THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE.
Now that the British were across the Marne and on the flank of the Germans defending the Ourcq, von Kluck's forces were bound to retreat without a moment's loss of time. The Allies followed them up with the utmost speed, and drove them onwards towards the Aisne in confusion, though the retreat cannot be called a rout. Before they reached the river the British had captured thirteen guns, seven machine guns, and two thousand prisoners, besides much transport. The 6th French Army was by this time across the Ourcq, and was striving to get to the north of the Germans and cut them off. By night the Zouaves were hurried to Senlis in taxi-cabs, and almost before the brakes had been applied these swarthy, baggy-trousered warriors were falling furiously on the surprised Germans. They literally flung them out of the town, in which they had behaved in the most disgraceful fashion. When the Zouaves attacked them they were sleeping off the effects of eighteen thousand bottles of champagne which they had looted.
Still farther to the north there was fierce fighting in the woods of Compiègne, where it is said, though with what truth I do not know, that the Allies repeated the trick practised on Macbeth[106] in the battle which laid him low. You will remember that Macbeth in Shakespeare's play had been warned by a spirit that he would never be vanquished until Birnam[107] wood should come to Dunsinane Hill.[108] When Macbeth's enemies marched against him they made the saying of the spirit come true. They cut down branches from the trees of Birnam wood, and bore them aloft. Macbeth's soldiers were dismayed at the sight, and in the battle which followed the murderer king was slain. In the open country on the edge of Compiègne woods it is said that the Allies provided themselves with bushes and branches, and used them as screens behind which they advanced on the trenches of the foe. When they were fifty or sixty yards away, down went the branches, and forward dashed the soldiers who had been hidden behind them. The Germans were driven from their trenches and fled.
German Infantry advancing to a new position. Photo, Sport and General.
So the great drive continued, and every hour of the day furious rearguard actions were fought. The Germans had taken to heart the lesson of the Allies' retreat, and on every possible occasion their rearguards stood and fought in order to delay the pursuit. They lost heavily in killed, wounded, guns, and prisoners; but they were prepared to pay this price rather than suffer their main bodies to be overwhelmed. The line of German retreat was strewn with the wreckage of men, horses, weapons, and equipment.
A British artillery officer gives us a good idea of what this rearguard fighting was like. He is describing the crossing of a little river.
"The Germans were holding the opposite bank, a very steep bluff, with a battalion of riflemen and eight machine guns. These guns were trained on the road where it was fully exposed for about one hundred yards, and nothing could cross. One section of my battery was trying to locate them and knock them out. So I took my section up a hill behind these, and waited for any targets to appear. Our advance guard had been working well. By taking cover in the woods they had managed to get down into the river-bed and round the flanks. From there they opened a hot fire on the German machine guns. From my position I could see a portion of the road on the opposite bank. I had just got the range for this when a German machine gun came galloping up. I fired two rounds at it. The first was over and just behind; the second short. However, I had never seen anything move quicker than that gun. By now our infantry had forced the German riflemen back, and we had orders for a general advance. As we crossed the bridge I heard that seven of their machine guns had been captured. We wound up and up, and on all sides saw evidence of our fire. In one place an ammunition wagon had been hit. Both horses were blown over into the ditch. A bit higher up was a young boy, hit in the back. All that we could do was to give him water. He told me that his orders had been to stay till shot or captured. These German infantry are a brave lot."
Now we must hark back and see how the French armies to the right of the British were faring. The 5th French Army, which was next to the British on their right, had a threefold part to play. It had to support the British on its left and the 9th French Army on its right. Further, it had to throw back the Germans facing it. On the 7th it made a leap forward, and during the following days, after desperate fighting, reached and crossed the Marne. In its advance it captured many guns, howitzers, machine guns, and more than a million cartridges.
You know enough about strategy to be aware that when von Kluck retreated he left the right wing of von Buelow's army exposed. You may be certain that General Joffre ordered this wing to be attacked without delay. When the enemy perceived that his right was in danger he made a desperate effort, which lasted from 7th September to 10th September, to pierce the French centre, to the west and east of a place known as La Fère Champenoise,[109] on one of the upper streams of the Grand Morin. We must pay particular attention to the fighting in this region, for the result of it was to set the whole German line retreating.
General Foch.
Look at the little map on the next page and find the town of Sézanne. From this place the 9th French Army extended for about twenty miles to the east. It was a newly-created army, which had not yet been engaged; and it was under the command of General Foch,[110] a brilliant writer on the art of war. It was now to be seen whether he was as good in the field as he had proved himself to be in the study. On the 8th of September Foch's army was violently attacked by the famous German Guard, and his right was forced back a few miles. Early next morning he made a further retreat, and at the same time drew back his left, so as to maintain his line. Although he had retreated he was full of fight, and he ordered an attack to be made the same day.
To the north of Sézanne you will see a region known as the Marshes of St. Gond. This stretch of swampy ground was the scene of a great fight which forced the retreat of the German centre; we must, therefore, look at it more closely. In the plateau to the north of Sézanne is a basin of clay, ten miles long from east to west, and varying in breadth from one to two miles. The streamlets which give rise to the Petit Morin run across it, and the whole ground was formerly a bog. It has long been reclaimed; the streamlets run in deep ditches, and some of them have been turned into canals. In ordinary dry weather most of the district is open country, with a good deal of pasture for cattle, though here and there traces of its marsh character are still to be seen in the rush-covered levels. After a few hours of heavy rain the streams overflow, and flood the roads and tracks; the ground becomes a swamp, and the highways are deep in mire.
The early part of the night between the 8th and 9th of September was clear and starry, but later the weather broke; the rain came down in torrents, and soon the marshes of the Gond were wellnigh impassable for wagons and guns. Nothing could have been more fortunate for General Foch. He knew that, as the German right was in retreat, he might safely strike at the right of the army which was facing him, and thus drive in a wedge between von Kluck and von Buelow. He advanced towards the Petit Morin with the Morocco Division, and, deploying in the direction of the Marshes, met a furious assault of the Germans, who now perceived the perilous position in which they were placed. The Moroccans fought like heroes, and drove the Germans into the Marshes, where they found that they could not move their guns or wagons, which were up to the axle-trees in mire. Foch captured many prisoners and at least forty guns—the largest number which had so far been taken at one time by the Allies.
History had repeated itself. In the campaign of 1814 German troops had been driven into the self-same swamp; a hundred years later a similar disaster had overtaken them. This success greatly elated Foch's army, and it was eager for the next move.
A wedge had been driven between von Kluck and von Buelow; it now remained to drive a similar wedge between von Buelow and von Hausen, whose forces continued the German line to their left. Foch's airmen had told him that there was a considerable gap between the left of von Buelow and the right of von Hausen. He now moved the division which had driven von Buelow's right into the Marshes to the right of his line, and having thus reinforced it, made a flanking movement on the left of von Buelow and on the right of von Hausen. It was one of the boldest moves ever made, and it took the enemy completely by surprise. The German Guard made but little resistance. Von Buelow knew that he was outflanked on both sides, and that there was no safety except in retreat. Foch followed him up, and on the 11th drove him across the Marne in disorder. The losses of the Germans in this part of the retreat were enormous; it was said that the 9th Army buried ten thousand German dead.
To the right of Foch was the 4th French Army, facing the Duke of Würtemberg's forces. This French army had a hard struggle; and it was not till the 10th, when it was reinforced by an army corps from the west, that it gained ground. Next day it forced the Würtemberg army to give way; but the rearguard kept up a tremendous artillery fire, and moved back very slowly. On the 12th, however, the Germans retired more hurriedly.
The Germans in Retreat. So hurried was their march towards the Aisne that at certain times it "had the appearance of a rout."
From the drawing by Dudley Tennant.
To the right of the 4th French Army were the 3rd and 2nd French Armies, opposing those of the Crown Prince and the Bavarians. The left of the Crown Prince's army was in touch with the outer forts of Verdun, and was attacking Fort Troyon, the first of the forts along the heights of the Meuse between Verdun and Toul. The little garrison was in dire straits, and was about to surrender when the French movement which I am about to describe began.
General Joffre sent orders that the French 3rd and 2nd Armies were to move to the west against the Germans operating between the Upper Meuse and the Upper Aisne. The orders were carried out, and the French artillery won a great success. No less than eleven batteries of the Germans were destroyed. There was fiercer fighting on the 10th; but the French made progress, and on the 11th advanced still farther. A wedge had been thrust in between the Crown Prince and the Bavarians, and the Crown Prince was bound to retreat. This meant the salvation of Fort Troyon. It had been bombarded for five days. Most of its guns were out of action, and the forty-four survivors of the garrison were huddled in the bomb-proof shelters of the central works, when suddenly the German guns ceased firing and French cheering was heard. The fort was saved at the very moment when all hope seemed to have vanished.
Before I conclude the story of the battle of the Marne I must say something about the 2nd French Army, which was facing the Bavarian army in Lorraine. The French army was drawn up across a gap in the Vosges Mountains known as the Gap of Nancy,[111] and its object was to hold back the Bavarians, so that they could not attack the right flank of the Allies. A second French force was now moved into Lorraine, and it took up a position to the south-east of the army holding the Gap. The commander of the 2nd Army erected very strong field works on the heights in front of Nancy, and from the 23rd of August onwards gallantly held his own. On the 6th September the fiercest of fighting began. The Kaiser himself came into the field, and by his presence and his speeches urged on the Bavarians to a desperate assault. For three days the battle raged without ceasing. The Bavarian troops were thought to be second to none in the German army, and their White Cuirassiers were amongst the flower of German cavalry. On the 7th the Kaiser took up a position on a neighbouring hill, and watched the attack which was to overwhelm the French. He had made ready to enter Nancy in triumph that evening.
Picture him on the hill, in his long gray cloak and silver helmet, peering through his field-glasses into the valley, and confidently expecting to see his Bavarians drive the French before them. He sees the White Cuirassiers charge, and, as the brave men cheer and gallant horses thunder towards the enemy, he feels that nothing can resist them. To his dismay, they are hurled back with great slaughter, and a miserable remnant alone remains. Then the pitiless French guns begin to speak, and he sees his infantry mowed down like wheat before the reaper's sickle. He looks for victory; he sees defeat. Now the French begin to attack, and his Bavarians give way before their fierce onset. The time has come for him to seek safety in flight. A strange fatality seems to accompany him. Wherever he appears and commands in person, there you may look for disaster—whether in France or in Poland. He is a melancholy figure, flitting from East to West, feverishly inciting his armies to die for the Fatherland; dreaming great dreams of world conquest which can never be realized.
"Such," says the French official account, "was the seven days' battle in which more than two millions of men were engaged. Each army gained ground step by step—opening the road to its neighbour, supported at once by it, taking in flank the adversary which the day before it had attacked in front—the efforts of the one fitting in closely with those of the other.
"To give this victory all its meaning, it is necessary to add that it was gained by troops who for two weeks had been retreating, and who, when the order to attack was given, were found to be as ardent as on the first day. These troops had to meet the whole German army, and from the time they marched forward they never fell back again. In spite of the fatigue of our men, in spite of the power of the German heavy artillery, we took colours, guns, Maxims, shells, more than a million of cartridges, and thousands of prisoners. A German corps lost almost the whole of its artillery, which, from information brought by our airmen, was destroyed by our guns."
The battles of the Marne marked the turning-point in the campaign; the torrent of German advance had not only been stayed, but driven back. "The day of Sedan," 1st September, saw the German armies flushed with success, and confident of victory as rapid and complete as that of 1870. Nine days later their hopes were shattered: they were retreating northwards at full speed. Von Kluck's error of judgment, the fiery zeal of the British and French, General Foch's brilliant victory in the centre, and the wonderful working together of the Allied armies had wrought the miracle.
The retreat of the Germans was very skilfully conducted, and though they lost many men, guns, and wagons, they were neither broken nor defeated, and their losses, when all was said and done, were small. Von Kluck fell back thirty-five miles during the last two days of the battle, and the German centre cannot have retired less than fifty miles. In its way the retreat was as famous as that of the British from Mons.
The successes of the Allies filled them with a newborn confidence. They had taken the measure of the enemy; they knew their own strength, and were now sure that they were more than a match for the enemy. Given anything like equal numbers, they had no fear of the future.
Undoubtedly the Germans had by this time come to respect the British army. Ever since the days of Bismarck it had been the custom in Germany to regard our brave little army with scorn and contempt. When some one suggested to Bismarck that it might be landed in Germany, he remarked, "If it does, I shall ring for the police and have it locked up." Von Kluck believed that he had pierced the feeble British lion to the heart, and then vaingloriously thrust his head between its jaws. To his dismay, they met with a deadly snap, and only a quick withdrawal saved him from destruction.