First Battle of the Marne

There were two battles of the Marne , both during the First World War. However, the name refers in general to the first, which took place of the 5 to the September 12th 1914; the Second battle of the Marne, as for it, was held from July 15th to 18th 1918.

Tally historical and battles

Following the attack of Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares on July 28th, 1914, the war in Serbia. By the play of alliances, Germany declares the war in Russia on August 1st. August 3rd, she violates the Belgian territory and declares the war in France. the First World War starts. France hopes to take its revenge against Germany because she did not forget her defeat of 1871. In August 1914, the German armies cross Belgium and invade France; Paris is threatened. In September, at the time of the Battle of the Marne, the Germans are pushed back. The armies are immobilized then face to face on a face which extends from the North Sea in Switzerland.

The first battle of the Marne constitutes one of the turnings of the war, since it marks the failure of the plane Schlieffen and the beginning of the war of position, after the episode of the race to the sea.

With the autumn 1914, the allied troops are in full retirement after their defeat on the borders, the British task force plans already its fold towards the ports of the Manche, for a possible D-loading. The general Gallieni, ordering French troops in charge of the defense of Paris, meets Lord Kitchener then to propose a generalized common counter-attack when the Germans would arrive on the Marne. The September 2nd of the aviators discover that one of the armies, that of Von Kluck, decides not to wrap Paris by the West. Indeed, its army stops on the Marne, while the other German armies inflected the race of their armies towards the east: they threaten to wrap the armies coming from the Lorraine, as the aerial observations indicate it, of which it is one of the first uses. The general Joffre created a new army in Paris, the Life, ordered by the general Maunoury. Gallieni will employ this one to conduct an attack on the side of the I {{E}} German Armée with von Kluck, starting from the Marne, between Nanteuil-le-Haudouin and Meaux, the afternoon of September 5th. Attacked in its turn in force starting from the September 7th, the VI {{E}} Armée resists until the 9, grace, inter alia, with the emergency sending of 10 000 men of the garrison of Paris, of which close to 6 000 will be transported by six hundred taxis of the capital requisitioned by the general Gallieni, it did not remain rained then any taxi available to Paris. Carried out especially by Renault AG, this transport will remain with the posterity like one of the first uses of motorized… and civil troops.

Finally, the September 9th, the armed Life, beaten, is folded up behind the Marne. Von Kluck then will make the error to continue it while hoping to complete its elimination. But its advance opens a breach from approximately fifty Kilomètre S with the second army of Karl von Bülow, located on its line. Benefitting from this opening, the French V {{E}} Armed and the task force Britannique will engulf and attack the two German armies on their exposed sides. Disorganized by this operation, exhausted by their preceding advances, slightly lower of number, the two armies German will be in their turn forced with the fold, until September 13rd. The crushing argument carried to the two more powerful German armies in charge of the envelopment of the allied troops, marks the failure of the operation Schlieffen. But, according to the word of the General Chambe, then young officer of cavalry, it were a gained battle but a lost victory. Indeed, if the Franco-British armies then reflect a term with the irresistible projection of the German armies ordered by Von Kluck, Von Bülow and Von Moltke, they could not or could not exploit this advantage by pushing back these armies out of the French territory, but only with a few tens of kilometers towards north, inducing initially the Course with the sea then the stabilization of the face, i.e. the beginning of a war of position which was going to be prolonged four years.

Historical anecdotes and facts

It is during this battle that Charles Péguy is deceased.
In reaction to the allied victory at the time of this battle, decision makings of the Kaiser were put at evil, which caused in Germany the spontaneous drafting of a proclamation by 93 Germanic intellectuals of international repute the October 4th 1914. This document had as a function to show with the whole world the univocal support of the leading and intellectual class German for their chief Guillaume II.

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