On 3 September , British troops had completed their retreat to the left bank of the Marne and were preparing to destroy the bridge, the last link between the two banks of the river.
Its paving stones damaged neighbouring buildings as far as the cathedral, but the mills on the bridge survived the explosion intact. He first served in the First World War as a lieutenant-general and was appointed head of the 1st Corps. He took part in the battles of Mons, the Marne and Ypres.
Thanks to these successes, he was promoted to general and made second-in-command of the British forces in France, which placed him under the command of Sir John French. He was appointed to lead the British Expeditionary Force in France in December until the end of the war.
During the Battle of the Somme in , his troops lost , men with very little success; it was the deadliest battle in British history. The campaigns of Passchendaele and Poelkapelle earned him a reputation as an "inhuman" general, and his troops nicknamed him "The Butcher". In , he was promoted to Field Marshal, and then everyone thought he had done the best he could given the circumstances he had to face.
For the American General John J. He remained Commander-in-Chief until his retirement in War broke out on 4 August , the date on which the United Kingdom mobilised its army of professional soldiers. For the first time in 99 years, since Waterloo - with the exception of the Crimean War - the British were ready to engage in combat on the European continent. The start of the war prompted a vast campaign to recruit volunteers.
