An approach is provided for supporting retrieval of web content over a meshed communication network. A first server receives a request from a browser application for the content resident in the web server. The first server includes a downstream proxy configured to modify the request to include information specifying support of a parse and pre-fetch service within an optional header field of the request as to permit handling of the modified request by the web server in absence of an upstream proxy that is communicating with the web server. A second server is configured as the upstream proxy to intercept the modified request and pre-fetch the content from the web server. The second server forwards the pre-fetched content over the communication network to the first server. This approach as particular applicability in relatively high latency networks, such as a satellite communications system.