twelve army corps, four reserve corps, and numerous Ersatz formations,
were in contact with our troops, the Fourth and Fifth Armies between
Vouziers and Verdun and the others in the positions which have been
indicated above, from Verdun to the Vosges.
[Sidenote: The left in peril.]
It will, therefore, be seen that our left, if we accepted battle, might
be in great peril through the British forces and the new French Army,
operating more to the westward, having given way.
A defeat in these conditions would have cut off our armies from Paris
and from the British forces and at the same time from the new army which
had been constituted to the left of the English. We should thus be
running the risk of losing by a single stroke the advantage of the
assistance which Russia later on was to furnish.
General Joffre chose resolutely for the solution which disposed of these
risks, that is to say, for postponing the offensive and the continuance
of the retreat. In this way he remained on ground which he had chosen.
He waited only until he could engage in better conditions.
[Sidenote: The limit of the retreat.]
In consequence, on September 1, he fixed as an extreme limit for the
movement of retreat, which was still going on, the line of
Bray-sur-Seine, Nogent-sur-Seine, Arcis-sur-Aube, Vitry-le-Francois, and
the region to the north of Bar-le-Duc. This line might be reached if the
troops were compelled to go back so far. They would attack before
reaching it, as soon as there was a possibility of bringing about an
offensive disposition, permitting the co-operation of the whole of our
forces.
On September 5 it appeared that this desired situation existed.
The First German Army, carrying audacity to temerity, had continued its
endeavor to envelop our left, had crossed the Grand Morin, and reached
the region of Chauffry, to the north of Rebaix and of Esternay. It aimed
then at cutting our armies off from Paris, in order to begin the
investment of the capital.
[Sidenote: The German lines.]
The Second Army had its head on the line Champaubert, Etoges, Bergeres,
and Vertus.
The Third and Fourth Armies reached to Chalons-sur-Marne and
Bussy-le-Repos. The Fifth Army was advancing on one side and the other
from the Argonne as far as Triacourt-les-Islettes and Juivecourt. The
Sixth and Seventh Armies were attacking more to the east.
But--and here is a capital difference between the situation of September
5 and that of September 2--the envelopment of our left was no longer
possible.
In the first place, our left army had been able to occupy the line of
Sezanne, Villers-St. Georges and Courchamps. Furthermore, the British
forces, gathered between the Seine and the Marne, flanked on their left
by the newly created army, were closely connected with the rest of our
forces.
[Sidenote: Allies' armies ready.]
This was precisely the disposition which the General in Chief had wished
to see achieved. On the 4th he decided to take advantage of it, and
ordered all the armies to hold themselves ready. He had taken from his
right two new army corps, two divisions of infantry, and two divisions
of cavalry, which were distributed between his left and his centre.
On the evening of the 5th he addressed to all the commanders of armies a
message ordering them to attack.
[Sidenote: Joffre orders the advance.]
"The hour has come," he wrote, "to advance at all costs, and to die
where you stand rather than give way."
If one examines on the map the respective positions of the German and
French armies on September 6 as previously described, it will be seen
that by his inflection toward Meaux and Coulommiers General von Kluck
was exposing his right to the offensive action of our left. This is the
starting point of the victory of the Marne.
[Sidenote: The Battle of the Marne.]
On the evening of September 5 our left army had reached the front
Penchard-Saint-Soutlet-Ver. On the 6th and 7th it continued its
attacks vigorously with the Ourcq as objective. On the evening of
the 7th it was some kilometers from the Ourcq, on the front
Chambry-Marcilly-Lisieux-Acy-en-Multien. On the 8th, the Germans, who
had in great haste reinforced their right by bringing their Second and
Fourth Army Corps back to the north, obtained some successes by attacks
of extreme violence. They occupied Betz, Thury-en-Valois, and
Nanteuil-le-Haudouin. But in spite of this pressure our troops held
their ground well. In a brilliant action they took three standards, and,
being reinforced, prepared a new attack for the 10th. At the moment that
this attack was about to begin the enemy was already in retreat toward
the north. The attack became a pursuit, and on the 12th we established
ourselves on the Aisne.
[Sidenote: Enemy left exposed.]
Why did the German forces which were confronting us and on the evening
before attacking so furiously retreat on the morning of the 10th?
Because in bringing back on the 6th several army corps from the south to
the north to face our left the enemy had exposed his left to the attacks
of the British Army, which had immediately faced around toward the
north, and to those of our armies which were prolonging the English
lines to the right. This is what the French command had sought to bring
about. This is what happened on September 8 and allowed the development
and rehabilitation which it was to effect.
[Sidenote: The part of the British.]
On the 6th the British Army had set out from the line Rozcy-Lagny and
had that evening reached the southward bank of the Grand Morin. On the
7th and 8th it continued its march, and on the 9th had debouched to the
north of the Marne below Chateau-Thierry, taking in flank the German
forces which on that day were opposing, on the Ourcq, our left army.
Then it was that these forces began to retreat, while the British Army,
going in pursuit and capturing seven guns and many prisoners, reached
the Aisne between Soissons and Longueval.
[Sidenote: The role of the French army.]
The role of the French Army, which was operating to the right of the
British Army, was threefold. It had to support the British attacking on
its left. It had on its right to support our centre, which from
September 7 had been subjected to a German attack of great violence.
Finally, its mission was to throw back the three active army corps and
the reserve corps which faced it.
On the 7th it made a leap forward, and on the following days reached and
crossed the Marne, seizing, after desperate fighting, guns, howitzers,
mitrailleuses, and 1,300,000 cartridges. On the 12th it established
itself on the north edge of the Montagne-de-Reime in contact with our
centre, which for its part had just forced the enemy to retreat in
haste.
[Sidenote: Attack on the French centre.]
Our centre consisted of a new army created on August 29 and of one of
those which at the beginning of the campaign had been engaged in Belgian
Luxembourg. The first had retreated on August 29 to September 5 from the
Aisne to the north of the Marne and occupied the general front
Sezanne-Mailly.
The second, more to the east, had drawn back to the south of the line
Humbauville-Chateau-Beauchamp-Bignicourt-Blesmes-Maurupt-le-Montoy.
[Sidenote: A further retreat.]
The enemy, in view of his right being arrested and the defeat of his
enveloping movement, made a desperate effort from the 7th to the 10th to
pierce our centre to the west and to the east of Fere-Champenoise. On
the 8th he succeeded in forcing back the right of our new army, which
retired as far as Gouragancon. On the 9th, at 6 o'clock in the morning,
there was a further retreat to the south of that village, while on the
left the other army corps also had to go back to the line
Allemant-Connantre.
[Sidenote: Foch out-man[oe]uvres Germans.]
Despite this retreat the General commanding the army ordered a general
offensive for the same day. With the Morocco Division, whose behavior
was heroic, he met a furious assault of the Germans on his left toward
the marshes of Saint Gond. Then with the division which had just
victoriously overcome the attacks of the enemy to the north of Sezanne,
and with the whole of his left army corps, he made a flanking attack in
the evening of the 9th upon the German forces, and notably the guard,
which had thrown back his right army corps. The enemy, taken by surprise
by this bold man[oe]uvre, did not resist, and beat a hasty retreat.
[Sidenote: Centre armies established.]
On the 11th we crossed the Marne between Tours-sur-Marne and Sarry,
driving the Germans in front of us in disorder. On the 12th we were in
contact with the enemy to the north of the Camp de Chalons. Our other
army of the centre, acting on the right of the one just referred to, had
been intrusted with the mission during the 7th, 8th, and 9th of
disengaging its neighbor, and it was only on the 10th that, being
reinforced by an army corps from the east, it was able to make its
action effectively felt. On the 11th the Germans retired. But,
perceiving their danger, they fought desperately, with enormous
expenditure of projectiles, behind strong intrenchments. On the 12th the
result had none the less been attained, and our two centre armies were
solidly established on the ground gained.
To the right of these two armies were three others. They had orders to
cover themselves to the north and to debouch toward the west on the
flank of the enemy, which was operating to the west of the Argonne. But
a wide interval in which the Germans were in force separated them from
our centre. The attack took place, nevertheless, with very brilliant
success for our artillery, which destroyed eleven batteries of the
Sixteenth German Army Corps.
[Sidenote: Germans retreat on the right.]
On the 10th inst. the Eighth and Fifteenth German Army Corps
counter-attacked, but were repulsed. On the 11th our progress continued
with new successes, and on the 12th we were able to face round toward
the north in expectation of the near and inevitable retreat of the
enemy, which, in fact, took place from the 13th.
The withdrawal of the mass of the German force involved also that of the
left. From the 12th onward the forces of the enemy operating between
Nancy and the Vosges retreated in a hurry before our two armies of the
East, which immediately occupied the positions that the enemy had
evacuated. The offensive of our right had thus prepared and consolidated
in the most useful way the result secured by our left and our centre.
Such was this seven days' battle, in which more than two millions of men
were engaged. Each army gained ground step by step, opening the road to
its neighbor, supported at once by it, taking in flank the adversary
which the day before it had attacked in front, the efforts of one
articulating closely with those of the other, a perfect unity of
intention and method animating the supreme command.
[Sidenote: Meaning of the victory.]
To give this victory all its meaning it is necessary to add that it was
gained by troops which for two weeks had been retreating, and which,
when the order for the offensive was given, were found to be as ardent
as on the first day. It has also to be said that these troops had to
meet the whole German army, and that from the time they marched forward
they never again fell back. Under their pressure the German retreat at
certain times had the appearance of a rout.
[Sidenote: Numbers of German prisoners.]
In spite of the fatigue of our men, in spite of the power of the German
heavy artillery, we took colors, guns, mitrailleuses, shells, more than
a million cartridges, and thousands of prisoners. A German corps lost
almost the whole of its artillery, which, from information brought by
our airmen, was destroyed by our guns.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: The next objective is the Channel ports.]
After the failure of the German drive against Paris, whose capture was
the first objective in the plan of campaign of the German General Staff,
preparations were made to carry out the plans for the second objective,
the capture of the Channel seaports, and the control of the coasts. The
Allied commanders were quite aware of this purpose, and made plans to
circumvent it. Then followed the famous Race for the Channel, which is
described by official French observers in the pages that follow.
THE RACE FOR THE CHANNEL
FRENCH OFFICIAL ACCOUNT
As early as September 11 the Commander in Chief had directed our left
army to have as important forces as possible on the right bank of the
Oise. On September 17 he made that instruction more precise by ordering
"a mass to be constituted on the left wing of our disposition, capable
of coping with the outflanking movement of the enemy." Everything led us
to expect that flanking movement, for the Germans are lacking in
invention. Indeed, their effort at that time tended to a renewal of
their manoeuvre of August. In the parallel race the opponents were bound
in the end to be stopped only by the sea; that is what happened about
October 20.
[Sidenote: Allies in the race to the sea.]
The Germans had an advantage over us, which is obvious from a glance at
the map--the concentric form of their front, which shortened the length
of their transports. In spite of this initial inferiority we arrived in
time.
From the middle of September to the last week in October fighting went
on continually to the north of the Oise, but all the time we were
fighting we were slipping northward. On the German side this movement
brought into line more than eighteen new army corps (twelve active army
corps, six reserve corps, four cavalry corps). On our side it ended in
the constitution of three fresh armies on our left and in the transport
into the same district of the British Army and the Belgian Army from
Antwerp.
[Sidenote: Resistance in Battle of Flanders.]
For the conception and realization of this fresh and extended
disposition the French command, in the first place, had to reduce to a
minimum the needs for effectives of our armies to the east of the Oise,
and afterwards to utilize to the utmost our means of transport. It
succeeded in this, and when, at the end of October, the battle of
Flanders opened, when the Germans, having completed the concentration of
their forces, attempted with fierce energy to turn or to pierce our
left, they flung themselves upon a resistance which inflicted upon them
a complete defeat.
The movement began on our side only with the resources of the army which
had held the left of our front during the battle of the Marne,
reinforced on September 15 by one army corps.
This reinforcement, not being sufficient to hold the enemy's offensive
(district of Vaudelincourt-Mouchy-Uaugy), a fresh army was transported
more to the left, with the task "of acting against the German right wing
in order to disengage its neighbor, * * * while preserving a flanking
direction in its march in relation to the fresh units that the enemy
might be able to put into line."
[Sidenote: Reinforcements for the First Army.]
To cover the detrainments of this fresh army in the district
Clermont-Beauvais-Boix a cavalry corps and four territorial divisions
were ordered to establish themselves on both banks of the Somme. In the
wooded hills, however, which extend between the Oise and Lassigny the
enemy displayed increasing activity. Nevertheless, the order still
further to broaden the movement toward the left was maintained, while
the territorial divisions were to move toward Bethune and Aubigny. The
march to the sea went on.
[Sidenote: Alternate reverse and success.]
From the 21st to the 26th all our forces were engaged in the district
Lassigny-Roye-Peronne, with alternations of reverse and success.
It was the first act of the great struggle which was to spread as it
went on. On the 26th the whole of the Sixth German Army was deployed
against us. We retained all our positions, but we could do no more;
consequently there was still the risk that the enemy, by means of a
fresh afflux of forces, might succeed in turning us.
Once more reinforcements, two army corps, were directed no longer on
Beauvais, but toward Amiens. The front was then again to extend. A fresh
army was constituted more to the north.
From September 30 onward we could not but observe that the enemy,
already strongly posted on the plateau of Thiepval, was continually
slipping his forces from south to north, and everywhere confronting us
with remarkable energy.
[Sidenote: Cavalry operations.]
Accordingly, on October 1 two cavalry corps were directed to make a leap
forward and, operating on both flanks of the Scarpe, to put themselves
in touch with the garrison of Dunkirk, which, on its side, had pushed
forward as far as Douai.
But on October 2 and 3 the bulk of our fresh army was very strongly
attacked in the district of Arras and Lens. Confronting it were two
corps of cavalry, the guards, four active army corps, and two reserve
corps. A fresh army corps was immediately transported and detrained in
the Lille district.
But once more the attacks became more pressing, and on October 4 it was
a question whether, in view of the enemy's activity both west of the
Oise and south of the Somme, and also further to the north, a retreat
would not have to be made. General Joffre resolutely put this
hypothesis aside and ordered the offensive to be resumed with the
reinforcements that had arrived. It was, however, clear that, despite
the efforts of all, our front, extended to the sea as it was by a mere
ribbon of troops, did not possess the solidity to enable it to resist
with complete safety a German attack, the violence of which could well
be foreseen.
[Sidenote: Transport of the British Army.]
In the Arras district the position was fairly good. But between the Oise
and Arras we were holding our own only with difficulty. Finally, to the
north, on the Lille-Estaires-Merville-Hazebrouck-Cassel front, our
cavalry and our territorials had their work cut out against eight
divisions of German cavalry, with very strong infantry supports. It was
at this moment that the transport of the British Army to the northern
theatre of operations began.
[Sidenote: British Army taken from the Aisne.]
Field Marshal French had, as early as the end of September, expressed
the wish to see his army resume its initial place on the left of the
allied armies. He explained this wish on the ground of the greater
facility of which his communications would have the advantage in this
new position, and also of the impending arrival of two divisions of
infantry from home and of two infantry divisions and a cavalry division
from India, which would be able to deploy more easily on that terrain.
In spite of the difficulties which such a removal involved, owing to the
intensive use of the railways by our own units, General Joffre decided
at the beginning of October to meet the Field Marshal's wishes and to
have the British Army removed from the Aisne.
It was clearly specified that on the northern terrain the British Army
should co-operate to the same end as ourselves, the stopping of the
German right. In other terms, the British Army was to prolong the front
of the general disposition without a break, attacking as soon as
possible, and at the same time seeking touch with the Belgian Army.
But the detraining took longer than had been expected, and it was not
possible to attack the Germans during the time when they had only
cavalry in the Lille district and further to the north.
[Sidenote: Wearied Belgian troops.]
There remained the Belgian Army. On leaving Antwerp on October 9 the
Belgian Army, which was covered by 8,000 British bluejackets and 6,000
French bluejackets, at first intended to retire as far as to the north
of Calais, but afterwards determined to make a stand in Belgian
territory. Unfortunately, the condition of the Belgian troops, exhausted
by a struggle of more than three months, did not allow any immediate
hopes to be based upon them. This situation weighed on our plans and
delayed their execution.
On the 16th we made progress to the east of Ypres. On the 18th our
cavalry even reached Roulers and Cortemark. But it was now evident that,
in view of the continual reinforcing of the German right, our left was
not capable of maintaining the advantages obtained during the previous
few days. To attain our end and make our front inviolable a fresh effort
was necessary. That effort was immediately made by the dispatch to the
north of the Lys of considerable French forces, which formed the French
Army of Belgium.
The French Army of Belgium consisted, to begin with, of two territorial
divisions, four divisions of cavalry, and a naval brigade. Directly
after its constitution it was strengthened by elements from other points
on the front whose arrival extended from October 27 to November 11.
These reinforcements were equivalent altogether in value to five army
corps, a division of cavalry, a territorial division, and sixteen
regiments of cavalry, plus sixty pieces of heavy artillery.
Thus was completed the strategic manoeuvre defined by the instructions
of the General in Chief on September 11 and developed during the five
following weeks with the ampleness we have just seen. The movements of
troops carried out during this period were methodically combined with
the pursuit of operations, both defensive and offensive, from the Oise
to the North Sea.
[Sidenote: Five armies co-ordinated.]
On October 22 our left, bounded six weeks earlier by the Noyon district,
rested on Nieuport, thanks to the successive deployment of five fresh
armies--three French armies, the British Army, and the Belgian Army.
Thus the co-ordination decided upon by the General in Chief attained its
end. The barrier was established. It remained to maintain it against the
enemy's offensive. That was the object and the result of the battle of
Flanders, October 22 to November 15.
The German attack in Flanders was conducted strategically and tactically
with remarkable energy. The complete and indisputable defeat in which it
resulted is therefore significant.
The forces of which the enemy disposed for this operation between the
sea and the Lys comprised:
[Sidenote: German forces between the sea and the Lys.]
(1) The entire Fourth Army commanded by the Duke of Wuerttemberg,
consisting of one naval division, one division of Ersatz Reserve, (men
who had received no training before the war,) which was liberated by the
fall of Antwerp; the Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-sixth and
Twenty-seventh Reserve Corps, and the Forty-eighth Division belonging to
the Twenty-fourth Reserve Corps.
(2) A portion of another army under General von Fabeck, consisting of
the Fifteenth Corps, two Bavarian corps and three (unspecified)
divisions.
(3) Part of the Sixth Army under the command of the Crown Prince of
Bavaria. This army, more than a third of which took part in the battle
of Flanders, comprised the Nineteenth Army Corps, portions of the
Thirteenth Corps and the Eighteenth Reserve Corps, the Seventh and
Fourteenth Corps, the First Bavarian Reserve Corps, the Guards, and the
Fourth Army Corps.
(4) Four highly mobile cavalry corps prepared and supported the action
of the troops enumerated above. Everything possible had been done to
fortify the "morale" of the troops. At the beginning of October the
Crown Prince of Bavaria in a proclamation had exhorted his soldiers "to
make the decisive effort against the French left wing," and "to settle
thus the fate of the great battle which has lasted for weeks."
[Sidenote: Importance of thrusts in Flanders.]
[Sidenote: German plan in Flanders.]