The Battle of Mons was the first major battle of the First World War undertaken by the British Expeditionary Force. The British Army attempted to hold the Mons-Condé Canal against the advancing German Army. Many troops who were either from Plymouth or had passed through the port would have fought at Mons.
One of the most enduring tales of the time features the legend of a group of angels who supposedly protected the British Army as they fought. Many soldiers were reported to have seen angels over the battlefield and the tale greatly boosted recruitment. Even today, the story is still taken to be true but was, in fact, a work of fiction and although many people retold the story, not one British soldier who was at the battle actually saw anything.
The tale developed from a short story written by Arthur Machen for the London newspaper, The Evening News, entitled 'The Bowman'. It was published on 29th September 1914. The story told of phantom bowmen being called upon from the Battle of Agincourt by a British soldier fighting the Germans. It was written as a first-hand account although was total fiction. However, readers thought that it was a true account and Machen was asked to provide witnesses to the event.
A couple of months later, Machen was asked by priests if the story could be reprinted in local parish magazines. One priest proposed to write a preface to the story and asked Machen for sources of the event for which he replied that none could be given as the story was a work of fiction. The priest replied that Machen must be mistaken as the 'facts' of the story were true, and that Machen must have based his story on a true account. Machen said later:
'It seemed that my light fiction had been accepted by the congregation of this particular church as the solidest of facts; and it was then that it began to dawn on me that if I had failed in the art of letters, I had succeeded, unwittingly, in the art of deceit. This happened, I should think, some time in April, and the snowball of rumour that was then set rolling has been rolling ever since, growing bigger and bigger, till it is now swollen to a monstrous size.'
Variations of the story began to appear each reporting the story as fact. On 24th April, the British Spiritualist Magazine published stories of angelic warriors being seen over the Battlefield at Mons and by May 1915, the story was said to show that God was on the side of the Allies. As the rumours of angels at Mons spread across the world, Machen tried to dispel the rumours by publishing the story in a book with a long preface stating that there was no truth in the story. It became a best seller but this only led to a series of publications claiming to provide proof of the angels' existence.
The story re-emerged in the 1980s. No witness accounts existed although it was said that some soldiers had seen visions of phantom cavalry as they retreated. However, these hallucinations were put down to the exhaustion of troops who had not slept properly for days.
In 2001, an article published in the Sunday Times claimed that a diary of a soldier named William Doidge had been found which proved the existence of the angels. This was accompanied by film and photographic evidence. However, this later turned out to be a hoax.
No doubt as stories emerge during the centenary of the commencement of the First World War this year, the story of the Angels of Mons will be re-told over and over and, even one hundred years later will still be taken, by some, as fact.
