en of all arms of the service, was assembled, transported across
the English Channel and landed at Boulogne and other French ports behind
a veil of deepest mystery, so far as the British public and the world at
large were concerned.

The old town of Plymouth, on the Channel, was the chief port of
embarkation for the troops and the main concentration point in England,
but troops embarked also at Dublin, Ireland; Liverpool; Eastbourne;
Southampton, and other cities. Not a mention of the midnight sailings of
transports carrying troops, horses, automobiles, artillery, hospital
and commissary equipment and supplies was allowed to be printed in the
newspapers, nor was it known how many troops were being sent across the
Channel.

The landing in France was effected between the 10th and the 20th of
August without the loss of a single man, and on the 23d, having joined
forces with the French army under General Joffre, commander-in-chief,
the British found themselves in touch with the German enemy at Mons in
Belgium.

FIELD-MARSHAL FRENCH IN COMMAND

The expeditionary force was in supreme command of Field Marshal Sir John
D. P. French, a veteran officer of high military repute, with Maj.-Gen.
Sir A. Murray as chief of staff. Other noted officers were Lieut.-Gen.
Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the First Corps; Lieut.-Gen. Sir James
Grierson, commander of the Second Corps; Maj.-Gen. W. P. Pulteney,
commander of the Third Corps, and Maj.-Gen. Edmund Allenby, in command
of the Cavalry Division. The home army was left in command of Gen. Sir
Ian Hamilton.

Hardly had the expedition landed in France when the death was reported
of the commander of the Second Corps, Sir James Grierson, who succumbed
to heart disease while on his way to the front, dropping dead on a
train. He was given a notable military funeral in London. Gen. Sir H.
L. Smith-Dorrien was appointed to succeed him in command of the Second
Corps.

The British troops were received in France with loud acclaim and Field
Marshal French, on visiting Paris for a conference at the French
war office before proceeding to the front, was greeted by a popular
demonstration that showed how welcome British aid was to the French in
their critical hour.

The British field force was composed of three army corps, each
comprising two divisions, and there was also an extra cavalry division.

Each army corps consists of twenty-four infantry battalions of about
one thousand men each on