The Battles Of The Marne


At Marathon (490 B.C.) and at Salamis (480 B.C.) the Greeks defeated

the Persians and saved Europe for western civilization. Had the

Persians won, the history of Europe and of the world would be the story

of the civilization of the East instead of that of the West.



At Tours (732 A.D.) Charles Martel defeated the forces of the

Mohammedans, who had already conquered Spain, and saved Europe for

Christianity.
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At the Marne (1914 and 1918) the French, the English, and (in the

second battle) the Americans, defeated the modern Huns and saved Europe

for democracy and from the rule of merciless brute force. The First

Battle of the Marne has been called the sixteenth decisive battle of

the world.



Before the First Battle of the Marne, September 5 to 10, 1914, the

German military machine had been winning, as never an army had won

before in the entire recorded history of the world. Its path had been

one of treachery, of atrocities, of savagery, but one of tremendous and

unparalleled victory. The Germans at home called it "the great times."



Brave little Belgium had been able to hold back the German hordes but

for a short time at Liége and Namur, but, as future events proved, long

enough to make possible the decisive battles at the Marne. The Germans

had taken Brussels and Antwerp, had destroyed Louvain, had filled

themselves with outrage and murder, had drunk of blood and wine and

success until they were thoroughly intoxicated with the belief so

common to drunken brutes that no men in the world can stand against

them. The little Belgian army, "the contemptible little English army"

(as the Kaiser called it), and the magnificent French army had been

retreating day by day almost as fast as the Germans could advance. Soon

Paris and then all of France would be in German hands--and what a

glorious time they would have in the gayest and most beautiful capital

of the world. Although bodies of German cavalry raided the coast, the

German leaders, elated and intoxicated with thoughts of rich plunder

and dissipation, did not turn aside in force to follow the Belgian army

and to take the Channel ports of Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne, but

pushed on toward Paris. The French government, expecting a siege of the

city, moved to Bordeaux.



The main forces of the Germans had turned south from the coast towards

Paris with General von Kluck's army of about 200,000 men at the right

or west of the German line of advance. General von Kluck was

attempting to outflank the English army, that is, to throw part of his

forces around the extreme western end of the English army, which had to

keep retiring rapidly to avoid being encircled. The French army was

obliged to fall back to keep in touch with the British.



The English retired nearly one hundred miles without losing their

cheerfulness or their confidence. It was this turning movement on the

left that forced all the allies to retire. An English writer who was

with the army said that though the Germans constantly attacked with

reckless courage, yet the British and French retired slowly with their

faces to the foe, and showing the greatest heroism. The numbers of the

Germans were greater than those of the Allies, and the Germans gave

them no rest. Night and day they hammered away, coming on like great

waves. The gaps the English made were filled instantly. The German guns

played upon the Allies constantly. Their cavalry swept down upon them

recklessly. If the English had great losses, the Germans had greater.

The English fought with cool bravery. They never wavered an instant.

But the pressure upon them could not be resisted. Column after column,

squadron after squadron, mass after mass, the enemy came on like a

battering ram, crushing everything in its way. They swarmed on all

sides, even though shattered by shot and shell. Nothing but the

steadfast courage, the sheer pluck, the spirit, the soul of the

English soldiers saved the army from complete destruction.



"The enemy hung on to us like grim death," said a wounded soldier.

"They wanted us to retreat in a direction that would best suit their

plans. But we were not taking marching orders from them. We went our

own way at our own pace. We were retiring, not retreating."



Then on the fifth of September came General Joffre's appeal to the

defenders of civilization, and particularly to the French soldiers:

"The hour has come to hold our positions at any cost and to fight

rather than to retreat.... No longer must we look at the enemy over our

shoulders, for the time has come to put forth all our efforts in

attacking and defeating him."



A French writer has said of the retreat, which by order of General

Joffre had now come to an end, "Their bodies retreated, but never their

souls;" and he might have added of the German advance, "It was an

advance of bodies, not of souls." It was material might in men and guns

forcing back an army weaker in everything except soul and spirit. The

World War has shown over and over again, not only at the Marne but at a

hundred other places and in a hundred other ways, that soul and spirit

are the real conquerors and that God is not always, as Napoleon said,

on the side of the larger battalions.



The Germans had come on flushed with success and egotism, destroying

French property, looting, and dissipating. Their spirit was the spirit

they found in the French wine cellars, and as for soul, as civilized

people understand the word, they had none. They were an army of tired,

conquering brutes. Their morale was low because of their great success

and all that had accompanied it of feasts and slaughter. The morale of

the French was never higher. Every day and every hour they had been

compelled to retreat, giving up, giving up all that they loved even

better than life itself to these brutes, until the brain of the French

army said on the evening of September 5, 1914, "You have gone so far in

order that you may now stand successfully." And in the morning at dawn,

it was not only the bodies of the French soldiers that hurled

themselves against the invaders, but the souls of French men, the soul

of France; and all along the line from Verdun to Meaux, under the

gallant leadership of Manoury, Foch, Sarrail, Castelnau, and others,

the French armies held. If they had not held--not only held but

attacked--all of future history would be different.



General Foch, commander in chief at the Second Battle of the Marne,

inspired his troops in this first battle to supernatural bravery. He

knew they must not yield, so with his right broken, his left shattered,

he attacked with his center. It was that or retreat. His message to

the commander-in-chief, General Joffre, will never be forgotten.



"My left has been forced back, my right is routed. I shall attack with

the center."



The Germans could not put their souls into the battles as the French

soldiers did, and besides, the Germans were weakened by feasting and

dissipation. With the Huns it was the right of might; with the Allies

it was the might of right, and in the end the second always defeats the

first.



Some one has well said:



"It is the law of good to protect and to build up. It is the law of

evil to destroy. It is in the very nature of good to lead men aright.

It is in the very nature of evil to lead men astray. Goodness makes for

wisdom. Badness is continually exercising poor judgment.



"Germany and Austria have made colossal mistakes in this war because of

their colossal violation of truth and justice. In brutally wronging

Serbia, they lost the friendship and support of Italy. In perpetrating

the monstrous crime against Belgium, they brought against them the

whole might of the British Empire. In breaking international law with

their reckless submarine warfare, they caused the United States to

enter the war on the side of the Allies."



It is said that the army of the German Crown Prince retreated before

the impetuous attack of the French and, because of this retreat, all

the other German armies were obliged to do likewise. It is more

probable, however, that the general retreat was due to General Joffre's

strategy. The Germans under General von Kluck were within about twenty

miles of Paris, near Meaux on the Marne, when suddenly they were struck

in the flank and rear by about twenty thousand fresh troops brought out

unexpectedly from Paris in motor trucks, taxis, limousines, and all

kinds of pleasure cars. Now the Germans, who had caused the retreat of

the French and British armies upon Paris by continually outflanking the

British, were in their turn outflanked and compelled to retreat, and

Paris was saved.



An English writer has said that although the Germans were outflanked

only in the west, yet the blow passed from one end of the German line

to the other, from Meaux to Verdun, just as the blow from the buffer of

the engine, when it is coupled to the train, passes from one truck to

another to the very end of the train.



The Germans in the next few days retreated from the Marne to the Aisne,

where they entrenched. Paris and France and Europe and the only world

worth living in were saved. The French government moved back to Paris.



Hall Caine in "Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days" says: "The soul of

France did not fail her. It heard the second approach of that monstrous

Prussian horde, which, like a broad, irresistible tide, sweeping across

one half of Europe, came down, down, down from Mons until the thunder

of its guns could again be heard on the boulevards. And then came the

great miracle! Just as the sea itself can rise no higher when it has

reached the top of the flood, so the mighty army of Germany had to stop

its advance thirty kilometres north of Paris; and when it stirred

again, it had to go back. And back and back it went before the armies

of France, Britain, and Belgium, until it reached a point at which it

could dig itself into the earth and hide in a long, serpentine trench

stretching from the Alps to the sea.



"Only then did the spirit of France draw breath for a moment, and the

next flash as of lightning showed her offering thanks and making

supplications before the white statue of Jeanne d'Arc in the apse of

the great cathedral of Notre Dame, sacred to innumerable memories. On

the Feast of St. Michael, ten thousand of the women of Paris were

kneeling under the dark vault, and on the broad space in the front of

the majestic façade, praying for victory. It was a great and grandiose

scene, recalling the days when faith was strong and purer. Old and

young, rich and poor, every woman with some soul that was dear to her

in that inferno at the front--the Motherhood of France was there to

ask God for the triumph of the right.



"And in the spirit of that prayer the soul of France still lives."



Nearly four years later the Germans, with greatly increased forces in

France, due to the collapse of Russia, were again upon the Marne and

only about forty miles from Paris. French and English and Americans

were opposing them upon a line shaped like a great letter U, extending

south with Rheims at the top on the east, and Soissons at the top on

the west. The Marne River was at the curve at the bottom, and there

most of the Americans were stationed.



On July 15, 1918, the Germans began the offensive which was to result,

as they hoped, in the capture of Paris. They attacked on the Marne and

between the Marne and Rheims. At the end of the fourth day, they had

advanced about six miles, crossing the Marne and pushing back the

American troops. The Americans fought bravely and soon regained the

ground they had lost, although the French generals suggested that they

should not attempt to retake it. The American commander, however, sent

word to the French general, who was his superior officer, saying that

he did not feel able to follow the suggestion, for the American flag

had been compelled to retire. None of his soldiers, he said, would

understand this being allowed as long as they were able to attack. "We

are going to counter-attack," he added. They did so, and regained all

the ground lost.



It is clear now that the French generals knew the counter-attack was

unnecessary, and knew why. West of the line from Soissons to the Marne

is a great forest, and back of this General Foch, commander in chief of

all the allied armies, had been for several days gathering guns,

ammunition, tanks, and troops ready to strike the flank of the Germans,

when they should attack between Rheims and the Marne and attempt to

cross the Marne, as he knew they would in their desire to take Paris. A

terrible tempest passed over the region just before the Allied attack,

preventing the Germans from observing the advancing tanks and troops.

An English writer has said, "The storm which had covered the noise of

the final preparation of a number of tanks which led the assault, was

over. Not a sound was heard in the forest, though it was teeming with

men and horses. Then suddenly the appointed moment came when day broke.

There was a roar from all the guns, the whole front broke into activity

as men and tanks dashed forward. I suppose there has been nothing more

dramatic in the whole war than this scene on which the general looked

down from the top of a high perch in the forest on that quiet July

morning!"



The Allies struck so unexpectedly that they captured hundreds of guns

and thousands of prisoners, and obliged the Germans to fall back

across the Marne, losing all the territory they had gained and much

more. The danger to Paris was again turned aside by the military genius

of General Foch and the bravery of the troops under his command.



It was the first great battle in which the Americans took part. They

showed themselves equal to the best of the Allies, and better than the

Germans. A London paper called the American counter-attack one of the

historical incidents of the whole war. All Europe, except Hunland, rang

with praises of the American troops.



* * * * *



In the history of the World War, most of the great land battles will be

named from rivers, the Marne, the Yser, the Somme, the Aisne, the

Ailette, the Ancre, the Bug, the Dneister, the Dunajec and the Piave. A

battle of the Rhine will probably be fought before German territory can

be invaded to any great extent.



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