While the British army was being mobilized, the utmost secrecy was observed regarding all movements of troops.  The newspapers refrained from publishing even the little they knew and an expeditionary force, composed of the flower of the British army and numbering approximately 94,000 men of all arms of the service, was assembled, transported across the English Channel and landed at Boulogne and other French ports behind a veil of deepest mystery, so far as the British public and the world at large were concerned.

The old town of Plymouth, on the Channel, was the chief port of embarkation for the troops and the main concentration point in England, but troops embarked also at Dublin, Ireland; Liverpool; Eastbourne; Southampton, and other cities.  Not a mention of the midnight sailings of transports carrying troops, horses, automobiles, artillery, hospital and commissary equipment and supplies was allowed to be printed in the newspapers, nor was it known how many troops were being sent across the Channel.

The landing in France was effected between the 10th and the 20th of August without the loss of a single man, and on the 23d, having joined forces with the French army under General Joffre, commander-in-chief, the British found themselves in touch with the German enemy at Mons in Belgium.

FIELD-MARSHAL FRENCH IN COMMAND

The expeditionary force was in supreme command of Field Marshal Sir John D. P. French, a veteran officer of high military repute, with Maj.-Gen. Sir A. Murray as chief of staff.  Other noted officers were Lieut.-Gen. Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the First Corps; Lieut.-Gen. Sir James Grierson, commander of the Second Corps; Maj.-Gen. W. P. Pulteney, commander of the Third Corps, and Maj.-Gen. Edmund Allenby, in command of the Cavalry Division.  The home army was left in command of Gen. Sir Ian Hamilton.

Hardly had the expedition landed in France when the death was reported of the commander of the Second Corps, Sir James Grierson, who succumbed to heart disease while on his way to the front, dropping dead on a train.  He was given a notable military funeral in London.  Gen. Sir H. L. Smith-Dorrien was appointed to succeed him in command of the Second Corps.

The British troops were received in France with loud acclaim and Field Marshal French, on visiting Paris for a conference at the French war office before proceeding to the front, was greeted by a popular demonstration that showed how welcome British aid was to the French in their critical hour.

The British field force was composed of three army corps, each comprising two divisions, and there was also an extra cavalry division.

Each army corps consists of twenty-four infantry battalions of about one thousand men each on a war footing; six cavalry regiments, eight batteries of horse artillery of six guns each, eighteen batteries of field artillery, two howitzer batteries, and troops of engineers, signal corps, army service corps and other details.