CHAPTER VI HOW GENERAL VON KLUCK AVERTED RUIN
The German defeat had indeed been decisive. On the other hand, the defeat did not, in the immediate sequel, yield for the Allies all the results which might have been looked for. There have been misimpressions on both points.
Take the first misimpression. A victorious general, it has been well said, rarely knows the full damage he inflicts. Over the wide area covered by the Battle of the Marne and by the pursuit, it was not humanely possible to collect and to collate precise information without some delay. All the same, the French General Staff and the French War Ministry had by September 12 gathered facts enough to form a fairly accurate estimate of advantages won. Beyond vague indications of their nature, however, these facts were not made public. There was at the time a good reason. Situated as the German armies were, and with their intercommunication disorganised, they would take two or three days longer at least to discover on their part the full measure of their losses, and to judge of the effect. To the Allies, that difference in time was of the utmost moment. Certainly it would have been against their interest by publication of details to tell the German General Staff in effect what reinforcements they ought to send, and where they ought to send them. Why the difference in time was of moment will presently appear.
Again it has been repeatedly stated that the foremost effect of the Battle of the Marne was to confirm to the Allies the initiative which the strategy of General Joffre had so skilfully gained. That was one effect assuredly, and a vitally important effect. Another effect, however, hardly less important, was that, in point of military value and for effective operations, the German force in France was no longer the same. The blow had been too severe. Never again could that force be levelled up to those armies which had crossed the Marne in the confidence of prospective victory.
The effect was not moral merely, though moral had not a little to do with it. The effect was in the main material. War wastage arising from fatigue and privation must have reduced the effective strength of the German armies in nearly as great a degree as losses in killed and wounded. If on September 12 we put the armies which turned to hold the new line from Compiègne to Verdun at 600,000 men still fit for duty, we shall be adopting probably an outside figure.
Had this force, so reduced, not been able to make a stand along that new line, it must have been destroyed largely through exhaustion and famine. It was saved not, as imagined, chiefly by the defence works thrown up north of the Aisne and across the highlands to the Argonne. It was saved mainly by the tactics and by the energy of General von Kluck.
Rightly described by the British Official Bureau, doubtless on the authority of Sir John French himself, as "bold and skilful," those tactics form one of the outstanding features of the campaign, and they ought justly to be considered among the greatest feats in modern war. They are on the same plane indeed as the strategy and tactics of General Joffre, and these, beyond doubt, rank in point of mastery with the campaign of Napoleon in 1814. In this very area of Champagne on the eve of his fall the military genius of Napoleon was, like lightning in the gloom of tempest, displayed in its greatest splendour. For a thousand years this region of plateaux and rivers has been the arena of events which have shaped the history of Europe.[16] The features it offers for military defence are remarkable. Versed in the campaigns of Napoleon, aware of what have proved to be his mistakes, knowing the country in its every detail, knowing and judging rightly the qualities and capabilities of his troops, General Joffre drew the Germans on step by step to overthrow. The great feature of his plans was that this was meant to be an overthrow which would govern the fortune of the war. In great fact that aim was achieved, but in part also its fulfilment was postponed.
On the retreat of the German armies from the Marne there were, in order to bring about the destruction of those armies as a fighting force, three things which the Allies had to accomplish, and accomplish, if possible, concurrently. The first was to cut the German communications with Luxemburg and Metz by barring the roads and railways across the eastern frontier; the second was to push forward and seize Rheims, and the outlet through the hills north of the Aisne at Berry-au-Bac; the third was to force the troops of von Kluck eastward off their lines of communication along the valley of the Oise, and to do that, if it could be done, south of the Aisne.
All three objectives were of great consequence. The third, however, was the most important of the three.
Of the three, the first, the closing of the eastern frontier, was accomplished in part; the second was so far successful that the French were able to seize Rheims without opposition; the third was not accomplished. Had it been the armies of von Kluck and von Bülow forming the German right must both have been severed from the German line to the east of Rheims, and, with their supplies of food and of munitions cut off, must have been compelled to surrender.
Appreciating the peril, and fully aware that the fate of the whole German force hung upon averting it, General von Kluck acted with resource and energy. Probably no commander ever extricated himself out of a more deadly predicament, and the achievement is all the more notable since he was opposed to skilful generals in command of skilful troops, directed by the greatest strategist of the age. The predicament in which General von Kluck found himself was this. If he opposed a front to the army of General Desperey, formed of the pick of the French regulars, he had on his flank both the British and the troops of General Maunoury. In that case, overwhelming defeat was certain. If on the other hand he formed a front against the troops of General French and General Maunoury, he presented a flank to the 5th French army. Not only in such circumstances was a bad defeat almost equally foregone, but, forming front to a flank and fighting along the lines of his communications, he must, in the event of defeat, retire eastward, abandoning his lines of communication and obstructing the retreat of von Bülow.
As events prove, the measures he adopted were these. He recalled from Amiens the army corps sent to that place to undertake an outflanking movement against the Allied left, and to cut off communication between Paris and Boulogne and Calais. With all haste these troops fell back upon the Oise to secure the German right rear. Coincidently, his two army corps on the Ourcq were ordered to undertake against General Maunoury a vigorous offensive to the west of that river. With the remaining three army corps, which had crossed the Marne, General von Kluck fell back, presenting to the British and to the 5th French army a line protected first by the Grand Morin, and then by the Petit Morin and the Marne. In order to carry out that movement he did not hesitate to sacrifice a considerable part of his cavalry.
The danger-point of this disposition was La Ferté-sous-Jouarre. Into that place, consequently, he threw a strong force with orders to hold it to the last moment. With the rest of his three corps he formed front partly against the British, partly against the left of the army of General Desperey. In these actions, as Mr. Maxwell has pointed out, his troops were swept by the flank attack of part of the 6th French army. There is no doubt they fought, despite cruel losses, with the most stubborn courage. As the 6th French army, who displayed equally unshakable resolution, strove, following the course of the Ourcq, to work round against the German line of retreat, and as their attacks had to be met as well as the attacks of the British, the expedient which the German general resorted to was, as he retired, to hurry divisions of troops successively from the south to the north of his flank defence, and, as the 6th French army moved, to move his flank defence with it. Not only was the object to do that, but there was, at the same time, an effort to press the 6th French army towards the north-west. This, in fact, General von Kluck managed to do. He did it by extending his flank beyond the left of the French army, and making a feint of envelopment. Imagine a row of coins, each coin a division, and a movement of the row by constantly shifting a coin from one end of the row to the other. That will give roughly an idea of what, on the events, appears to have been the expedient.
The success of such a series of movements depended, of course, on their rapidity, and, considering the severe and insistent pressure from the British on the rear of the line, forming an angle with the flank, the movements were carried out with surprising rapidity. The Ourcq, though not a long river, is, like the Marne, deep, and over more than half its length navigable. It flows between plateaux through a narrow valley with steep sides. The crossing of such a stream is no easy feat.
But General von Kluck did not mind the losses he incurred so long as he achieved his purpose. This was clearly his best policy. In the intervals of desperate fighting his men had to undertake long marches at a breakneck pace. For several days together they were without rest or sleep. To some extent they were aided by the entrenchments already dug to guard against an attack from the west. These positions, prepared to protect the head of the German chain of armies remaining in contact with Paris, now proved useful in covering the retirement. Nevertheless, the efforts of the Germans must have been exhausting to the last degree.[17]
Despite that, they were successful in reaching the Aisne in advance of the 6th French army. The latter, it ought, however, to be said, had to operate through a difficult area. From the Ourcq to the Aisne there is a succession of forests. Of these the great forest of Villers-Cotterets extends northwards from the Ourcq to within six miles of Soissons. East of the stretch of forests the country is more open. Given these facts of topography, it is evident that on following the line of the Ourcq, with the object of barring its passage to the enemy, the French had in the forest belt a formidable obstacle. Perceiving that in this lay his chance, General von Kluck hurried as large a part of his force as possible across the Ourcq in order to bar the advance of the French by the forest roads through Villers, and by the comparatively narrow break in the forest belt between Crepy and Pierrefond. He was thus able, notwithstanding that the British were hanging on to and harrying his rear, to hold the outlets against the troops of General Maunoury until he slipped past them.[18]
And once on the Aisne and in touch with his Amiens rearguard, now on the Oise above Compiègne, he was in a position to initiate a complete change in tactics, and, his force being comparatively secure, the other German armies could again fall into line.
Before dealing with those new German tactics, it is advisable briefly to sketch the defence works thrown up by the Germans along their line, because both these defence works and the character of the country are intimately related to the tactics.
As already stated, the highlands of Champagne extend north-west nearly as far as Peronne. They are chalk hills and uplands cut by deep valleys. The most northerly of the valleys is that out of which flows the Somme. Then comes the much wider valley of the Oise. Still farther south is the valley of the Aisne. Between the Oise and the Aisne is a roughly triangular tract of country, its apex at the point where the Oise and the Aisne join. Across the broad end or base of this triangle run the open downs. Towards the narrower end of the area the country becomes broken and hilly, and is covered with great patches of wood and forest.
There is along the north of the Aisne a long wooded ridge, which on its northern edge slopes steeply. But the top of the ridge forms a gentle undulating slope to the south. It is not unlike the top of a rough, slightly tilted table. To a bird's-eye view this top would appear shaped rather like a very coarse-toothed comb, with the teeth jagged and broken. The top, that is to say, runs out on its south side into a succession of promontories, each ending in a round-ended bluff overlooking the Aisne valley. Some of these bluffs jut out close above the river. Others are much farther back. Between them are clefts and side valleys, in which the land slopes up from the bottom of the main valley to the top of the plateau. In the longer clefts, of course, the general gradient is much less stiff than in the shorter ones. Both the tops of the bluffs and most of the clefts are thickly wooded. The bluffs are on an average above 400 feet in height, that in fact being the general elevation of the plateau.
The aspect of the edge of the corresponding plateau on the south side of the valley of the Aisne is exactly similar. Since the bluffs on the opposite sides approach each other in some places and are farther apart in others, the valley varies in breadth from half a mile to two miles. The bottom of the valley is practically flat, and through this flat tract of meadow land the river winds, now near one side of the valley, now near the other. The stream is between fifty and sixty yards wide, but, like all the rivers in this part of France, deep. Where the valley opens out there are villages and small towns. The largest place is the picturesque old city of Soissons.
Now the ridge north of the Aisne extends west to east for some thirty-four miles. At Craonne, its eastern end, it rises to a summit about 500 feet high, and then falls abruptly. There is here, going from the Aisne northwards, a fairly level open gap some three miles wide. South of the Aisne, the same gap extends for about ten miles to Rheims. On each side of the gap rise hillsides clothed with woods. At the crossing of the Aisne is situated the village of Berry-au-Bac. This gap, it will be seen, forms an important feature in the Aisne battle.
Above and behind the hills to the east of the gap, and across the downs, the German entrenchments extended eastward for mile after mile right away to the Argonne. It is apposite here to note that near Rheims the traverse gap widens out and passes right and left round an isolated, hilly mass, lying like an island in a stream. Up the sides of this hilly mass climb the villages of Berru and Nogent-l'Abbesse.
Undoubtedly, one of the surprises of the war was the discovery that the Germans had prepared the positions just described. The preparation must have involved great labour. But it should not be forgotten that from time out of mind one of the chief industries in this part of France is represented by the chalk quarries, out of which is dug the material, known in its prepared state as plaster of Paris. All through Champagne there was, before the war, a considerable German population. Not a few of the plaster quarries had passed into the hands of Germans. The principal quarries are on the steep north slope of the ridge along the Aisne. Cut into the hillsides, these chalk pits present a labyrinth of galleries and chambers, where the quarrymen were accustomed to take their meals and even to sleep. These quarries, numbered by scores, might well form the refuge and stronghold of an army. The region is remarkable, also, for its many natural caves.
Even more important, however, from a military standpoint, is the southern side of this plateau. The only means of approaching the plateau from that side is either up the clefts or side valleys, or from the western end where the level gradually falls. But an attack made up one of the side valleys could be assailed from both sides. In possession of the plateau above, the defence, while keeping its force undivided, could move that force to any point where attack was threatened, having itself no clefts or fissures to deal with. It will be seen, therefore, that the ridge formed a sort of vast ready-made castle, big enough to stretch from London to beyond Oxford, or from Liverpool to Manchester, and that the quarries and galleries made it habitable, at all events on the banditti level of existence.
As Sir John French has pointed out,[19] owing to the patches of wood on the upper slopes and tops of the bluffs, only small areas of the plateau were open to view from the tops of bluffs on the south side of the river. Hence the movements of the defenders were, looked at from across the river, to no small extent concealed.
Two further military features of the ridge should be noted. One is the fact that its steep northern slope forms one side of the valley of the Lette, and that, therefore, it is bounded by a river on both sides; the other is, that some eight miles from its eastern end at Craonne the plateau narrows to a mere neck less than a mile wide, and that across this neck is carried the Oise and Aisne canal.
Not relying, however, merely on the natural features of the place, the Germans dug along the plateau lines of entrenchments connected by galleries with other trenches in the rear where reserves, not in the firing line, were held. These back trenches formed living places. The mass of men was too large, for any save the smaller proportion, to find shelter in the quarries.
It will be seen, therefore, that the business of turning the Germans out of such a fastness could be no easy matter.
On the choice of this position two questions suggest themselves. How was it that the Germans came to pitch upon this place—for there can be no doubt the choice was deliberate[20]—and what operations did they intend to undertake on the strength of its possession?
The answers to these questions are in no sense speculations in the secrets of War Offices. Those secrets it would be idle to profess to know. Like the observations made in preceding pages, the answers are deductions from admitted facts and events, perfectly plain to anyone who has knowledge enough of military operations to draw them. Only ignorance can assume that no true commentary can be written concerning a campaign save upon official confidences.
As to the German choice of this position, it should not be forgotten that the present war represents the fourth campaign which the Prussians have fought in this area of France. In forming their plans they had, we ought to presume, considered—bearing in mind the difference in military conditions—not only the war of 1870-1, but the campaign of Frederick William II., and the campaign of Blucher in 1814. A little earlier it was said that this arena offers great facilities for defence. The reason is that, since there is here a system of rivers flowing to a conjunction near Paris, it is always open to the defence to attack in superior force between any two of the rivers, while the assailant must, in advancing from east to west, have his forces divided by one or more of the streams. The whole German plan was intended to obviate and to overcome that difficulty, and yet the plan came to grief because, at the moment when their forces were divided by the Marne and by the Grand Morin, the defence were able to attack them in superior force on their extreme right—the vital point—and when the crossing of the rivers made it difficult to meet that attack.[21]
Foreseeing, however, the possibility, though not accepting the probability, of having to stand for a time on the defensive, the German General Staff, we cannot now doubt, had formed the subsidiary and provisional plan of concentrating, as far as possible and in case of necessity, between two of the rivers—the Oise and the Aisne—in positions which could be held with a minimum of numbers.
But this concentration was only preliminary. It was intended to aid the massing on their own right flank of an echelon of reserve formations to be thrown against the left of the Allied forces.
Concentration between two of the rivers was, as a defensive, beyond question the best measure in the situation. A mere defensive, however, would be tantamount to a confession that the whole expedition against France had proved a failure. Undoubtedly, therefore, as the later events show, the design was, at the earliest moment, to resume the offensive by means of masses of reserves. These, pivoting upon Noyon, at the western end of the fortified line, might sweep round and, by threatening to envelop the Allied armies compel their retirement.
Conversely, the Allied tactic was plainly to envelop the Germans and to threaten their main communications through Belgium. The question now was: Which side could carry out its manœuvre first?