GHQ (French) fell back to Noyon on 26 August 1914, and then and the next day Huguet and other French liaison officers attached to it gave Joffre a tale with their communications of shattered British forces falling back from Le Cateau in defeat. In fact Smith-Dorrien's staff had held II Corps' formation together, although at a meeting (held at 2am on 27 August 1914, as Smith-Dorrien had found GHQ's present location with great difficulty) French accused him of being overly optimistic.