The Angels of Mons

The story and the record

The Angels of Mons legend has a strange paper trail: a writer published a ghost story, then found himself explaining that he had invented it. We follow Arthur Machen’s The Bowmen, the real 1914 battle and retreat, and the gap between fiction and a battlefield miracle.

Machen’s 1915 introduction preserves his account of the story’s origins and the requests for its sources. The episode distinguishes the military setting, the fictional archers and the later supernatural claims.

What the sources can tell us

Machen’s introduction is his account of the exchanges, not independent confirmation of every retelling. The Australian War Memorial names the newspaper Evening Post; Machen’s text and the National Army Museum identify the Evening News, which this episode follows. The original newspaper issue and correspondence were not inspected.

1. Arthur Machen, The Angels of Mons (1915)

   Introduction and The Bowmen.

2. Expanded second-edition scan

   Scan and provenance.

3. National Army Museum: The Angel of Mons

   Museum collection record.

4. National Army Museum: 1914, Mons to Christmas

   Battle and retreat context.

5. Australian War Memorial: Angel of Mons

   See the newspaper-name distinction in the source note.