Angels In War (The First World War) Part 2

Debated In The Churches

The subject began to be debated in the churches. The following is taken from a detailed address given at Bridge Street Methodist Church, Mansfield, and was reported in the Mansfield Reporter. The information was given from a high source as it was given by the Assistant Chaplain General to the Forces, The Reverend Owen S. Watkins, CMB, CBE.

At the retreat from Mons, the only division of British cavalry was practically wiped out in a few minutes. It was a sad story which never has been told in full detail. The 'Charge of the Light Brigade' was child's play compared to that action. Out of a regiment of 500-strong only 12 men were left alive.

These figures were confirmed recently on BBC1TV on the eightieth anniversary of Armistice Day, 1998, when one of those twelve ex-soldier survivors gave his traumatic reminiscences. He was over one hundred years old, had lost the sight of one eye and was being pushed around in an invalid chair. On the screen we saw him take the presenter to the actual field. No one would have thought that such a tragedy had happened. Fresh green grass covered rising ground with a wooden fence on the far side behind which was a forest. With a sweep of the hand the survivor indicated where the 500 had perished, and the lower corner where the rain of exploding shells had missed him.

All the time a dogged rearguard action was fought by the British trying to hold back a mass of grey-coated 'Huns' advancing shoulder to shoulder. Without the angelic intervention the thinly-spread British would have been overwhelmed.

Another church where the subject was aired was St Mary-at-Hill, in the City of London. Dr Richardson, who I knew much later when I attended the church as a young man, advertised that he was going to speak on the 'Angels of Mons'. This beautiful Christopher Wren church was crowded and the result was reported in the well-known London Evening News.

'I would like to ask,' said Dr Richardson, 'whether there is anyone in the congregation who has letters in his possession or has seen such letters from soldiers who can tell of seeing angels on the battlefield.'

A lady at the back of the church stood up. 'I have seen letters from three different soldiers. In each one there is a clear and convincing testimony that the soldiers had themselves seen the angels. All the letters were written in convincing matter-of-fact statements. The soldiers declared that the invaders had been kept back by troops of angels. They also averred that the French soldiers affirmed that they had also seen the angelic forces.' Many others in the congregation added similar evidence.

Mrs Quest of St Leonards-on-Sea told how a nurse just back from France spoke to her on the train because she was wearing her son's regimental badge. The nurse was bringing with her three letters from different soldiers, each one firmly declaring that they had personally seen the angels, and that the French soldiers had seen them also. They described a powerful figure on a horse. He had golden hair and his face shone, as did his white garments, and he had a great troop of horsemen in white.

Many in church must have thought of Revelation chapter nineteen:

I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and him who sat upon it was named Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns . His name is called The Word of God, and his armies followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword and with it he will smite the nations.

The Stampede

The soldiers' letters agreed that the intervention came at the height of crisis. It made the German horses stampede. German prisoners who were taken tried to account for it. Some said that the English must have had spies who tampered with their horses. Others said they just had to flee because large reinforcements for the English suddenly came up. But the English soldiers described it as a phantom army which appeared as they had no reinforcements; in fact they were so thin on the ground that they could only space one British Tommy for every fifteen yards to make a firing line.

Newspapers Continue The Debate