Page 11 - Last Chargers example

Foreword to
The Last Charges
By
Major General JHT Short CB OBE
Colonel of the Regiment, 9th/12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales’s)
Some of those who read this
book will have known soldiers
who fought in the First World
War, some may even have met
survivors of the charges that it
describes, but for many people
the events that took place over
a century ago are, despite the
recent national commemora-
tions, dif cult to relate to. For
those of us brought up in the
9th/12th Royal Lancers, with
the annual commemorations
of Mons/Moy, there is of
course a more direct and per-
sonal connection through a shared experience of service and often bloodshed.
Whatever our connection to these events, this book provides a clear description of what hap- pened over those two days in the late summer of 1914 and the raw courage that was displayed by both regiments. Like so many of the great stories of our military past, the facts of the actions at Moÿ2 de l’Aisne and Le Montcel3 have been embroidered over the years; some of that embroidery is down to the historians’ (and artists’) inaccuracy, some to the passage of oral tradition and some because, after the heat of an action, the participants were unlikely to be able to recall every detail with absolute precision. In The Last Charges, the author has done an
2 Moÿ
3 Moncel
excellent job of researching and analysing the most likely chain of events and pointing out where the myths might have begun.
In addition to providing as accurate an historical record as one is likely to nd, this book serves two other purposes. First, it complements our Regimental commemoration in 2014 of the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. These commem-
orations were marked by services held on the battle elds themselves and were supported by the French authorities, the serving Regiment and Old Comrades, and our wider families and friends. Second, it marks our Tercentenary and the nal chapter of the 9th/12th Royal Lancers – the two named Regiments that took part in the charges.
The battles of Mons and Moÿ will continue to be celebrated annually by the new Regiment, The Royal Lancers. This book helps us to understand why, both from an historical, mil- itary and moral standpoint, we are right to do so.
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