Had the French accepted battle at the Heights of Champagne they would have done so very recklessly. If they had suffered defeat, they would have been cut off from the British on their left, and from a new army which was being formed near Paris. General Joffre therefore decided to continue his retreat until he could engage the enemy in a better position. He did so, and on 5th September lay along the Seine and the Aube, with the British gathered between the Seine and the Marne, and on their flank the newly-created army. All the units of the Allied forces were now linked up, and the moment had arrived when General Joffre could order an attack. On the evening of the 5th he addressed the following message to the commanders of his armies: "The hour has come to advance at all costs, and to die where you stand rather than give way."
CHAPTER XVIII.
"THOSE TERRIBLE GREY HORSES."
Late in March 1915 General Joffre told an interviewer that his army was not crushed in Belgium by overwhelming numbers. "That," he said, "is quite wrong; our army was numerous. We ought to have won the Battle of Charleroi.[75] We ought to have won it ten times out of eleven. We lost it through our own faults of command.
"Before the war broke out I had already noted that among our generals many were worn out. Some had appeared to be incapable—not good enough for their work. Others inspired me with doubt, and I made up my mind to replace them with younger men. I should have done so, but the war came too soon. Besides, there were others in whom I had faith who have not responded to my hopes. . . . Their merit turned out to be below the mark. I had to remedy these defects. Some of these generals were my best comrades. But if I love my friends much, I love France more. I relieved them of their posts."
I have already told you how the French were crushed in Belgium; how they retreated, remedied their defects, re-formed their line along the Seine and the Aube,[76] turned their faces to the foe, and prepared to advance. All this happened between 21st August and 5th September. The account is not, however, complete, for you have yet to learn how the British army continued and ended its southern march. When I broke off my story to relate the misfortunes of the French, our gallant lads, you will remember, were making a brief halt in the neighbourhood of St. Quentin. We must now rejoin them, and see how they fared during the latter part of their retreat.
If you turn to the map on page [16], you will notice a French army marked 6, lying to the south of the fortress of Maubeuge. This army was a cavalry corps of three divisions, held in reserve. It had taken no part in the battle on the Sambre, but now it came into action on our left rear, and brought relief to Allenby's hard-worked horsemen, who had been struggling almost night and day to beat back the German advance. Some of the Territorial divisions of the 5th Army, which had retreated to the Oise, also came to the assistance of the British. They closed in to the west of Smith-Dorrien's corps, and von Kluck, seeing his right flank threatened by them, was obliged to detach a strong column to hold them in check. Further, some divisions of the 2nd French Army, which had been beaten at Charleroi and had retreated south-west, now appeared, and struck severe blows on the enemy at Guise[77] and St. Quentin. This removed some of the pressure from Haig's corps. The British were thus able to retreat without much molestation, and by the evening of Friday, the 28th, they were assembled along the Oise from La Fère to Noyon.
It was a very weary army which reached this position. It had fought and marched incessantly for six days, but it was still undaunted, and was eager for the moment when it should receive the order, "Right about turn! quick march!" You can form some idea of the great feat which it had performed when I tell you that besides fighting many rearguard actions it had marched more than eighty miles—that is, on an average, at least fourteen miles a day. After such an experience most armies would have been a complete wreck. Not so the British. The rank and file were now fully aware that, man for man, they were more than a match for the Germans, and they were heartened by the knowledge that they had foiled the frenzied efforts of an army that vastly outnumbered them, and had striven with all its might to overwhelm them.