From Binche to Conde the line assigned to the British was approximately twenty-five miles.  Their force totaled some 75,000 men with 259 guns.  General French, therefore, had 2,500 men to the mile of front.  This was an insufficient force, as the usual fighting front for a battalion of a thousand men in defense or in attack is estimated in all armies at about 425 yards.  The British brigade of four battalions (4,000 rifles) covers a half-mile front.  General French’s Third Army Corps having been utilized elsewhere, he was compelled to use his cavalry in four brigades as reserve.

Previous to the German attack on Charleroi, General Joffre still held to his plan of a left-wing attack, or rather a counter-attack after the Germans were beaten.  But battles were commencing on other fronts, properly belonging to the general retreat, which made its execution doubtful even in an hour of Victory.  The capture of Charleroi, of course, dissipated it as a dream.  That General French realized the superiority in numbers of Von Kluck’s advancing army both in infantry and artillery is nowhere suggested.  His airmen had merely brought in the information that the attack would be in “considerable force.”  The French Intelligence Service were led to believe and informed the British commander that Von Kluck was advancing upon him with only one corps, or two at the most.  Some of General French’s cavalry scouting as far toward Brussels as Soignes, during the 21st and 22d, confirmed it.  But the British proceeded to prepare for attack immediately on taking position.  They set to work digging trenches.

While continuing their defensive efforts through Saturday, August 22, 1914, there floated to them a distant rumble from the eastward.  Opinions differed as to whether it was the German guns bombarding Namur, or a battle in progress on the Sambre.  For the most part British officers and men had but a vague idea of their position, or the progress of the fighting in the vicinity.  Even the headquarters staff remained uninformed of the desperate situation developing on the French right at Charleroi.

The headquarters of the British army was at Mons. It lies within what is known as “le Borinage,” that is the boring district of Belgium, the coal-mining region.  In certain physical aspects it much resembles the same territory of Pennsylvania.  Containing one or two larger towns such as Charleroi and Mons, it is sprinkled over with villages gathered near the coal pits.  Everywhere trolley lines are to be seen running from the mines to supply the main railways and barge canals.

Formerly the people were of a rough, ignorant and poverty toiling type, but of late years have greatly improved with the introduction of organized labor and education.  Previous bad conditions, however, have left their mark in a stunted and physically degenerate type of descendants from the mining population of those times.  In contrast to later comers they resemble a race of dwarfs.  The men seldom exceed four feet eight inches in height, the women and children appear bloodless and emaciated.