CONTINUATION OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
The third part of the battle of the Marne, called by some the Battle of
Montmirail, was not marked by special incident. General d'Esperey's part
was to hold firm, and this he did. Not only by reason of the British
assistance on the left, but also because the strong army of General Foch
to the right was a new army, of greater strength than was known to
General von Moltke and the German General Staff. The battle of
Montmirail was won by the steady resistance of the Fifth Army to the
hammer blows of the German right, and to the quick advantage seized by
General d'Esperey when the British weakened the flank of the force
opposing him. On September 8, 1914, General d'Esperey had not only held
his ground, but had driven General von Kluck back across the Grand Morin
River at La Ferte-Gaucher, and also across the Petit Morin at
Montmirail. Since the British had butted the Germans back from the Petit
Morin at La Tretoire, these three days of fighting in the battles of
Coulommiers and Montmirail had won the Allies advanced positions across
two rivers, and had so weakened the German right that it was compelled
to fall back on the main army and forego its important strategic
advantage on the east bank of the Ourcq River.
These three battles, Ourcq, Coulommiers, and Montmirail, constitute the
recoil from Paris, and at the same time they constitute the defeat of
what was hereinbefore shown to be one of the four fundamentals of the
great German campaign plan. With the situation thus cleared, so to
speak, one may now pass to the details of the second part of the German
plan, which was to engage the powerful Ninth and Fourth Armies, under
the command of Generals Foch and Langle, respectively, to break through
them, if possible, but at all hazards to keep them sufficiently menaced
to disable General Joffre from sending reenforcements therefrom to the
army of General Sarrail, on which the whole force of the army of the
crown prince was to be hurled.
The next section of the Allied armies, then, was General Foch's Ninth
Army, which encountered the German drive at Fere Champenoise, and which
resulted in the severe handling of General von Buelow's forces. With
characteristic perception of the difference between a greater and a
lesser encounter, General Foch called his share of the battles of the
Marne, the "Affair of the Marshes of St. Gond." This did not culminate
until Wednesday, September 9, 1914, so that the German retreat there was
one day later than the final retreat of General von Kluck.
The clash between the armies of General von Buelow and of General Foch
began, as did the battle wrath along the whole front, at dawn of that
fateful Sunday, September 5, 1914. General Foch, a well-known writer on
strategy, had devised his army for defense. He was well supplied with
the famous 75-millimeter guns, holding them massed in the center of his
line. His extreme right and left were mobile and thrown partly forward
to feel the attack of the invading army. But, in spite of all
preparations, General Foch found himself hard-set to hold his own on
September 5, 6, 7, and 8, 1914. The battle continued incessantly, by
night as well as by day, for the artillerists had found each other's
range. There was comparatively little hand-to-hand fighting at this
point, General Foch only once being successful in luring the Germans to
within close firing range. The results were withering, and General von
Buelow did not attempt it a second time. There seems reason to believe
that General von Buelow had counted upon acting as a reserve force to
General von Kluck during the latter's advance, and that, consequently,
he did not think it prudent to risk heavy loss of life until he knew the
situation to westward of him. There was some sharp "bomb" work at Fere
Champenoise on September 8, and then came the night of the 8th.
It will be remembered that at the close of the battle of Montmirail on
the evening of September 8, 1914, the western flank of Von Buelow's army
had been exposed by the advance of General d'Esperey and the retreat of
General von Kluck. Information of this reached Foch, and despite the
danger of the maneuver, he thrust out his mobile left like a great
tongue. That night the weather turned stormy, facilitating this move. At
one o'clock in the morning, the statement has been made, word reached
General Foch indirectly that air patrols had observed a gap in the
alignment of the German armies between General von Buelow's left and
General von Hausen's right.
During the darkness and the rain, therefore, General Foch had worked two
complete surprises on General von Buelow. He had enveloped the German
commander's right flank, and was safely ensconced there with General
d'Esperey's army behind him, since the latter had by now advanced to
Montmirail. At the same time he had thrust a wedge between Von Buelow and
General von Hausen, threatening General von Buelow's left flank as well.
The first was a seizure of an opportunity, executed with military
promptness, the second was a bold _coup_, and its risk might well have
appalled a less experienced general.
Considering the westernmost of these movements first, it will be seen at
once how the enveloping action brought about the "Affair of the Marshes
of St. Gond." General von Buelow's army was stretched in an arc around
the marshes, which, it will be remembered, have been described as a
pocket of clay, low-lying lands mainly reclaimed, but which become miry
during heavy rains. It was General von Buelow's misfortune, that, on the
very night that his flank was exposed, there should come a torrential
downpour. These same marshes had figured more than once before in
France's military history, and General Foch, as a master strategist, was
determined that they should serve again. When the rain came, he thanked
his lucky stars and acted on the instant.
When the morning of September 9, 1914, dawned, the left wing of General
Foch's army was not only covering the exposed flank of General von
Buelow's forces, but parts of it were two miles to the rear. Under the
driving rain, morning broke slowly, and almost before a sodden and
rain-soaked world could awake to the fact that day had come, General
Foch had nipped the rear of the flank of the opposing army, and was
bending the arc in upon itself. Under normal circumstances, such an
action would tend but to strengthen the army thus attacked, since it
brings all parts of the army into closer communication. But General Foch
knew that the disadvantages of the ground would more than compensate for
this, since the two horns of General von Buelow's army could not combine
without crossing those marshes, now boggy enough, and growing boggier
every second. The task was harder than General Foch anticipated, for the
same rainy conditions that provided a pitfall for the Germans were also
a manifest hindrance to the rapid execution of military maneuvers. But,
in spite of all difficulties, by evening of that day, the flank broke
and gave way, and two entire corps from General von Buelow's right were
precipitated into the marshes. Forty guns were taken--to that time the
largest capture of artillery made by the Allies--and a number of
prisoners. Hundreds perished miserably, but General Foch held back his
artillery from an indiscriminate slaughter of men made helpless in the
slimy mud. Thus ended the "Affair of the Marshes of St. Gond," which
broke still further the German right wing.
Thanks to General Foch's further activities, General von Buelow had
troubles upon his left wing. When dawn of this same day of torrential
rain, September 9, 1914, broke over the hill-road that runs from Mareuil
to Fere-Champenoise, at which point lay the left of General von Buelow's
army, it witnessed a number of 75-millimeter guns on selected gun sites
commanding the right flank of the German right center. General Foch's
daring, the success of the maneuver, and the fact that the conduct of
all the French armies on that day and the day following seems to be with
the full cognizance of this venture, led inevitably to the conclusion
that those brilliant feats, conceived by General Foch, had been
communicated to General Joffre in time for the French General Staff to
direct the French armies to the right and left of General Foch to
cooperate with his action. Had General Foch been less ably supported,
his wedge might have proved a weak salient open to attack on both sides.
But General Foch's main army to the west kept General von Buelow busy,
and General Langle's army to the east fought too stubbornly for the Duke
of Wuerttemberg to dare detach any forces for the relief of General von
Buelow. General von Hausen's Saxon Army was weak, at best.
What were the forces that operated to make this particular point so weak
are not generally known. As, however, the divisions from Alsace were
much in evidence three or four days later, it is more than probable that
these divisions were intended for service at this point, and also to
reenforce General von Kluck's army, but that, by the quick offensive
assumed by General Joffre on the Ourcq, and, owing to the roundabout
nature of the German means of communication, these expected
reenforcements had not arrived. The German official dispatches point out
that General von Buelow's retreat was necessitated by the retreat of
General von Kluck. Of this there is no doubt, but even military
necessity does not quite explain why General von Buelow bolted so
precipitately. His losses were fearful, and the offensive of General
Foch rendered it necessary for the Germans to fall back on the Aisne.
The armies of the Duke of Wuerttemberg and of the crown prince may be
considered together, for they were combined in an effort to pierce the
French line near the angle at Bar-le-Duc. General Langle held on
desperately against the repeated attacks of the Duke of Wuerttemberg.
Ground was lost and recovered, lost again and recovered, and every
trifling vantage point of ground was fought for with a bitter intensity.
Though active, with all the other armies, on September 5 and 6, 1914, it
was not until September 7 that General Langle found himself strained to
his utmost nerve. If he could hold, he could do no more, and when night
fell on September 7, no person was more relieved than General Langle.
Yet the next day was even worse. Instead of slackening in the evil
weather, the German drive became more furious. The exhausted Fourth Army
fought as though in a hideous nightmare, defended their lines in a
sullen obstinacy that seemed almost stuporous, and countercharged in a
blind frenzy that approached to delirium. It was doubtful if General
Langle's army could hold out much longer. But, when General von Buelow
was compelled to retreat, when General Foch turned his attention to
General von Hausen's Saxon Army, and when General Joffre found himself
in a position to rush reenforcements and reserves to the aid of General
Langle, a new color was given to the affair. The defense stiffened, and
as rapidly as it stiffened, so much the more did it become patent that
the Duke of Wuerttemberg could not afford to be in an exposed position
far in advance of all the other attacking armies. Wednesday, September
9, 1914, revealed to the German center the need of falling back on the
crown prince's army, which was the pivot on which the whole campaign
swung.
Meantime, the crown prince's army had been steadily victorious. The weak
French army under General Sarrail had been pushed back, yielding only
foot by foot, back, back, along the rugged hill country of the Meuse. A
determined stand was made to protect the little fort of Troyon, ten
miles south of Verdun, for had the Germans succeeded in taking this,
Verdun would have been surrounded. No army and no generalship could have
done more than the Third Army and General Sarrail did, but they could
not hold their ground before Troyon. On September 7, 1914, the way to
Troyon was open, and the army of the crown prince prepared to demolish
it. Then came September 9, 1914, when the allied successes in the
western part of the Marne valley allowed them to send reenforcements.
Thus the Third Army was perceptibly strengthened and hope for Troyon
grew. One day more, certainly two days more, and nothing could have
saved Troyon, but with the whole German line in retreat, the army of the
crown prince could not be left on the advance.
Incredible though it may seem, when the army of the crown prince
besieging Troyon withdrew, that little fort was a mere heap of ruins.
There were exactly forty-four men left in the fort and four serviceable
guns. Even a small storming party could have carried it without the
least trouble, and its natural strength could have been fortified in
such wise as to make it a pivotal point from which to harry Verdun.
At the extreme east, on that ring of wooded heights known as the Grande
Couronne de Nancy, and drawn up across the Gap of Nancy, the Second
French Army, under General de Castelnau, successfully resisted the drive
of the Crown Prince of Bavaria. Great hopes had been placed on this
attack, and on September 7, 1914, the German Emperor had viewed the
fight at Nancy from one of the neighboring heights. Surely a victory for
the German arms might come either at the point where stood the German
Emperor or where led the crown prince. But the fortunes of war decided
otherwise. Far from losing at Nancy, the French took the offensive.
After an artillery duel of terrific magnitude, they drove the Bavarian
army from the forests of Champenous and took Amance. The line of the
Meurthe was then found untenable by the Germans, and on September 12,
1914, General de Castelnau reoccupied the town of Luneville, which had
been in the hands of the Germans since August 22, 1914.
With General von Kluck in retreat on September 7, 1914, General von
Buelow hastening to the rear on September 8, 1914, with the Duke of
Wuerttemberg falling back on September 9, 1914, and the Imperial Crown
Prince and the Bavarian Crown Prince retreating to an inner ring of
defense on September 10, 1914, the battles of the Marne may, in a
measure, be said to have concluded. As, however, the new alignments were
made mainly by reason of the topographical relationships of the Marne
and the Aisne Rivers and the territory contiguous thereto, it is perhaps
more in keeping with the movement to carry forward the German retreat
across the Marne as a part of the same group of conflicts.