Rearguard Affair of Étreux

Battle of Étreux
Part of the Great Retreat on the Western Front (First World War)
Date 27 August 1914 Location Étreux, France Result Successful retreat by the Allies
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien	Alexander von Kluck Karl von Bülow
Strength
around 800, with 2 field guns	4-5,000
Casualties and losses
around 600 killed and wounded, 240 men and 4 officers surrendered	as many as 1,500

The Battle of Étreux was a rearguard action fought at Étreux by the British Expeditionary Force during the Great Retreat on the Western Front in 1914.

Tasked with holding their ground under all circumstances, the 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers, in their very first action in France, achieved a military feat seldom paralleled in modern warfare. Less than a battalion strength, just 3 companies of the 2nd. Battalion of The Munsters supported by a couple of field guns halted the advance of the German Army for fourteen hours in the area of Oisny & Étreux during the retreat from Mons on August 27.

Under continual pressure from German attacks, the Munsters fell back to an orchard near the village of Étreux. As night-time fell on the evening of the 27th of August, the Munsters found themselves surrounded on all sides by the German army. Having exhausted their ammunition, they had no other option but to surrender.

In their action at Ètreux, only four officers and 240 other ranks of the 2nd Munsters survived but the Battalion prevented German pursuit of the BEF I Corps gaining valuable time for the BEF to escape. They were outnumbered at odds of over 6 to 1, and when finally defeated, the survivors were congratulated on their supreme bravery by the German soldiers they had fought.