WI BEF destroyed at Mons in 1914?

How? The various forces on the Western Front in World War 1 lacked the amount of force-space ratio to maneuver around or the mobile firepower to achieve a rapid breakthrough-exploitation, either of which are necessary to achieve an encirclement. And since World War forces are too large to be destroyed through frontal engagement, that leaves the Germans with no ability to destroy the BEF at Mons.

Oh sure, they can defeat the BEF at Mons, but that will end up just like the defeats they inflicted upon the French earlier: the BEF takes a bunch of casualties, is forced from it's position, and falls back to new ones further back... likely somewhere in France. Destroying the BEF? Not going to happen.
 
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What happens from there?
If Germany is actually able to somehow pull this off, then this might cause Britain to be more hesitant to commit large numbers of British and British Empire troops to the Western Front in Europe. In turn, this might very well result in Germany successfully breaking through and winning on the Western Front sometime in the 1916-1918 time period once France becomes too exhausted and bleeds too much.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
How would they be completely destroyed? The only way I can think of is by encirclement, and to accomplish this, the BEF would need to be monumentally stupid.

There is the possibility that the BEF gets disintegrated on the retreat, however. It is a scant one. The BEF retreated in good order and before the French Fifth Army was in real danger. Perhaps get the French Fifth Army to retreat in disorder and end up crossing the path of the BEF and cause utter chaos, and combine this with the BEF deciding to hold at Mons for another few days and foolishly take a lot of casualties. On the Great Retreat, units were lost whole sale and equipment abandoned, but none in any kind of levels that threaten the BEF's ability to fight in France.

A chaotic disorderly retreat could see the elements of the two corps engaged at Mons to be picked apart and crack under the stress of a retreat in which the French clog their escape routes. This was more possible than I think people like to admit.

However, as for being destroyed on the field at Mons, I don't see it happening. WW1 armies lacked the ability to do that kind of thing, and encirclement seems almost impossible in my opinion. I guess if they chose not to retreat when they did OTL, its possible, but I doubt it. Or maybe if they fall back on the Belgian coast rather than on the Marne because of a screwup in orders, they could be isolated and eventually destroyed or forced to pull a Dunkirk 26 years early.
 
The BEF at Mons was only 5 of the 7 1/2 divisions that were ready to go in Britain in August 1914. By the time of the Marne all 6 infantry and 1 1/2 cavalry divisions had deployed to France, the 7th by October and the 8th by November. So even if the BEF was destroyed at Mons it would be back at the same strength by November.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
The BEF at Mons was only 5 of the 7 1/2 divisions that were ready to go in Britain in August 1914. By the time of the Marne all 6 infantry and 1 1/2 cavalry divisions had deployed to France, the 7th by October and the 8th by November. So even if the BEF was destroyed at Mons it would be back at the same strength by November.

Sure, but if the BEF Mons force is somehow destroyed in battle or more likely on the retreat from battle, they lose a lot of equipment, officers, organizational capability, and the Channel Ports likely fall, making any new divisions have no front to move to, having to be shipped into Aquitaine or Brittany if its still held, with no organization to glom onto immediately.

It wouldn't be the BEF anymore. They'd have to be fed piecemeal into a new battle order or they'd have to form a corps with which to support the French western flank with, if that flank still existed.

Look, I think this is a very difficult scenario to bring about. But if it did happen, this is not a loss that can be easily shrugged off.
 
It's not a loss that can be easily shrugged off, but by the same token it isn't a reason to surrender or withdraw from the war.
 
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