IMPORTANT NOTE.—On pages [4] to [16] will be found a brief summarized account of the Battle of the Marne and of the events which immediately preceded it. We recommend the reading of these few pages attentively, and the consultation of the maps annexed to the same, before reading the descriptive part which commences at page [17].
A clear understanding of the action as a whole is absolutely necessary to comprehend with interest the description of the separate combats.
THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
(1914)
The above map gives a general view of the ground on which took place successively: the battle of the frontier, the retreat of the Allies, the victorious stand, and the pursuit of the retreating enemy.
The distance from Paris to Verdun is 140 miles as the crow flies; from Charleroi to the Marne is 97 miles.
In consequence of the tearing up of that fateful "scrap of paper" which preceded the invasion of Belgium by Germany, in violation of the common rights of man, the Battle of the Frontier (also called the Battle of Charleroi) was fought in August 1914 on the line Mons—Charleroi—Dinant—Saint-Hubert—Longwy—Metz.