Evening star., 1924-09-04

ing that the defeat of the allies had
already been decisive. they withdrew
four divisions from the west to stem
the Russian advance in East Prussia.
In addition they put in their six divi-
sions of the army reserve east instead
OF west OF Metz. to exploit the vic
tory Of Morhange. In addition a Bel
gian sortie from Antwerp recalled
two more German divisions from the
Anglo French front.
Joffre, in the meantime, while or
dering the retreat OF all French
troops west of Metz. directed the
armies to the east to stand firm
before Nancy and began drawing reg
ular divisions from the east to the
west and replacing them with re-
serve divisions. His troops before
Nancy met and held the German at
tack. while he created upon the west
ern flank two new armies and thus
reversed the balance.
On September 6, wien the allied
counter offensive of the Marne be-
gan, the distribution of forces was
approximately this: On the western
flank, near Paris, four allied armies.
with 81 infantry divisions in line
or coming up, faced three German
armies which had dwindled to "a divi-
sions; in the center, 90 French divi-
sions faced 20 German. while east
,of Metz something like 16 French
divisions resting upon the forts of
Toul and Epinai held 22 German divi-
sions firmly. The Germans had then
completely lost their advantage on
! the striking flank, they We're oItnum-
bered and were now menaced by
envolepment.
X < = 4
On September ), French army,
coming out of Paris, struck the
westernmost German army, kluck's.
threatening its flank and rear and
compelling Kluck to withdraw eight
divisions which he had adventured
south of the Marne. His withdrawal
of these divisions opened a gap be-
tween his army and Bulows into
which the British thrust, together
with the 5th French army of Fran
chet dEsperey. By September ., in
the morning, this gap had become so
dangerous that general retirement
of all three OF the western armies of
the Germans had to be ordered, and
their retirement compelled a similar
retirement of the armies Of the CEN
ter, while to close the gap between
kluck and Bulow divisions had to be
brought from Lorraine. and thus the
German offensive before Nancy had
10 be abandoned. The gap was not
closed until September IA, when the
Germans were back behind the Aisne
and the battle front stabilized itself.
But by September "A. the Germans
were outnumbered all along the
western front. and they never again
had equal numbers until their great
offensive of March. 1918. At the
Marne they were outnumbered at the
decisive point, fact not generally
appreciated at the time. Had the
French reserve divisions been ready
for war at the first shock, the Ger
mans would have been decisively out
numbered even at the start, and their
single chance of victory lay in de-
stroying the first-line troops before
the reserve divisions could be brought
up. This chance was lost when the
opening struggles, the battles Of the
frontiers, brought no decision and
Jofre's great retreat gave him time
to reconstitute his forces and trans
fer divisions from east to west.
The Battle of the Marne was no.
where a tactical decision, that is to
say. neither of the contending forces.
none of the many armies engaged,
won an absolute victory on the field,
but the Germans, to avoid far-reach-
ing disaster, were compelled to retreat
along the whole front, leaving
| prisoners, flags and guns, together
with much war material, and all their
plans were brought to nothing. In
stead OF swift decision in the west
they were involved in a long war and
were henceforth outnumbered both
on the east and the west up to the
moment Of the Russian collapse.
Moreover, Moltke, who commanded
the German armies, was retired on
September II, the final evidence of
the German recognition of the defeat.
Such, in narrow compass, is the
military story of the Marne, which,
in reality deprived the Germans of
their single chance to win the World
War, battle which in magnitude of
numbers and in Importance of re-
suits surpassed everything in human
history and still remains the supreme
struggle of all time.
Copyright, 1924, by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.D