He used interior lines to move troops from his right wing to the critical left wing and sacked generals. The First Battle of the Marne occurred during the early days of World War I. First Battle of the Marne in World War I - ThoughtCo [91], On 10 September, Joffre ordered the French armies and the BEF to advance and for four days, the Armies on the left flank moved forward and gathered up German stragglers, wounded and equipment, opposed only by rearguards. The First Battle of the Marne occurred from September 6th to the 12th in 1914 and was one the first major conflicts of World War I.In particular, the First Battle of the Marne was important to the early fighting on the Western Front, which was the line of fighting that occurred along the eastern half of France and parts of Belgium.The First Battle of the Marne took place near the Marne River . Klucks distraction not only did not turn into a quick and decisive victory, but it also created a gap between the German First and Second Armies and exposed the First Armys right flank, leaving them susceptible to a French counterattack. [85], It is difficult to disaggregate the casualties in the Battle of the Marne from the casualties in the other related battles in August and September 1914. On arrival, however, Field Marshal Sir John French learned that the French Fifth Army under Gen. Charles Lanrezac had been checked by a German attack on August 21 and deprived of the crossing of the Sambre. The Battle of the Marne was very significant to the outcome of the First World War: It halted the German advance into France, although the Germans continued to hold large areas of industrial north-east France. The First Battle of the Marne. Germany faced the specter of a two-front war, facing Russia in the east and France and Britain in the west. Gallieni commandered about six hundred taxicabs at Les Invalides in central Paris to carry soldiers to the front at Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, fifty kilometres away. It appeared that Germanys Schlieffen Plan, which called for overwhelming the disorganized French army in six weeks before transferring forces to an eastern front against Russia, was working to perfection. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. . They were victorious in the Battles of Mons and the Frontiers and overran a large area of northern France and Belgium. He decided to swing back his centre and left, with Verdun as the pivot, while drawing troops from the right and forming a fresh Sixth Army on his left to enable the retiring armies to return to the offensive. This involved a withdrawal of Kluck's forces who had crossed the Marne River to the south and now had to march 130km (81mi) in two days to reach positions facing the French. Over two million men fought in the campaign leading to the First Battle of the Marne and although there are no exact official casualty counts for the battle, estimates for the actions of September along the Marne front for all armies are often given as c. 500,000 killed or wounded. Germany and France declared war on each other on 3 August 1914. Background The location of the French and German armies about 1 September enroute to the Marne River near Chateau-Thierry. As these armies became detached and spread out, the British and the French took advantage and charged between them. The French treasury reimbursed the total fare of 70,012 francs. [79] Barbara W. Tuchman and Robert A. Doughty wrote that Joffre's victory at the Marne was far from decisive, Tuchman calling it an "incomplete victory of the Marne" and Doughty [the] "opportunity for a decisive victory had slipped from his hands". Both sides expected a short war. As a result, the retreat was handled by Moltkes subsidiaries, causing the German forces to pull back at a much slower pace than they had advanced. Joffre ordered the French Second Army to move to the north of the French Sixth Army, by moving from eastern France from 29 September and Falkenhayn who had replaced Moltke on 14 September, ordered the German 6th Army to move from the German-French border to the northern flank on 17 September. Hentsch agreed with Blow that when French and British forces crossed the Marne a general retreat by the Germans would be necessary. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. [8], The Commanders-in-Chiefs of the armies were a study in contrasts. They received it on September 3 when French reconnaissance pilots spotted the forces of German General Alexander von Klucks First Army, which had been pointed at Paris like a spear tip, suddenly switch to the southeast. The 2nd and 9th Cavalry divisions were dispatched as reinforcements the next day but before the retirement began, the French attack reached Carlepont and Noyon, before being contained on 18 September. It is difficult to see how the German command could have reasonably pinned its faith on achieving as an improvised expedient the very task which in cool calculation before the war had appeared so hopeless as to lead it to take the momentous decision to advance through Belgium as the only feasible alternative. Despite Gallienis many last-minute preparations within the city, he knew that Paris couldnt withstand a siege for long; thus, upon learning of Klucks new movements, Gallieni urged the French military to launch a surprise attack before the Germans reached Paris. [59] The 5th Army by 8 September crossed the Petit Morin, which forced Blow to withdraw the right flank of the 2nd Army. A German offensive began by 21 October but the 4th and 6th Armies were only able to take small amounts of ground, at great cost to both sides at the Battle of the Yser (1631 October) and further south in the First Battle of Ypres (19 October22 November). The German armies attacked from Verdun westwards to Reims and the Aisne at the Battle of Flirey (19 September11 October), cut the main railway from Verdun to Paris and created the St. Mihiel salient, south of the Verdun fortress zone. Hentsch's mission, in the words of historian Herwig, was to become "the most famous staff tour in military history. The jaw formed by the German Sixth and Seventh armies merely broke its teeth on the defenses of the French eastern frontier. By early September, the Franco/British forces outnumbered the Germans who were exhausted after a month-long campaign, had outrun their supply lines, and were suffering shortages. The Combatants Germany and France declared war on each other on 3 August 1914. The BEF prepared to commence operations in French Flanders and Flanders in Belgium, joining with the British forces that had been in Belgium since August. Instead, he issued a Grand Directive changing the order of battle for the German attack. Most of the taxis were demobilised on 8 September but some remained longer to carry the wounded and refugees. [28] Moltke realized he did not have sufficient forces to carry out the Schlieffen Plan which envisioned the 1st army of Kluck encircling Paris to the west and south. Kluck moved off French attacks on 6 and 7 September. The battles of August and early September 1914, culminating in the Battle of the Marne, involved more than two million soldiers and resulted in about 250,000 casualties on each side. The Germans were capturing few prisoners and arms, an indication that the French and British were retreating in good order, not in panic. Germany, who was literally in the middle of all this, was in a predicament. When, on August 26, the British left wing fell back southward badly mauled from Le Cateau, Kluck turned southwestward again. Both sides bogged down in a slow, bloody grind of trench warfare that would last until the end of the war in 1918. On September 3, when the German First Army was crossing the Marne east of Paris, Gallieni realized the meaning of Klucks wheel inward and directed Gen. Michel-Joseph Maunourys Sixth Army to be ready to strike at the exposed German right flank. While Paris was preparing for a siege, the Allies exploited the gap between the German First and Second armies. The Battle of the Marne, September 1914 - GCSE History by Clever Lili He was concerned in particular with a gap which had opened between his Second and Third armies as a result of the latters having already turned south, from southwest, to help the Fourth Army, its neighbour on the other flank. The Germans were pursued by the French and British, although the pace of the exhausted allied forces was slow and averaged only 19km (12mi) per day. The soldiers were "like living scarecrows. Upon the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, by a Serbian, Austria-Hungary officially declared war on Serbia on July 28a month to the day from the assassination. [57], The Allies exploited the gap in the German lines, sending the BEF northwest toward Kluck and the 5th Army northeast toward Blow into the gap between the two German armies. Machine guns and modern cannons mowed down enemy forces. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. His order said he was retreating "at the behest" of Moltke's General Staff. Three of them on the German right flank would be most involved in the Battle of the Marne. Moltke preferred sending instructions to his armies by emissary rather than relying on his inadequate telephone and telegraph system. The Germans had initial successes in August. T A N K S , taking lazy people to work since 1916 . This made the French capital very vulnerable. As Joffre says in his memoirs: "it was he who made the Battle of the Marne possible". The river is the last natural obstacle between northern France and Paris. "[16], The Germans and the French had different strategies for what they anticipated would be a short war. Kluck was emboldened to take the risk because of the rapid retreat of the British oppositeor rather with their backs tothis gaping sector. Second Battle of the Marne | World War I [1918] | Britannica If the Germans could cross the Marne and make it onto the plains around Paris, then the allies would have no natural line of defence in order to stop the German advance. On 7 September, Blow ordered his right wing to retreat 15km (9.3mi) to the Petit Morin River after attacks by the French 5th army of Franchet d'Esperey, called "Desperate Frankie" as a compliment by the British. [78] However, John Terraine wrote that "nowhere, and at no time, did it present the traditional aspect of victory", but nonetheless stated that the French and British stroke into the breach between the 1st and 2nd German Armies "made the battle of the Marne the decisive battle of the war". In "This Week in Military History," we explore the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, where French and the British . The First Battle of the Marne - ThoughtCo The French threw back the massive German advance and thwarted German plans for a quick and total victory on the Western Front. The French government fled Paris on 2 September fearing the Germans would conquer the city. Battle of the Marne (1914) - History - History on the Net [63], Next morning 9 September, with additional bad news from the front arriving, Blow ordered another withdrawal without knowing what Kluck would do.
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