Tourcoing by Hilaire Belloc

Tourcoing is an action the preliminaries of which are easy to describe, and need occupy little of our space, because it was a battle in which the plan of one side was developed and prosecuted almost to its conclusion without a corresponding plan upon the other side.

As a rule, the preliminaries of a battle consist in the dispositions taken by each side for hours or for days -- sometimes for weeks -- beforehand, in order to be in a posture to receive or to attack the other side. These preliminaries include manoeuvring for position, and sometimes in the fighting of minor subsidiary actions before the main action takes place.