THE GREAT RETREAT BEGINS

The German hosts now stood at the gates of France. It was a mighty spectacle. The soldiery of the Kaiser which had swept their way into Belgium, there to meet the unexpected resistance of the defenders of King Albert, had reached their goal—the French frontier.

About the middle of August, 1914, General Joffre, assigned to the British Expeditionary Force, commanded by Sir John French, the task of holding Mons against the powerful German advance. The British force formed the left wing of the line of front that stretched for some two hundred miles close to the Belgian frontier. Extending from Arras through the colliery towns of Mons and Charleroi, the extreme western front of the armies was held by General D'Amade at Arras, with about 40,000 reserve territorial troops; by General French, with 80,000 British regulars, at Mons; by the Fifth French Army of 200,000 first-line troops, under General Lanrezac, near Charleroi; and by a force of 25,000 Belgian troops at Namur. The total Allied troops in this field of battle were thus about 345,000 men.

Opposed to them, on the north, were about 700,000 German troops, General von Kluck farthest to the west, Generals von BÜlow and von Hausen around the Belgian fortress of Namur, Grand Duke Albrecht of WÜrttemberg in the neighborhood of Maubeuge, and finally, on the extreme left of the German line, the Army of the Moselle, under Crown Prince Wilhelm.

The position of the Allied armies was based on the resisting power of Namur. It was expected that Namur would delay the German advance as long as Liege had done. Then the French line of frontier fortresses—Lille, with its half-finished defenses; Maubeuge, with strong forts and a large garrison; and other strongholds—would form a still more useful system of fortified points for the Allies.

The German staff, however, had other plans. At Liege they had rashly endeavored to storm a strong fortress by a massed infantry attack, which had failed disastrously until their new Krupp siege guns had been brought up. These quickly demolished the defenses. These siege guns, therefore, which had thus fully demonstrated their value against fortifications soon brought about the total defeat of the French offensive, and compelled the Allies to retreat from Belgium and northern France. The Germans lost no time in investing Namur, and on Saturday, as noted above, August 22, 1914, the fortress fell into the invaders' hands.

On the same day, August 22, 1914, the Fifth French Army, under the lead of General Lanrezac, was enduring the double stress of Von BÜlow's army thundering against its front, and Von Hausen's two army corps pressing hard upon its right flank and rear, threatening its line of retreat. Against such terrific odds the French line at Dinant and Givet broke, exposing the flank and rear of the whole army; and by the evening of that day, August 22, the passages of the River Sambre, near Charleroi, had been forced, and the Fifth Army was falling back, contesting every mile of the ground with desperate rear-guard action. The British, meanwhile, defending the Mons position, were in grave danger of being cut off, enveloped, and destroyed.

Sir John French had put his two army corps into battle array. He had about thirty miles of front to defend, with Mons nearly in the center.

On Sunday afternoon, August 23, 1914, the full weight of the German onset fell for the first time upon the British.

All that night the British were under the fire of German artillery.

Sir John French realized the danger of his Maubeuge-Jenlain position, and on Monday evening, August 24, 1914, realizing the importance of putting a substantial barrier, such as the Somme or the Oise, between his force and the enemy, gave orders for the retirement to be continued at five o'clock the next morning, August 25, 1914. He had decided upon a new position about the town of Le Cateau, east of Cambrai. Before dawn, August 25, 1914, the southward march over rough, hilly country was resumed, and toward evening of August 25, 1914, after a long, hard day's fighting march over the highroads, in midsummer heat and thundershowers, the Guards Brigade and other regiments of the Second Corps, wet and weary, arrived at the little market town of Landrecies. From Landrecies, after an encounter with a German column, they marched south toward Wassigny on Guise.

While the night attack on Landrecies was raging, the Germans, taxing their men to the uttermost, marched four other corps through the tract of country between the west side of the forest and the road from Valenciennes to Cambrai. These corps were in a position along Smith-Dorrien's front before dawn of Wednesday, August, 26, 1914, and in the earliest hours of the morning it became apparent that the Germans were determined to throw the bulk of their strength against the British battalions which had moved up to a position south of the small town of Solesmes, extending to the south of Cambrai. Thus placed, this force could shield the Second Corps, now beginning its retreat under pressure of the German army advancing from Tournai. These troops under General Snow were destined to play an important part in the impending battle of Le Cateau.

By sunrise the guns of the four German corps were firing from positions facing the British left, and gray-green masses of infantry were pressing forward in dense firing lines. In view of this attack, General Smith-Dorrien judged it impossible to continue his retreat at daybreak. The First Corps was at that moment scarcely out of difficulty, and General SordÊt—whose troops had been fighting hard on the flank of the Fifth French Army, with General Lanrezac, against General von BÜlow's hosts—was unable to help the British, owing to the exhausted state of his cavalry. The situation was full of peril; indeed, Wednesday bade fair to become the most critical day of the retreat.

As the day of August 26, 1914, wore on, General von Kluck, abandoning frontal attacks, began to use his superior numbers in a great enveloping move on both flanks, and some of his batteries secured positions from which they could enfilade the British line. Smith-Dorrien, having no available reserves, was thus virtually ringed by enemy guns on one side and by hostile infantry on all sides. "It became apparent," says Sir John French's dispatch, "that if complete annihilation was to be avoided, a retirement must be attempted; and the order was given to commence it about 3.30 p. m. The movement was covered with the most devoted intrepidity and determination by the artillery, which had suffered heavily, and the fine work done by the cavalry in the farther retreat from the position assisted materially in the completion of this difficult and dangerous operation. The saving of the left wing could never have been accomplished unless a commander" (Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien) "of rare coolness had been present to personally conduct the operation."

This retirement foreshadowed the end of the battle. Worn out by repeated repulses, the Germans had suffered too heavily to continue their attacks or to engage in an energetic pursuit. According to General French's estimate, the British losses during the trying period from August 23 to August 26, 1914, inclusive, were between 5,000 and 6,000 men and the losses suffered by the Germans in their pursuit and attacks across the open country, owing largely to their dense formation, were much greater. The Battle of Le Cateau gave the Germans pause. Further retreat of the British could now be resumed in orderly array; for by now General SordÊt with his cavalry was relieving the pressure on the British rear, and General D'Amade with his two reserve divisions from the neighborhood of Arras was attacking General von Kluck's right, driving it back on Cambrai. Disaster to the British forces was averted, though the peril of German interposition between the Allied army and Paris would soon compel still further withdrawals.

Covered by their gunners, but still under heavy fire of the German artillery, the British began again to retire southward. Their retreat was continued far into the night of August 26, 1914, and through the 27th and 28th; on the last date—after vigorous cavalry fighting—the exhausted troops halted on a line extending from the French cathedral town of Noyon through Chauny to La FÈre. There they were joined by reenforcements amounting to double their loss. Guns to replace those captured or shattered by the enemy were brought up to the new line. There was a breathing space for a day, while the British made ready to take part in the next great encounter.

This fourth week in August marked a decisive period in the history of the Great War. All the French armies, from the east to the west, as well as the British army, were in retreat over their frontiers. To what resolution had the French commander in chief come? That was the question on every lip. What at that moment was the real situation of the French army? Certainly the first engagements had not turned out as well as the French could have hoped. The Germans were reaping the reward of their magnificent preparation for the war. Their heavy artillery, with which the French army was almost entirely unprovided, was giving proof of its efficacy and its worth. The moral effect of those great projectiles launched from great distances by the immense German guns was considerable. At such great distances the French cannons of 75, admirable as they were, could make no effective reply to the German batteries. The French soldiers were perfectly well aware that they were the targets of the great German shells while their own cannon could make no parallel impression on the enemy.

The German army revealed itself as an extraordinary instrument of war. Its mobility and accouterments were perfect. It had over a hundred thousand professional noncommissioned officers or subofficers, admirably suited to their work, with their men marching under the control of their eye and finger. In the German army the active corps, as well as the reserve corps, showed themselves, thanks to these noncommissioned officers, marvelously equipped.

In the French army the number of noncommissioned officers by profession totaled hardly half the German figures. The German army, moreover, was much more abundantly supplied with machine guns than the French. The Germans had almost twice as many, and they understood how to use them in defense and attack better than the French. They had moreover, to a degree far superior to that of the French, studied the use of fortifications in the field, trenches, wire entanglements, and so on. The Germans were also at first better trained than the French reservists; they had spent longer periods in the German army, and their reserve corps were almost equal to the active corps.

In the French army, on the other hand, an apprenticeship and training of several weeks were required to give to the divisions of reserve their full worth. At the end of two weeks, nevertheless, thanks to the marvelous elasticity of the French soldier and the warlike qualities of the race, the training was completed. At the beginning of the month of September the reserve divisions fought with the same skill, the same keenness, and the same swing as the active army corps.

Moreover, certain incompetencies had revealed themselves in the French high command. These General Joffre attended to without the loss of an instant. Every general that appeared to him incapable of fulfilling the task allotted to him was weeded out on the spot, without considering friendships or the bonds of comradeship, or intimacy that might be between them.

As things were seen in Paris, all may be summed up in this formula: That the German army was better prepared for war than the French army, for the simple reason that Germany had long prepared for the war, because she had it in view, a thing which could not be said of France. But the French army revealed right from the beginning the most admirable and marvelous qualities. The soldiers fought with a skill and heroism that have never been equaled. Sometimes, indeed, their enthusiasm and courage carried them too far. It mattered little. In spite of losses, in spite even of retreat, the morale of the whole French army on the entire front from Alsace to the Somme remained extraordinarily high.

The violation of Belgian neutrality and the passage of the German armies through Belgium had been foreseen by the French General Staff, but opinions differed in regard to the breadth of the turning movement likely to be made by the German right wing in crossing Belgian territory. Among French experts some were of opinion that the Germans would confine themselves to the right bank of the Meuse, while others thought that they would cross the Meuse, and make a much vaster turning movement, thus descending on France in a direction due north and south.

If the violation of Belgian neutrality was no surprise to the French Staff, it was nevertheless hardly expected that the Germans would be able to put in line with such rapidity at the outset all their reserve formations. Each army corps was supported by its reserve corps, which showed itself as quick in mobilization and preparation as the active corps.

Germany, while maintaining sufficient forces on the Russian front, was still able to put in the field for its great offensive against France a more numerous body of troops than would have been believed in France. This permitted them to maintain in Alsace, in Lorraine, and in Belgian Luxembourg armies as numerous as those which faced them on the French side, and at the same time to mass the major part of their troops on the right so as to pour into the valley of the Oise their chief invading forces.

This explains why the French left, which was exposed to the offensive of the German right, was obliged to make a rapid retreat, permitting the German armies of General von Kluck and General von BÜlow to advance with all speed in the direction of Paris.

The French military staff, as soon as they perceived the danger that threatened, proceeded to a new alignment of forces. As long as this alignment of forces could not be effected the retreat had to continue. As soon as it was accomplished, as soon as General Joffre had his armies well in hand and the situation of his troops well disposed, he checked the retreat, gave the signal for the offensive, and so followed the great Battle of the Marne.

The German plan consisted, therefore, in delivering the main blow through the medium of the right wing of the German forces, consisting of the army of Von Kluck, the army of Von BÜlow, and the army of Von Hausen, which were to march with all speed in the direction of Paris.

What plan had the French staff in mind to oppose to this plan of the Germans? Its plan aimed at checking and holding the greatest possible number of Germans by a vigorous offensive in Alsace and Lorraine so as to prevent them from joining the three first German armies which threatened Paris. In support of this offensive of the armies of Alsace and Lorraine, the central French armies attacked in the direction of the Ardennes and Belgian Luxembourg with the object of checking the center of the German armies and then turning toward the west so as to cooperate in the offensive of the French forces which, aided by the British army and the Belgian army, were fighting in Belgium.

The French armies, which are numbered from the right to the left—that is, from the east to the west—comprised: A detachment of the Army of Alsace that was dissolved toward the end of the month of August; the First Army (General Dubail); the Second Army (General de Castelnau); the Third Army (General Ruffey, replaced at the end of August, 1914, by General Sarrail); the Fourth Army (General de Langle de Cary); the Fifth Army (General Lanrezac, replaced in the last days of August, 1914, by General Franchet d'EspÉrey). At the right of this army was stationed the British army under the command of General French.

To what resolution did General Joffre come? On that memorable evening of the 24th, and on that morning of the 25th, two alternatives presented themselves before him. Should they, rather than permit the enemy to invade the soil of France, make a supreme effort to check the Germans on the frontier?

This first apparent solution had the evident advantage of abandoning to the enemy no part of the national soil, but it had some serious inconveniences. The attack of the German armies operating on the right (Generals von Kluck, von BÜlow, von Hausen) were extremely menacing. In order to parry this attack it was necessary considerably to reenforce the French left, and for that purpose to transfer from the right to the left a certain number of army corps. That is what the military call, in the language of chess players, "to castle" the army corps. But this movement could not be accomplished in a few hours. It required, even with all the perfection of organization shown by the French railways during this war, a certain number of days. As long as this operation from the right to the left had not been accomplished, as long as the left wing of the French army and even the center remained without the reenforcement of elements taken from the right, it would have been extremely imprudent, not to say rash, for the French high command to attempt a decisive battle. If General Joffre had risked a battle immediately he would have been playing the game without all his trumps in hand and would have been in danger of a defeat, and even of a decided disaster, from which it might have been impossible to recover.

The second alternative consisted in drawing back and in profiting from a retreat by putting everything in shipshape order to bring about a new grouping of forces. They would allow the Germans to advance, and when the occasion showed itself favorable the French armies, along with the British army, would take the offensive and wage a decisive battle. It was to this second decision that General Joffre came. As soon as on August 25, 1914, he had made up his mind as to what the French retreat was going to lead he gave orders for a new marshaling of forces and for preparations with a view to the offensive.

General Joffre has made no objection to the publication of his orders in detail from that date, August 25, 1914, down to the Battle of the Marne. They constitute an eloquent and convincing document. The series of orders were contained in the "Bulletin des ArmÉes de la RÉpublique FranÇaise," June 6, 1915, Sunday. The first of these orders, dated August 25, 1914, runs as follows:

"The projected offensive movement not having been found possible of execution, the consequent operations will be so conducted as to put in line, on our left, by the junction of the Fourth and Fifth Armies, the British army, and new forces recruited from the eastern district, a body capable of taking the offensive while other armies for the needed interval hold in check the efforts of the enemy...."

The retreating movement was regulated so as to bring about the following disposition of forces preparatory to an offensive:

"In the Amiens district a new grouping of forces, formed of elements conveyed by rail (Seventh Corps, four divisions of reserve, and perhaps another active army corps), brought together from August 27 to September 2, 1914. This body will remain ready to take the offensive in the general direction of St, Pol-Arras or Arras-Bapaume."

The same general instructions of August 25, 1914, marks out the zones of march, and says:

"The movement will be covered by the rear guards spread out at favorable points of vantage so as to utilize every obstacle for the purpose of checking, by brief and violent counterattacks in which the artillery will play the chief part, the march of the enemy or at least to retard it."

(Signed) J. Joffre.

The object of this maneuver is thus already on August 25, 1914, clearly indicated; it looked not to a defensive, but to an offensive movement, which was to be resumed as soon as circumstances appeared favorable. Much is made clear in these orders of General Joffre, which are characterized by perspicuity, foresight, and precision.

The retreat was effected; but it was only a provisional retreat. Whenever an occasion presented itself to counterattack the enemy for the purpose of delaying his advance, that occasion was to be taken advantage of. And that is, in fact, what took place.

Two days later, on August 27, 1914, General Joffre brought together, using army corps and divisions recruited elsewhere, a supplementary army, the Ninth Army, which was detailed to take its place between the Fourth and Fifth Armies. He intrusted its command to a general, who, while commanding the Twentieth Corps, had distinguished himself by his brilliant conduct in Lorraine, General Foch.

The establishment of the army of Manoury on the left of the French armies so as to fall on the right flank of the Germans when they marched on Paris; the establishment of a strong army under one of the best French generals at the center for the purpose of encountering the main weight of the German army; such were the two decisions of the French commander in chief, taken on August 25 and 27, 1914, which contained in germ the victory of the Marne, waged and won two weeks later.[Back to Contents]