GENERAL JOFFRE AS A STRATEGIST
From the strategy on the German side let us now turn to that on the side
of the French. Between them a fundamental distinction at once appears.
Of both the aim was similar--to compel the other side to fight under a
disadvantage. In that way strategy helps to ensure victory, or to lessen
the consequences of defeat.
The strategy of the German General Staff, however, was from the outset
obvious. The strategy of General Joffre was at the outset a mystery.
Only as the campaign went on did the French scheme of operations become
apparent. Even then the part of the scheme still to come remained
unfathomable.
It has been assumed that with the employment of armies formed of
millions of men the element of surprise must be banished. That was a
German theory. The theory is unsound. Now, as ever, intellect is the
ultimate commanding quality in war.
In truth, the factor of intellect was never more commanding than under
conditions of war carried on with mass armies.
Reflect upon the difference between an opponent who, under such
conditions, is able to fathom and to provide against hostile moves, and
the opponent who has to take his measures in the dark as to hostile
intentions.
The former can issue his orders with the reasonable certainty that they
are what the situation will call for. Never were orders and instructions
more complex than with modern armies numbering millions; never were
there more contingencies to provide against and to foresee. To move and
to manipulate these vast masses with effect, accurate _anticipation_ is
essential. Such complicated machines cannot be pushed about on the spur
of the moment when a general suddenly wakes up to a discovery.
It follows that to conduct a campaign with mass armies there must either
be a plan which you judge yourself strong enough in any event to realise
or a plan which, because your opponent cannot fathom it, must throw him
into complete confusion. The former was the German way; the latter the
French.
That General Joffre would _try_ in the first place to defeat the German
armies in detail was not, of course, one of the surprises, because it is
elementary, but that he should have so largely _succeeded_ in defeating
them was a surprise.
In these encounters, as during later battles of the campaign, the French
troops discovered a cohesion and steadiness and a military habit of
discipline assumed to be foreign to their temperament. But their units
had been trained to act together in masses on practical lines. Of the
value of that training General Joffre was well aware.
He knew also that success in the earlier encounters, which that training
would go far to ensure, must give his troops an invaluable confidence in
their own quality.
There were, however, two surprises even more marked. One of these was
the quite unexpected use made of the fortified frontier; the other,
associated with it, was that of allowing the Germans to advance upon
Paris with an insufficient force, in the belief that French movements
were being conformed to their own.
Undoubtedly as regards the fortified frontier the belief prevailed that
the chief difficulty would be that of destroying its works with heavy
guns. It had never been anticipated that the Germans might be prevented
from getting near enough for the purpose. But in the French strategy
Verdun, Toul, and Belfort were not employed as obstacles. They were
employed as the fortified bases of armies. Being fortified, these bases
were safe even if close to the scene of operations. Consequently the
lines of communication could be correspondingly shortened, and the power
and activity of the armies dependent on them correspondingly increased.
So long as these armies remained afoot, the fortresses were
unattackable. Used in that way, a fortress reaches its highest military
value.
The strategy adopted by General Joffre in association with the German
advance upon Paris is one of the most interesting phases of the war. His
_tactics_ were to delay and weaken the first and driving formation of
the German chain of armies; his _strategy_ was, while holding the tail
of that chain of armies fast upon the fortified frontier, to attract the
head of it south-west. In that way he at once weakened the chain and
lengthened out the German communications. Not merely was the position of
the first German army the worse, and its effective strength the less,
the further it advanced, thus ensuring its eventual defeat, but in the
event of defeat retirement became proportionally more difficult. The
means employed were the illusion that this army was driving before it,
not a wing of the Allied forces engaged merely in operations of delay,
but forces which, through defeat, were unable to withstand its march
onward.
It cannot now be doubted that the Germans had believed themselves strong
enough to undertake the investment of Paris concurrently with successful
hostilities against the French forces in the field. But by the time
General von Kluck's army arrived at Creil, the fact had become manifest
that those two objectives could not be attempted concurrently. The
necessity had therefore arisen of attempting them _successively_.
In face of that necessity the choice as to which of the two should be
attempted first was not a choice which admitted of debate. Defeat of
the French forces in the field must be first. Without it, the
investment of Paris had clearly become an impossibility. How far it had
become an impossibility will be realised by looking at the position of
the German armies.
Five of them were echeloned across France from Creil, north-east of
Paris, to near the southern point of the Argonne.
The army of von Kluck was between Creil and Soissons, with advanced
posts extended to Meaux on the Marne.
The army of von Bülow was between Soissons and Rheims, with advanced
posts pushed to Château-Thierry, also on the Marne.
The army of von Hausen held Rheims and the country between Rheims and
Chalons, with advanced posts at Epernay.
The army of Duke Albert, with headquarters at Chalons, occupied the
valley of the Marne as far as the Argonne.
The army of the Crown Prince of Prussia, with headquarters at St.
Menehould, held the Argonne north of that place, with communications
passing round Verdun to Metz.
If the line formed by these armies be traced on the map, it will be
found to present from Creil to the southern part of the Argonne a great
but somewhat flattened arc, its curvature northwards. Then from the
southern part of the Argonne the line will present a sharp bend to the
north-east.
Now these five armies, refortified by reserves, comprised nineteen army
corps, plus divisions of cavalry--a vast force aggregating well over
one million men, with more than 3,000 guns. Powerful as it appeared,
however, this chain of armies was hampered by that capital disadvantage
of being held fast by the tail. Held as it was, the chain could not be
stretched to attempt an investment of Paris without peril of being
broken, and the great project of defeating and enveloping the Allied
forces was impossible.
No question was during the first weeks of the war more repeatedly asked
than why, instead of drafting larger forces to the frontier of Belgium,
General Joffre should have made what seemed to be a purposeless
diversion into Upper Alsace, the Vosges, and Lorraine.
The operations of the French in those parts of the theatre of war were
neither purposeless nor a diversion.
On the contrary, those operations formed the crux of the French
General's counter-scheme.
Their object was, as shown, to prevent the Germans from making an
effective attack on the fortified frontier. General Joffre well knew
that in the absence of that effective attack, and so long as the German
echelon of armies was pinned upon the frontier, Paris could not be
invested. In short, the effect of General Joffre's strategy was to _rob
the Germans of the advantages arising from their main body having taken
the Belgian route_.
On September 3, then, the scale of advantage had begun to dip on the
side of the defence. It remained to make that advantage decisive. The
opportunity speedily offered. Since the opportunity had been looked for,
General Joffre had made his dispositions accordingly, and was ready to
seize it.
Let it be recalled that the most vulnerable and at the same time the
most vital point of the German echelon was the outside or right flank of
the leading formation, the force led by General von Kluck. Obviously
that was the point against which the weight of the French and British
attack was primarily directed.
To grasp clearly the operations which followed, it is necessary here to
outline the natural features of the terrain and its roads and railways.
For that purpose it will probably be best to start from the Vosges and
take the country westward as far as Paris.
On their western side the Vosges are buttressed by a succession of
wooded spurs divided by upland valleys, often narrowing into mere clefts
called "rupts." These valleys, as we move away from the Vosges, widen
out and fall in level until they merge with the upper valley of the
Moselle. If we think of this part of the valley of the Moselle as a main
street, and these side valleys and "rupts" as _culs-de-sac_ opening off
it, we form a fairly accurate notion of the region.
From the valley of the upper Moselle the valley of the upper Meuse,
roughly parallel to it farther west, is divided by a ridge of wooded
country. Though not high, this ridge is continuous.
On the points of greatest natural strength commanding the roads and
railways running across the ridge, and mostly on the east side of the
valley of the Meuse, had been built the defence works of the fortified
frontier.
Crossing the valley of the Meuse we come into a similar region of hills
and woods, but this region is, on the whole, much wilder, the hills
higher, and the forests more extensive and dense. The hills here, too,
form a nearly continuous ridge, running north-north-west. The highlands
east of the Meuse sink, as we go north, into the undulating country of
Lorraine, but the ridge on the west side of the Meuse extends a good
many miles farther. This ridge, with the Meuse flowing along the east
side of it and the river Aire flowing along its west side, is the
Argonne. It is divided by two main clefts. Through the more northerly
runs the main road from Verdun to Chalons; through the more southerly
the main road from St. Mihiel on the Meuse to Bar-le-Duc, on the Marne.
Thus from the Vosges to the Aire we have three nearly parallel rivers
divided by two hilly ridges.
North of Verdun the undulating Lorraine country east of the Meuse again
rises into a stretch of upland forest. This is the Woevre.
Now, westward of the Argonne and across the Aire there is a region in
character very like the South Downs in England. It extends all the way
from the upper reaches of the Marne north-west beyond the Aisne and the
Oise to St. Quentin. In this open country, where the principal
occupation is sheep grazing, the lonely main roads run across the downs
for mile after mile straight as an arrow. Villages are far between. The
few towns lie along the intersecting valleys.
But descending from the downs into the wide valley of the Marne we come
into the region which has been not unaptly called the orchard of France,
the land of vineyards and plantations, and flourishing, picturesque
towns; in short, one of the most beautiful spots in Europe. The change
from the wide horizons of the solitary downs to the populous and
highly-cultivated lowlands is like coming into another world.
From the military point of view, however, the important features of all
this part of France are its roads and rivers, and most of all its
rivers.
The three main waterways, the Oise, the Marne, and the Seine, converge
as they approach Paris. Between the Oise and the Marne flows the main
tributary of the Oise, the Aisne. Also north of the Marne is its
tributary, the Ourcq; south of the Marne flows its tributaries, the
Petit Morin and the Grand Morin. All join the Marne in the lower part of
the valley not far from Paris. Between the Marne and the Seine flows the
Aube, a tributary of the Seine. The country between the Marne and the
Seine forms a wide swell of land. It was along the plateaux forming the
backbone of this broad ridge that the Battle of the Marne was, for the
most part, fought.
That brings us to the question of the roads.
Eastward from Paris, along the valley of the Marne, run three great
highways. The most northerly, passing through Meaux, La
Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Château Thierry, and Epernay to Chalons, follows
nearly the same course as the river, crossing it at several points to
avoid bends. The next branches off at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, and also
runs to Chalons by way of Montmirail. The third, passing through La
Ferté-Gaucher, Sezanne, Fère Champenoise, and Sommesons to
Vitry-le-François, follows the backbone of country already alluded to.
All these great roads lead farther east into Germany, the northerly and
the middle roads to Metz and the valley of the Moselle, the third road
to Nancy and Strasburg.
Now, it must be manifest to anybody that command of these routes, with
command of the railways corresponding with them, meant mastery of the
communications between Paris and the French forces holding the fortified
frontier all the way from Toul to Verdun.
If, consequently, the invading forces could seize and hold these routes
and railways, and, as a result, which would to all intents follow, could
seize and hold the great main routes and the railways running eastward
through the valley of the Seine from Paris to Belfort, the fortified
frontier--the key to the whole situation--would in military phrase, be
completely "turned." Its defence consequently would have to be
abandoned.
Not only must its defence have been abandoned, with the effect of
giving freedom of movement to the German echelon, but, that barrier
removed, the German armies would no longer be dependent for munitions
and supplies on the route through Belgium. They could receive them just
as conveniently by the route through Metz. Their facilities of supply
would be doubled.
It will be seen, therefore, to what an extent the whole course of the
war hung upon this great clash of arms on the Marne. German success must
have affected the future of operations alike in the western theatre and
in the eastern.
But there is another feature of the roads in the valley of the Marne
which is of consequence. Great roads converge into it from the north.
Sezanne has already been mentioned. It is half-way along the broad
backbone dividing the valley of the Marne from the valley of the Seine.
Five great roads meet there from La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Soissons,
Rheims, Chalons, Verdun, and Nancy. Hence the facility for massing at
that place a huge body of troops.
It will be seen, therefore, that in making Sezanne the point at which
they aimed their main blow at the whole French scheme of defence, the
Germans had selected the spot where the blow would, in all probability,
be at once decisive and possibly fatal. Clearly they had now grasped, at
all events in its main intention, the strategy of the French general.
_They saw that he was using the fortified frontier to checkmate their
Belgian plan._
Summing up the consequences, had success attended the stroke we find
that it would have:
Opened to the invaders the valley of the Seine.
Turned the defence of the fortified frontier.
Released the whole of the German armies.
Given them additional, as well as safer, lines of supply from Germany.
Enabled the German armies to sweep westward along the valley of the
Seine, enveloping or threatening to envelop the greater part of the
French forces in the field.