The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-05
FRANCE OBSERVES
 MARINE DAY

France will celebrate today the sec ond anniversary of the beginning of the battle of the Marne, which saved Paris from the Germans and brought to an end the long retreat of the Allies Following a precedent established a year ago, the graves of French sol diers on the battlefield at Meaux and it's environs will be, decorated by grateful Parisians, who owe their present security to the gallantry of the heroes who turned the tide just at the moment when it seemed that Paris was inevitably doomed. By the French victory in the battle of the Marne the Kaiser was prevented from making good his boast that he would eat his Christmas dinner of 1914 in Paris. It is more than likely that Marne Day will become a fixture in the calendar of the republic, and that for generations to come grateful citi- zens will make annual pilgrimages to the battlefields where so many French men died that France might live
 The fifth of September, 1914, mark ed the high water mark of the Teuton invasion of France. The great Ger man military machine had passed ruthlessly across Luxemburg and Bel gium and eight mighty legions pushed onward into France. There was the army of Won K1uck, bound for Paris von Buelow's horde, which entered France after battering Namur; von Hausen's army, cooperating with von Buelow's; the Duke of Wurtemberg, entering France by way of historic Sedan; the Grown Prince, who invest ed Longwy; the Crown Prince of Bavaria, advancing from Lorraine, with von Heeringen's army on his left, at Luneville and St. Die; and the inde- pendent army of von Demling in AL sace.
 To oppose the invaders Joffre had at his command five French armies and the two army corps of the British. The latter, almost overwhelmed by tons at Mons. barely extricated them selves and beat a retreat. Again and again the Germans advanced, and the French and their British allies re- treated. The great drive on Paris seemed certain to succeed. Won Kluck's army hastened toward the French capital, the infantry covering the ground at prodigious speed, prac- tically unopposed. The government officials deserted Paris, and hundreds of thousands of citizens fled from the capital.
 On the fifth of September Joffre gave the order which changed the Fabian retreat into an attack. "The time of retreating has passed" was the joyous word sent out by the French commander. ''The hour has come to advance, no matter what the cost, and to die rather than to fall back"
 Wild enthusiasm greeted this order in the camps of the French and Brit ish. They had taken part in a re- treat as masterly as was ever en- gineered by Quintus Fabius Maximus in his warfare against the hordes of Hannibal, but they had grown weary of retreating.
 The battle of the Marne began on September and ended on September 10. Estimates of the number engaged place the Germans at 1,275,0OO, and the Allies at 1,125,O00. The battle reached it's crucial stage in the con- fict between the Sixth French army under Manoury and the Germans of won Kluck. For a time the French, aided by the British hammering on von Kluck's left, had the advantage. Then the tide turned, and it seemed that the complete envelopment and destruction of Manoury's army was only a matter of hours, for the Ger mans had received large reinforce ,ments. At this juncture Galliene, then military governor of Paris, went to the rescue. With an army of 10000, in a fleet of 5000 motor cars, he hur- ried to Manoury's aid. The tide was turned, and the Germans were swept back to the positions prepared for them, when the period of trench war fare commenced.