Horsell Offensive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Horsell Offensive | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells | |||||||
|
|||||||
| Combatants | |||||||
| British Army | Martians | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Royal Artillery, Cardigan regiment, 8th Hussars | heat-ray, 2 fighting-machines | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| complete devastation of materiel, many deaths | none | ||||||
| The War of the Worlds |
|---|
| Horsell – Weybridge and Shepperton – London – HMS Thunder Child |
The Horsell Offensive was the first military engagement in the H. G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds.
Two days after the first landing of the Martians on Horsell Common on the outskirts of Woking), several British military units surrounded the crater where the first Martian capsule landed. At approximately 3 p.m., an artillery barrage of the impact site of the second Martian capsule at Addlestone Golf Links began. Artillery batteries started arriving at Woking at 5pm in order to shell the first site, which was what precipitated the battle.
The battle is described in two chapters of the novel: "The Fighting Begins", which describes the very start of battle as the narrator flees Woking, and then later in flashback form by the artilleryman, who describes how the Martians emerged under what appeared to be a metallic shield and began to advance toward their second craft; this "shield" then rose on three legs, and using the heat-ray, wiped out the troops. While this was happening, a second fighting machine was completed and then assisted the first.
It is postulated that the Martians wished to fully secure the area around their first two landing sites as the artillery became a real threat to their encampments. Certainly, the construction and deployment of the first two fighting machines dealt decisively with the military opposition, and forced a general withdrawal of the human populace from the area. When the third Martian capsule landed at Pyrford at midnight of the second day, the triangular area within the three encampments became their principal base of operations.
