The day that angels saved the British Army.

Do you believe in angels?

Many of us do.

Here is one of my favorite stories about an experience with angels.

The German Army was on the offensive and advancing against the allied French and English armies.  

It was early in World War I, August 26, 1914, and there was a small British force fighting alongside the French army.  

During the battle, fought near Mons, Belgium, the French army retreated and the small British force was left to take on the brunt of the advancing German force.  

Note: Belgium, comparatively, is a little bigger than the state of Massachusetts.  Belgium is located directly across the English Channel from England, bordered to the south by France, and to the east by Germany.   

The odds were 4-to-1 against the British.  Although the British fought bravely, as they tried to retreat in the face of superior numbers, they finally reached the point where “the Germans were coming on in such overwhelming numbers that rifles and courage could not hold them off any longer.”  

Then, according to many witnesses who were actually participants in the battle, a miracle occurred.

The angels came.

There are numerous first-hand accounts of British soldiers who witnessed the events that day.

Some angels were described as a “shadowy army…of bowmen,” and other British soldiers witnessed “unearthly figures materialize…above the German lines that were winged like angels.”

There were other accounts that the angelic army was led by a “tall, yellow-haired man on a white horse, wearing golden armor and wielding a sword.” There were reports of hails of arrows being unleashed by the angelic bowmen which “cut down the enemy en masse.”  

“The Germans later found the bodies of hundreds of their men lying on the battlefield with no discernible wounds…” 

It was not only the common soldiers who saw the angels, but the officers as well.  

A British colonel is quoted as saying, “…the thing happened. You need not be incredulous. I saw it myself.”  Captain Hayward, an intelligence officer with the British Intelligence Corps, saw “four or five wonderful beings” and “figures of luminous beings.”

This event was widely-reported (and believed) in the British nations as many soldiers confirmed the angelic intervention.  Many articles and books have been written about the angelic intervention.

Could all of these English soldiers have been delusional?  

Could all of these English soldiers have been “seeing things?”  

There is no question the soldiers and officers who were there that day believed this event actually occurred.  

I am inclined to believe it occurred as well. 

Let me know what you think?  

Portions of my blog, here, were adapted from an April 2, 2009 article by Steve Collins, and from an article in a military history publication, Military Heritage, from the August, 2005 issue, from an article by Robert Barr Smith in the “Soldiers” feature of the magazine (pages 14-17, 76).

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