August 26 - Le Cateau

British dead at Le Cateau

The Allied retreat continues. At the Battle of Cateau - a successful rearguard action - the engagement allows the BEF to continue their withdrawal.

Edward Croft, with the RFA, marches from Dompierre to Fesmy.

German Togoland surrenders to the British.

Austria-Hungary declares war on Japan.

SMS Magdeburg

The German cruiser SMS Magdeburg runs aground off the Estonian coast and is captured by the Russians.

They recover three intact German code books, one of which is passed to the British.

This code book is used by the Admiralty's Room 40 to identify movements of German warships.



The German transatlantic liner, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, now acting as an auxiliary cruiser, is sunk by HMS Highflyer.


Punch publishes another Bernard Partridge cartoon. Clearly influenced by recent events in Louvain and Antwerp (depicted in the background), the theme is now much more sinister. Here the Kaiser is depicted as being wholly evil. Punch is using these cartoons for propaganda purposes, to maintain civilian morale.

THE TRIUMPH OF "CULTURE"