Drawing depicting a dying British soldier being comforted by an angel. Today 109 years ago, on August 23, 1914, the Battle of Mons began, in which a strange, mythical event known as the "Angels of Mons" occurred. The British troops were heavily outnumbered, but managed to hold off the German attacks time after time. After 48 hours, the Germans finally broke through, in part due to the sheer number of German troops and artillery overwhelming the exhausted British defenders, and the British and French withdrew to the Marne. On September 29, 1914, Welsh author Arthur Machen published a short story named "The Bowmen" in a London newspaper. The story described how phantom bowmen from the Battle of Agrincourt on October 25, 1415 in the Hundred Years' War came to the aid of the British soldiers at Mons and helped them repulse the Germans. Despite Machen stating it was fictional numerous times, the story went viral in the British public, and soon the entire world. Inst...