On the 27th the shattered 2nd Corps, having broken off the action, continued the retreat with the 1st Corps. On the 28th Gough, with the 3rd Cavalry Brigade at St. Quentin, and Chetwode, with the 5th at Cérizy, turned on the leading German cavalry at both these places and threw them back on their main bodies in confusion. For the first time since the retreat began the worn-out British infantry, having reached the line of the Oise between Noyon and La Fère, were able to rest and sleep in peace.
On the 29th the British troops reached the line Compiègne-Soissons, the Germans on the same day occupying La Fère and Amiens, as well as Rethel and other towns along the French front. Bapaume held out until the rolling-stock had been removed from Amiens, but the flood-tide of invasion now seemed to be carrying everything before it. Uhlans threatened to cut Sir John French's communications with his base at Boulogne and Dieppe. The base was accordingly transferred to St. Nazaire, at the mouth of the Loire. Timely help came to the retiring British troops on the 29th by a brilliant counter-stroke near Guise on the part of the French Fifth Army on their right; but neither the British nor the French troops on de Lanzerac's right were in a position to make a stand in support of that reaction. The Aisne was forced by the invaders on the 28-29th, and Rheims, Châlons, and Laon abandoned to them within the ensuing forty-eight hours. Falling back doggedly from the Aisne and the Oise, the British troops withdrew on 2nd Sept. to Chantilly-Nanteuil, the German advance having been checked on the previous day by the 4th (Guards) Brigade in a stiff rear-guard action at Villers-Cotterets.
The great retreat was coming to an end. Victory and Paris seemed within the enemy's grasp. He had—as he thought—so shattered the British army that it was now entirely negligible as a fighting force. He was ignorant of the real strength of the force that was gathering on the British left north of Paris—the new French Sixth Army under General Maunoury. It seemed both to von Kluck and the German Higher Command that they had only the shaken French Fifth Army seriously to reckon with on the Allied left, and, as von Kluck was considered more than strong enough for the task, von Moltke took the Garde Reserve Corps and 11th Army Corps from his right wing to East Prussia, where the Russians were now carrying the war well into the Fatherland.
The help rendered by the Russians at this critical phase of the war was invaluable, and played no small part in the approaching struggle on the Marne. In his fears for the safety of Paris, Joffre was naturally anxious to profit by this relief, and discussed with Sir John French the possibility of taking the offensive at the earliest possible moment. There appears to have been some misunderstanding as to Sir John's plans at this point. The British Commander-in-Chief declares that he had every intention of remaining in the line and filling the gap between the French Fifth and Sixth Armies, but the French Higher Command was apparently under the impression that he was determined not to fight any more until his troops had been given a week to reorganize and refit. Lord Kitchener himself hurried to Paris to clear the matter up, but "full accord", according to President Poincaré, long afterwards, "was not re-established without trouble". As soon, however, as the offensive was ordered, continued the same authority, the British Commander-in-Chief gave his assistance without reserve. "His army fought with magnificent courage, and Great Britain played a brilliant part in the common victory."
In the meantime the retreat continued, the British, on 2nd Sept., reaching the line of the Marne towards Lagny and Meaux, with the French Fifth Army, now under the command of Franchet d'Esperey, on their right, retiring on Château-Thierry, and Maunoury's new Sixth Army, on their left, retiring towards Paris. It was at this point that von Kluck made the fatal mistake of dismissing the British army as practically crushed and out of action. Diverting the advance of the German First Army, he left Paris on his right in order to deal what he hoped would be a decisive blow at the French Fifth Army south of the Marne. By 5th Sept. the British army had fallen back to the Forest of Crécy to bring it in line with the French Fifth Army.
Not only was the British army at length receiving sorely needed reinforcements, but the French army was every moment increasing in strength and numbers as it fell back on its reserves. Besides the French Sixth Army on the British left, another new French army had sprung into being behind the marshes of St. Gond—the Ninth, under Foch, who filled the gap between Franchet d'Esperey's Fifth and Langle de Cary's Fourth Army—behind Vitry. Eastward
the line was continued by the French Third Army, now commanded by Sarrail in place of Ruffey; and Castlenau's Second Army, now fighting the battle of the Grand Couronné de Nancy which stemmed the German invasion at this point, and prevented the threatened envelopment on the Allies' right, where the Kaiser himself had gone to inspire the troops of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria.
First Battles of Marne and Aisne
Secure on the right, Joffre was at last able to deliver the great counter-stroke on the left which the Germans had invited by their tremendous bid for swift and decisive victory. The retreat came to an end on 5th Sept., when Joffre gave Sir John French his final plans for the coming offensive, and von Kluck, ignorant of the recuperative powers of the British, as well as of the strength of the French Sixth Army on their left, marched across their front in pursuit of d'Esperey's Fifth. That night the Germans crossed the Marne, and the Grand and Petit Morin—two streams which branch off roughly parallel to one another south of the Marne—while some of their patrols reached the Seine, there catching a fleeting glimpse of the capital where they confidently hoped the French would soon be brought to terms.
When at last the retreat came to an end, the British army had been reinforced by the 4th Division, which, with the 19th Infantry Brigade—and subsequently the 6th Division—became the Third Army Corps under General Pulteney, who arrived in France to take command of it on 30th Aug. Deficiencies in armament and material had also been partially made good, but, most important of all, Sir John French bore witness, "the promise of an immediate advance against the enemy had sent a thrill of exultation and enthusiasm throughout the whole force".