Faughs after Le Cateau

Following the Battle of Le Cateau, the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers began marching away from the advancing Germans. The Battalion halted at dawn the following day for a few hours rest, but marched throughout the night of 27/28 August as the withdrawal continued. For the next few days, the same story of methodical rearguard actions, moves by night, worries over missing sub units (only to reappear later) and of ever increasing fatigue repeated itself over and over again. The Faughs reached the forest of Compiègne, north-east of Paris, on 31 August and four days later was south of the River Marne where soon afterwards the German advance would be checked.