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British Expeditionary Force

Postcard by Willi Scheuermann of the British coming to the continent, spreading rumors, and then being kicked back to England. After their defeats in the Battles of Mons and Le Cateau on August 23 and 26, 1914, the German First Army lost contact with the %+%Organization%m%20%n%British Expeditionary Force%-% and assumed they had withdrawn to the channel coast if not to England.
Text:
Er kam---
Er sah---
Er log---
Er flog.
[Signed] WS
Russen vor Berlin
Franzosen in München
Helgoland in die Luft geflogen
He came
He saw
He lied
He flew
[the lies:]
Russians at Berlin
French in Munich
Helgoland blown up
Reverse:
Logo: W S S B 577

Postcard by Willi Scheuermann of the British coming to the continent, spreading rumors, and then being kicked back to England. After their defeats in the Battles of Mons and Le Cateau on August 23 and 26, 1914, the German First Army lost contact with the British Expeditionary Force and assumed they had withdrawn to the channel coast if not to England.

Image text

Er kam---

Er sah---

Er log---

Er flog.

[Signed] WS

Russen vor Berlin

Franzosen in München

Helgoland in die Luft geflogen

He came

He saw

He lied

He flew

[the lies:]

Russians at Berlin

French in Munich

Helgoland blown up



Reverse:

Logo: W S S B 577

Other views: Larger, Back

An island nation, Britain's military might lay in its Royal Navy, the most powerful in the world. Primarily designed to project power in the territory of the British Empire, the British Expeditionary Force - the BEF - was not designed for a war on the European continent.

At the beginning of the war, the BEF was an army of about 110,000 professional soldiers under the command of Sir John French. The force suffered 86,237 casualties in the battles of 1914, particularly in the First Battle of Ypres.

Both the French and British tried to concentrate their forces on the Western Front in preparation for offensive action. The French pressed the British to extend their line, taking over more of it from the French. The British resisted.

Kitchener's Army, respondents to the initial call for volunteers in 1914, augmented the BEF in 1915. The British New Army arrived in 1916.

British Expeditionary Force is an army in The British Army.