a crucial role.