“And as the soldier heard these voices, he saw before him beyond the trench a long line of shapes with a shining about them. They were like men who drew the bow, and with another shout their cloud of arrows flew singing and tingling through the air towards the German hosts…. “Look at those grey gentlemen, look at them! D’ye see them? They’re not going down in dozens, nor in ‘undreds: it’s thousands, it is.” These were some of the lines taken out of Arthur Machen’s short story The Bowmen which captivated the minds of the British people when it was published in the London Evening News on 29th September, 1914. Yet six months after the story was first published, various British newspapers and journals repeated Machen’s account, embellishing it and authenticating it with supposed eyewitness accounts. What had started as a work of literary fiction mutated into the realm of historical fact replete with supernatural forces intervening to save the British Army (BEF) from a crushing defeat on their retreat from Mons in August 1914. Thus was born the infamous Angels of Mons story. But is this story true? And if not, why did so many people believe it?
Machen’s fictional account centres on a small force of British soldiers hopelessly outnumbered trying to protect the retreat of the main British army from Mons. After days of constant German shelling, only 500 of the British rear-guard remained. The Germans then detached a force of 10,000 men to destroy the remnants. The remaining British soldiers opened fire with everything they had. They inflicted very heavy casualties on the Germans as “companies” and “battalions” of “grey men” bit the dust. Yet the situation was hopeless. There were just too many Germans. As the remaining British Tommies said their farewells to each other, a single British soldier knowledgeable in Latin recited a phrase he had seen on the wall of his favourite restaurant, “Adsit Anglis Sanctus Geogius”, “May Saint George be Present to Help the English”. Suddenly he heard a tumult of voices yelling out “Saint George! Saint George!”. The soldier then saw a line of shining figures who appeared to be holding bows and firing arrows at the Germans who fell in their thousands. The other British troops were amazed at the sight of the columns of falling German soldiers and thought that they were victims of their own deadly rifle and machine-gun fire. The rear-guard had performed a miracle. The retreating BEF had been saved. Yet the soldier who had recited the Latin phrase about Saint George knew the real reason for the victory. England had been saved by the ghosts of the Agincourt bowmen who had sent 10,000 German souls to their doom and who had saved the British Army. It was a story to gladden the heart of all Englishmen.
A few days after the publication of The Bowmen, Arthur Machen received letters from the Occult Review and the Light publication enquiring whether this story was based on any factual evidence. Machen told the editors of both publications that it had no foundation in fact of any kind whatsoever. A few months later Machen received requests from parish newspapers asking whether they could reprint his story. Machen’s editor readily gave permission. It turned out that The Bowmen was so popular that the conductor of one of these magazines informed Machen that the entire February issue had been sold out and that they were requesting permission to reprint his story in pamphlet form. The conductor, who happened to be a priest, also requested that Machen cite references for his story. Machen wrote to the priest giving him permission to reprint the story in pamphlet form, but also stated that he could not give any references because the whole story was pure invention. To Machen’s utter amazement, the priest wrote back saying that Machen must be mistaken, that the facts must be true, and that Machen’s role in it was to elaborate and decorate the account.
Despite Machen’s denials, the story of the bowmen was readily believed by the congregation. Very soon, variants of this tale began to appear and were presented as historical fact. In one account, the image of Saint George from the restaurant in Machen’s account appears to an unnamed officer on the battlefield who invokes his aid. In another variant, the battlefield is found littered with dead Prussians pierced by numerous arrow shafts. Clouds descend in other accounts to conceal the retreating British and shining shapes frighten away the pursuing German cavalry. It wasn’t long before the shining shapes of the bowmen became the shining shapes of angels, and this was the version that permeated the public imagination. Soon eyewitnesses began to appear, albeit anonymous figures such as an officer, a nurse, or a soldier. Someone (unknown) met a nurse (unnamed) who talked to a soldier (anonymous) who had seen angels. Eventually a lady’s name was mentioned, although she denied such knowledge in a letter to the editor of the Evening News. Certainly, much to Machen’s chagrin, it seems that his story was being presented as authentic historical fact.
Machen was unimpressed, even embarrassed. In the introduction to his book The Angels of Mons, the Bowmen, and Other Legends of The War, he states categorically that the whole story was pure invention. To quote Machen, “I’m sorry to say that I was making up a story in my head while the deacon was singing the Gospel in church.” So, we know that the story of the bowmen was definitely a work of Machen’s imagination. There were rumours that before Machen wrote The Bowmen, he had heard the account from someone else or that he was given the story for him to publish and thus The Bowmen was not his original work. On this he says, “Now it has been murmured and hinted and suggested and whispered in all sorts of quarters that before I wrote the tale I had heard something of it. The most decorative of these legends is also the most precise: “I know for a fact that the whole thing was given to him in typescript by a lady-in-waiting.” Machen categorically denies this together with all the other rumours that his work was based on some actual event. Indeed, Machen claims the origins of The Bowmen were composite. The idea that all nations are attracted by the thought of spiritual aid manifesting itself in times of crisis, coupled with the notion of gods and heroes, angels and saints coming down to Earth to lend support, the image of Kipling’s ghostly Indian regiment, and the English bowmen of the medieval battle of Agincourt all played a part in the formation of the story in Machen’s head.
Yet the fiction was believed. Why then did so many people take it as historical fact? It was seen by some as a sign that God was on the side of the British and thus on the side of justice. Others believed it simply because it was reported in the newspaper. The multiple “witnesses” of the event also added credibility. Whatever the reason, like the priest, people wanted to believe in the story, and that was much more important than the truth.
The Angels of Mons is one of the most intriguing and remarkable stories of the First World War. Although lacking in any factual foundation, it was a great morale-booster at a time when Britain and France seemed to be losing the war giving the message that God was on the side of the British. However, this also serves as a lesson to historians. Myths, when presented by the media as fact are easily believed, especially when they seem appealing. The fact that modern-day accounts suggest that the Angels of Mons were the result of hallucinations of sleep-deprived men shows that some modern media presentations should have read Arthur Machen’s The Angels of Mons, The Bowmen, and Other Legends of the War before asserting such utter nonsense.
Whatever divine aid was given to the forces of the Triple Entente in the First World War, should you even believe in such a thing, it did not consist of an army of bowmen or angels scything down the Kaiser’s grey-uniformed troops as they pursued the retreating British Expeditionary Force. It was no more than a fictional story blown out of all proportion.