First World War.com - Vintage Video - Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, 1914

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Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, 1914 Vintage Video: Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, 1914
Updated - Saturday, 10 January, 2004

Veteran British officer Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien was given command of II Corps of Sir John French's British Expeditionary Force (BEF) at the start of war in August 1914.

Smith-Dorrien was praised for his conduct during the critical early Battles of Mons and Le Cateau in August 1914, and was given command of Second Army from December 1914 to April 1915.

Falling foul of his Commander-in-Chief during the Second Battle of Ypres, when he recommended a strategic withdrawal closer to Ypres, Smith-Dorrien was dismissed and sent home to England on the pretext of ill-health.

Click here to view footage of Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien in 1914 (Windows Media, 14 seconds, 377KB).

"Bellied" was a term used to describe when a tank's underside was caught upon an obstacle such that its tracks were unable to grip the earth.