The Battle of the Marne
()
About this ebook
Day after day, under the swinging hammer-head blows of the German drive, the flower of the forces of the Allies had been compelled to break. A little less generalship on the part of the defenders, or a little more recklessness behind that smashing offensive might have turned this retirement into a rout. Even as it was, the official dispatches reveal that, while occasional and local retirements had been considered, such a sweeping retreat was far from contemplated by Generals Joffre and French. German official dispatches bear testimony to the intrepid character of the defenders sullenly falling back and contesting every inch of the way, as much as they do to the daring and the vivid bravery of the German attackers who hurled themselves steadily, day after day, upon positions hastily taken up in the retreat where the retirement could be partly repaid by the heaviest toll of death.
The great strategical plan of the Germans, which had displayed itself throughout the entire operations on the western theatre of war from the very first gun of the campaign, came to its apex on this September 3, 1914. If the allied armies could develop a strong enough defense to halt the German offensive at this point, and especially if they could develop a sufficiently powerful counteroffensive to strike doubt into the confident expectations of the armies of the Central Powers, then the strategical plan had reached a check, which might or might not be a checkmate, as the fortunes of war might determine. If, on the other hand, the stand made by the Allies at this point should prove ineffective, and if the counteroffensive should reveal that the German hosts had been able to establish impregnable defenses as they marched, then the original strategic plan of the attackers must be considered as intact and the peril of France would become greatly intensified...
Related to The Battle of the Marne
Related ebooks
Memoirs Of The Marne Campaign Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGermany in the Great War: Verdun & Somme Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalking the Retreat: The March to the Marne: 1914 Revisited Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNine Divisions in Champagne: The Second Battle of Marne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVerdun: The Left Bank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5West Country Regiments on the Somme Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVerdun 1917: The French Hit Back Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe BEF Campaign on the Aisne 1914: 'In the Company of Ghosts' Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Battle of Marne, 1914: A Battlefield Guide Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Montauban: Somme Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCovered With Mud And Glory: A Machine Gun Company In Action ("Ma Mitrailleuse") Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarch On Paris And The Battle Of The Marne 1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe St. Mihiel Offensive: 12 to 16 September 1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlers & Gueudecourt: Somme Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Army at Ypres 1914 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History Of The King’s German Legion Vol. I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWith Bayonets Fixed: The 12th & 13th Battalions of the Durham Light Infantry in the Great War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman General Staff In World War I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Army at Cambrai Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5French Generals of the Great War: Leading the Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor King and Kaiser: Scenes from Saxony's War in Flanders 1914–1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Command Is Forward Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVillers-Plouich: Hindenburg Line Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nery, 1914: The Adventure of the German 4th Cavalry Division Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Hussar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe War of Lost Opportunities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of the British Cavalry: Volume 8: 1816-1919 The Western Front, 1915-1918, Epilogue, 1919-1939 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssex Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnited States Army in WWII - the Mediterranean - Salerno to Cassino: [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBoom Ravine: Somme Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Wars & Military For You
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Battle of the Marne
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Battle of the Marne - Francis Reynolds
THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
..................
Francis Reynolds, Allen Churchill, and Francis Miller
ENDYMION PRESS
Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review or connect with the author.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2016 by Francis Reynolds, Allen Churchill, and Francis Miller
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE MARNE—GENERAL PLAN OF BATTLE FIELD
ALLIED AND GERMAN BATTLE PLANS
FIRST MOVES IN THE BATTLE
GERMAN RETREAT
CONTINUATION OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
CONTINUATION OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
OTHER ASPECTS OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
THE MARNE—GENERAL PLAN OF BATTLE FIELD
..................
ON SEPTEMBER 4, 1914, THE bugler of Destiny sounded the Halt!
to the retreat of the armies of the Allies from the Belgian frontier. The marvelous fighting machine of the German armies, perhaps the most superb organization of military potency that has been conceived by the mind of man, seemed to reach its limit of range. Success had perched upon the German eagles, and for two weeks there had been a steady succession of victories. Nevertheless the British and French armies were not crushed. They were overwhelmed, they were overpowered, and, under stern military necessity, they were forced to fall back.
Day after day, under the swinging hammer-head blows of the German drive, the flower of the forces of the Allies had been compelled to break. A little less generalship on the part of the defenders, or a little more recklessness behind that smashing offensive might have turned this retirement into a rout. Even as it was, the official dispatches reveal that, while occasional and local retirements had been considered, such a sweeping retreat was far from contemplated by Generals Joffre and French. German official dispatches bear testimony to the intrepid character of the defenders sullenly falling back and contesting every inch of the way, as much as they do to the daring and the vivid bravery of the German attackers who hurled themselves steadily, day after day, upon positions hastily taken up in the retreat where the retirement could be partly repaid by the heaviest toll of death.
The great strategical plan of the Germans, which had displayed itself throughout the entire operations on the western theatre of war from the very first gun of the campaign, came to its apex on this September 3, 1914. If the allied armies could develop a strong enough defense to halt the German offensive at this point, and especially if they could develop a sufficiently powerful counteroffensive to strike doubt into the confident expectations of the armies of the Central Powers, then the strategical plan had reached a check, which might or might not be a checkmate, as the fortunes of war might determine. If, on the other hand, the stand made by the Allies at this point should prove ineffective, and if the counteroffensive should reveal that the German hosts had been able to establish impregnable defenses as they marched, then the original strategic plan of the attackers must be considered as intact and the peril of France would become greatly intensified.
It is idle, in a war of such astounding magnitude, to speak about any one single incident as being a decisive
one. Such a term can only rightly be applied to conditions where the opposing powers each have but one organized army in the field, and these armies meet in a pitched battle. None the less, the several actions which are known as the Battles of the Marne may be considered as decisive, to the extent that they decided the limit of the German offensive at that point. The German General Staff, taking the ordinary and obvious precautions in the case of a possible repulse, chose and fortified in the German rear positions to which its forces might fall back in the event of retreat. These prepared positions had a secondary contingent value for the Germans in view of the grave Russian menace that might call at any moment for a transfer of German troops from the western to the eastern front.
The Battle of the Marne stopped the advance of the main German army on that line, forcing it