CHAPTER XIII BRITISH TROOPS LAND ON THE CONTINENT "DY all means the most interesting news of the ■■^ early days following the attack upon Liege was the announcement made in Paris on October 8 that British troops had landed on the Continent and would proceed to Namur. Not only did this promise a rapidity of English mobilization, wholly unex- pected, and in fact wholly unwarranted, but taken in connection with French reports it convinced the British, French and Belgian publics alike that ad- vantage was to be taken of the gallant Belgian resist- ance to pin down the German advance in Belgium and east of Brussels. The English expeditionary army consisted of some 165,000 troops of all arms, the best army of its size in Europe, because it was composed, not of two or three year conscripts, but of regulars, who had served for a number of years and like our American reg- ulars are professional soldiers, in many cases vet- erans and commanded by officers who had seen active service all over the world. This force should be carefully distinguished from British volunteers and territorials, whose fighting value was rated very low. While no ports were mentioned as the places of «7