Rearguard Affair of Le Grand Fayt 1914
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 26 August 1914 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1914 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Western Front | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 50.1142, 3.8025 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Rearguard Affair of Le Grand Fayt was a rearguard action fought at Grand-Fayt by the British Expeditionary Force's 2nd Division, during the Great Retreat on the Western Front in 1914.
The German 2nd Army commander General Karl von Bülow had ordered a rapid pursuit after the battles of 21–24 August against the French Fifth Army and the Expeditionary Force (EF). The 1st and 2nd armies were sent to the south-west to gain the left flank of the Allied line. The X Reserve Corps encountered "especially obstinate" resistance at Marbaix and Le Grand-Fayt. On the morning of the 26 August 1914, the 2nd Connaught Rangers under Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. Abercrombie covering the retreat of the British 5th Infantry Brigade from Petit Landrecies. Unknown to Abercrombie, by late morning the retreat had already taken place but the orders had not reached the Connaught Rangers.
Hearing the sound of rifle fire coming from near-by Marbaix, Abercrombie set off with two platoons of infantry in the direction Marbaix only to come under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire. Abercrombie then ordered his force to retire on Le Grand Fayt, which locals had told him was clear of Germans, only to discover that Le Grand Fayt had been abandoned.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Rearguard Affair of Le Grand Fayt (revision 1370706383), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Western Front
- Battle of Liège 1914
- Battle of the Frontiers 1914
- First Battle of Artois 1914
- First Battle of Champagne 1914
- First Battle of the Marne 1914
- Siege of Antwerp (1914) 1914
- Siege of Namur (1914) 1914
- Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf 1915
- Battle of Kitcheners' Wood 1915
- Battle of Loos 1915
All 48 battles of the Western Front →
Browse more: battles in France · Europe · World War I era battles