The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World by Holger H. Herwig

Author:Holger H. Herwig
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: World War I, Marne, France, 1st Battle of the, Military, 1914, History
ISBN: 9781588369093
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 2009-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

* A term famously coined by Muhammad Ali for the “Rumble in the Jungle” against George Foreman in October 1974 at Kinshasa, Zaire.

*Interestingly, in 1934 King Albert of Belgium died near Dinant while rock climbing.

† French (GMT) time. German records are in German General Time (one hour later).

CHAPTER SEVEN

TO THE MARNE

It is essential for a general to be tranquil and obscure, upright and self-disciplined. … He alters his management of affairs and changes his strategies. … He shifts his position and traverses indirect routes to keep other people from being able to anticipate him.

—SUN-TZU

DESPITE KARL VON BüLOW’S FAILURE TO EXPLOIT HIS “TOTAL victory” at Saint-Quentin, Army Supreme Command (OHL) had every reason to believe that the campaign in the west had been won by late August. For nearly three weeks, its armies had steadily advanced, had blunted every enemy offensive, and had driven Joseph Joffre’s armies ever deeper into France. From Nancy to Verdun, Namur to Charleroi, Guise to Saint-Quentin, and Mons to Le Cateau, the enemy seemed on the verge of collapse. Only “occupation measures,” the OHL informed Fritz Nieser, Baden’s military plenipotentiary to Imperial Headquarters, remained. On the morning of 4 September, advance guards of Second Army happily passed a road sign, paris 121 KM; by afternoon, another sign read, paris 95 KM.1

The opposing headquarters took time to reassess the flow of the campaign after Guise/Saint-Quentin. For Helmuth von Moltke, this meant setting in place a series of orders instructing his armies how to pursue the enemy and how to bring about the final, decisive victory. For Joseph Joffre, this meant a further falling-back toward Paris and frantic efforts to form up Michel-Joseph Maunoury’s Sixth Army. And, of course, more dealings with the always difficult British.

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