Arthur Machen

The Angels of Mons Arthur Machen

Of all the memorable tales to emerge from World War I, the most remarkable one is untrue. The Angels of Mons is a legend that evolved from one writer's skillful ability to weave ghostly stories. This particularly tale gripped a nation badly in need of hope. For some, fiction became reality. In September 1914, two months after the outbreak of the Great War, Welsh journalist and author Arthur Machen published a short story called The Bowmen in the London Evening News. It describes how phantom archers from the Battle of Agincourt had come to the rescue of British soldiers fighting against the Germans in the Battle of Mons a month earlier. The story was not labeled as fiction and the author soon became to receive enquiries from readers asking for verification of these ghostly archers, who had apparently been summoned by Saint George, the patron saint of England. It appears Machen had no desire to create a hoax, but that the British public, just starting to grasp the full horrors of World War One's mechanized warfare and its heavy death toll, was ready to believe that a ghostly miracle had occurred in France.