MONS 1914
Pen & Sword Military
90mins
Review by Phil Hodges for War History Online
Mons 1914 reads the title of the DVD and just so we’re left in no doubt it has the subheading of The First World War! To be fair it’s not a bad documentary from Battlefield History TV. It has jumped on the one hundred years anniversary bandwagon but then what WW1 Documentary isn’t going to? Its pretty basic stuff, so, for the expert, they’d probably avoid it as it doesn’t shed any new light on the battle. That said it is informative without being patronizing and it does cover most of the basic aspects of the BEF in August 1914.
A nice and somewhat unexpected view (quite literally) is that of the Royal Flying Corp on the white cliffs of Dover preparing for war in Belgium and France. There’s a great connection here with our shores and that of the soon to be trench strewn wastelands of The Front, one which I have never heard mentioned before in a documentary such as this; so hats off to the team for this insight.
At 90 mins long and with the good use of graphics and maps its well worth a look, though to be brutal, at £14.99 its probably a little overpriced so perhaps its one you’d ask for your birthday as its not exactly the Pen & Sword blockbuster of the century.
~Phil Hodges