ICYMI: 1914 — The Victory Angels of Mons
How a WW1 legend reminds us to always summon our warrior goddesses — both real and imagined
***Originally published October 14, 2024 — a beautiful post, lost in the mists of November. Please take out a membership to support the light of truth.***
“There comes a moment in a storm at sea when people say to one another, ‘It is at its worst; it can blow no harder,’ and then there is a blast ten times more fierce than any before it. So it was in these British trenches.”—Arthur Machen, The Bowmen, September 29, 1914, London Evening News
I’ve seen angels in the sky and an abundance of feathers in my path.
Around my neck you will find my ‘Victory Angel.’ On the front is a warrior goddess, an image of an apparition seen by soldiers in World War One. On the back are the shields of the Allied countries that fought in The Great War. The medallion was given out to members of the Belgium Armed Forces, many of whom served in the Battle of Mons.
In August of 1914, the British, along with French and Belgian troops, thought they could push back 240,000 German troops, but they were outnumbered by double and a half, and when the British troops got to the front at the industrial mining town of Mons, they couldn’t hold the line at the Mons–Condé Canal. The Germans threw everything they had at the British soldiers, forcing them to retreat from Mons.
During the retreat, on August 26th, some troops reported seeing glowing lights in the sky, some said say they saw angels, others reported a heavenly army of archers. Later reports claimed the men were hallucinating these supernatural apparitions due to lack of water, rations, and sleep deprivation. But the description of the angels were consistent: wings outspread, sword in hand, these were visions of warrior goddesses.
French soldiers claimed what the British were seeing was the Aurora Borealis, the northern lights, dancing in the sky. And a British chaplain reported it was actually a reflection from searchlights.
The story gained traction due to a fictional short story in the London Evening News published on September 29, 1914, titled “The Bowmen” by Arthur Machen, which described ghostly archers on a battlefield, much like the Battle of Mons. In the short story, Machen described St. George bringing his Agincourt Bowmen to help the English battle the German forces. The fictional war propaganda sparked ‘Angelmania’ — with stories of the Angels of Mons populating British newspapers throughout the spring and summer of 1915.
A century later, myths still swirl of these victory angels and army apparitions, and perhaps to these retreating men, angelic visions offered a soul soother to the cruelty and violence of war.
According to a report from August 24, 1914, a teary eyed British division commander famously said:
“The Germans may be able to kill them, but, my God, they can’t defeat them.”
And of course I thought of Ukraine.
I know warrior goddesses made of blood and bones. I march beside them in this new Great War.
I find inspiration in legends of battlefield angels appearing when guns and bravery are no longer enough.
I have said many times on these pages that no one is coming to save us.
It was Jason Stanley who taught me it’s going to have to be the women who get us out of our current predicament, when he said a harsh train is coming for women’s rights. He said to get women out in front. Nothing embodies that more than our current choice in November.
My work is informed by women who bravely came before us, particularly these two recent reports based on the work of Bella Fromm and Dorothy Thompson, two courageous women reporters:
In 1917, Fromm wrote in her diary: “As to the Jews, I dread an era of medieval darkness.” She often wrote the future.
“I saw, long before they came to pass, the shadow of things that were to darken the civilized world.”—Bella Fromm
We still have agency. We can still prevent the worst from happening.
I have to think my better angels have something to do with me stumbling upon the work of Fromm and Thompson at this grave hour, buried deep in a book by two German historians wise enough to cherish the first-hand accounts of women reporters.
We have lost so much since we marched in 2017.
Let us hold the line, and be the light that illuminates the path of new beginnings.
No one is coming to save us, but I do believe in angels.
—Heidi Siegmund Cuda for Bette Dangerous, October 14, 2024
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The Angel of Mons, c.1914 (after William Henry Margetson); R. Crowhurst; National Army Museum, UK
Inspiration for the new Great War
Beautiful and rending.