materially by the support given by Allenby and, as I afterwards
learned, by Sordet and d'Amade, saved the 2nd Corps, which otherwise
would assuredly have been pinned to their ground and then surrounded.
The cavalry might have made good their retreat, but three out of five
Divisions of the British Army with the 7th Brigade must have been
lost.

The enemy, flushed by this primary victory, would have pressed in on
the flanks of the 1st Corps, cut off their retreat, and, continuing
his combined front and flank attack, would have almost certainly
pushed the whole Allied Army off their line of retreat, and a
stupendous repetition of Sedan might well have resulted.

The magnificent fight put up by these glorious troops saved disaster;
but the actual result was a total loss of at least 14,000 officers and
men, about 80 guns, numbers of machine guns, as well as quantities of
ammunition, war material and baggage, whilst the enemy gained time to
close up his infantry columns marching down from the north-east, at
the cost of losses not greater than, if as great, as our own, but
which were, in view of the immense superiority he possessed in numbers
and fighting power, infinitely less important to him.

The effect upon the British Army was to render the subsequent conduct
of the retreat more difficult and arduous.

The hope of making a stand behind the Somme or the Oise, or any other
favourable position north of the Marne, had now to be abandoned owing
to the shattered condition of the Army, and the far-reaching effect of
our losses at the Battle of Le Cateau was felt seriously even
throughout the subsequent Battle of the Marne and during the early
operations on the Aisne. It was not possible to replace our lost guns
and machine guns until nearly the end of September.

In my dispatch, written in September, 1914, I refer eulogistically to
the Battle of Le Cateau. I had been, together with my staff, directing
the movements of the British Army day and night up to the time of the
Battle of the Marne--in the course of which battle I received an
urgent demand from the Government that a dispatch should be forwarded.

It was completed, of necessity, very hurriedly, and before there had
been time or opportunity to give thorough study to the reports
immediately preceding and covering the period of that battle, by which
alone the full details could be disclosed.

It was, indeed, impossible, until much later on, to appreciate in all
it