Depth charges were first developed by the Royal Navy during World War I to combat German submarines. [67] The French advance at the First Battle of Picardy (2226 September) met a German attack rather than an open flank and by the end of the Battle of Albert (2529 September), the Second Army had been reinforced to eight Corps but was still opposed by German forces at the Battle of Arras (14 October), rather than advancing around the German northern flank. This happened at the Battle of the Marne, fought from September 6 to 12 in 1914. Lanrezacs attack, on August 29, was stopped before Blow needed this aid, but he asked Kluck to wheel in nevertheless, in order to cut off Lanrezacs retreat. [45] He resisted counter-attacking until the time was right then put his full force behind it. This often involvedclose-quarters fighting in confined spaces so many experienced soldiers preferred to use improvised clubs, knives and knuckledusters rather thancumbersome rifles. [11] To accomplish this, the 2nd Army would become the primary striking force with the 1st Army (Alexander von Kluck) following in echelon to protect the flank. The following night, on 8 September, the Fifth Army launched a surprise attack against the 2nd Army, further widening the gap between the 1st and 2nd Armies. World War I Timeline: 1914, The War Begins, M.S., Information and Library Science, Drexel University, B.A., History and Political Science, Pennsylvania State University. [4] The Belgian 4th Division, the solitary part of the Belgian army not to retreat to the defensive lines around Antwerp, dug in to defend Namur, which was besieged on 20 August. Plan XVII had vastly underestimated the size of German invasion forces, and its execution would have dramatically enhanced the effectiveness of the German Schlieffen Plan. Pursued by the British and French, they defeated Allied attacks against this new position. We know anyhow that with a prescience greater in political than in military affairs, he wrote to his wife on the night of the 9th, "Things have not gone well. Both allied countries used the gaps and attacked through them which eventually led to the retreat of the German armies. The attack was cancelled and the IX Reserve Corps was ordered to withdraw behind the right flank of the 1st Army. A rifle fitted with a bayonet could prove unwieldy in a confined trench so many soldiers preferred to use improvised trench clubs instead. Due to the redistribution of French troops, the German 1st Army had 128 battalions facing 191 battalions of the French and BEF. French commander in chief Gen. Joseph-Jacques-Csaire Joffre at last recognized the folly of pressing ahead with Plan XVII, the planned French offensive into Alsace and Lorraine. This article was most recently revised and updated by, The Great War Infographic of Deaths and Milestones, https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Battle-of-the-Marne, Military History Encyclopedia on the Web - First Battle of the Marne, 5-10 September 1914, International Encyclopedia of the First World War - Battles of the Marne, The History Learning Site - The First Battle of the Marne, First Battle of the Marne - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), First Battle of the Marne - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Kluck had hardly swung out to the southwest before he was induced to swing in again. Grenades were ideal weapons for trench warfare, they could be thrown into enemy positions before troops entered them. When dropped into the tube, a bomb hit a firing pin at the bottom and launched. The first was Gen. Helmuth von Moltkes action in detaching seven regular divisions to invest Maubeuge and Givet and watch Antwerp, instead of using Landwehr (reserve) and Ersatz (replacement) troops as earlier intended. The Battle of the Frontiers is a general name for all the operations of the French armies from 7 August to 13 September. [49] Barbara W. Tuchman and Robert A. Doughty wrote that Joffre's victory at the Marne was far from decisive, Tuchman calling it an "incomplete victory of the Marne" and Doughty [the] "opportunity for a decisive victory had slipped from his hands". Hickman, Kennedy. When there was no water to hand, soldiers would urinate in the water jacket to keep the gun cool! However, flamethrowers were effective, causing lots of havoc on the battlefield. Between September 9 and 13, German forces broke off contact with the enemy and retreated north to this new line. Quickly moving to exploit the opportunity, Joffre ordered General Franchet d'Esprey's French Fifth Army and the BEF into the gap. Later in the war, the British used artillery in a defensive way, rather than obliterate enemy positions. These tanks were made for use on the Western Front because of the terrain's rough conditions. The German attack would have then fallen on the French left flank and rear, virtually assuring the destruction of the French army and the fall of Paris. The Second Battle of the Marne was an important victory. Not all actions on the Western Front were large scale battles. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [15] On 4 September, while meeting with the British General Henry Wilson, d'Esperey outlined a French and British counter-attack on the German 1st Army. The delay in starting the advance meant that the Germans had time to scramble out of their dugouts, man their trenches and open a devastating machine-gun fire. The BEF was under no obligation to follow orders of the French. "World War I: First Battle of the Marne." Thereby a 30-mile (48-km) gap was created between the German First Army (in the vicinity of Meaux) and the Second (east of Montmirail)a gap covered only by a screen of cavalry. Communication trenches linked them all together. Germany's grand Schlieffen Plan to . We've got you covered with our map collection. Entente air reconnaissance observed German forces moving north to face the Sixth Army and discovered the gap. [32][33] The impact on morale was undeniable, the taxis de la Marne were perceived as a manifestation of the union sacre of the French civilian population and its soldiers at the front, reminiscent of the people in arms who had saved the French Republic Campaign of 1794: a symbol of unity and national solidarity beyond their strategical role in the battle. Using these two forces, he planned to attack on September 6. Infoplease knows the value of having sources you can trust. In the resulting Battle of the Ourcq, Kluck's men were able to put the French on the defensive. Even though new weapons and technology were available for the First World War, a learning curve was needed to develop and use them properly and effectively. Though planned as a simple tactical withdrawal and executed in good order, the British retreat from Mons lasted for two weeks and covered 400 kilometres (250mi). Thestandard British rifle was the Short Magazine Lee Enfield Rifle Mk III. Not sure about the geography of the middle east? Still, some new weapons and technology used such as chemical warfare, flamethrowers and submarines caused great fear and chaos during World War I. Overnight, the IV Reserve Corps withdrew to a better position 10 kilometres (6.2mi) east, while von Kluck, alerted to the approach of the Entente forces, began to wheel his army to face west. The Lewis Gun was the British Armys most widely used machine-gun. [39] General Castelnau prepared to abandon the French position around Nancy, but his staff contacted Joffre, who ordered Castelnau to hold for another 24 hours. Late on 4 September, Joffre ordered the Sixth Army to attack eastwards over the Ourcq towards Chteau Thierry as the BEF advanced towards Montmirail, and the Fifth Army attacked northwards with its right flank protected by the Ninth Army along the St. Gond marshes. Chteau-Salins near Morhange was captured on 17 August and Sarrebourg the next day. However, the comparatively small number of prisoners raised doubts in Moltkes mind and led him to a more sober estimate of the situation. Learn about one of the world's oldest and most popular religions. In the east, the Second Army had withdrawn its left flank, to face north between Nancy and Toul; the First and Second Armies had slowed the advance of the German 7th and 6th Armies west of St. Di and east of Nancy by 4 September. This dislocated Joffres design for an early return to the offensive and compelled the Sixth Army to fall back hurriedly toward the shelter of the Paris defenses. ThoughtCo. On 5 September, the Battle of the Ourcq commenced when the Sixth Army advanced eastwards from Paris. On September 3, when the German First Army was crossing the Marne east of Paris, Gallieni realized the meaning of Klucks wheel inward and directed Gen. Michel-Joseph Maunourys Sixth Army to be ready to strike at the exposed German right flank. The British stand at Le Cateau (August 26), interrupting the retreat from Mons, and Lanrezacs riposte at Guise (August 29) were also factors in checking the German enveloping wing, and each had still greater indirect effects. Moltke is said to have reported to the Kaiser: "Your Majesty, we have lost the war." The next day, the Fifth Army recrossed the Marne, and the German 1st and 2nd Armies began to retire. At first, these were simple, shallow pits, but quickly they became deeper, more elaborate trenches. As gunnery practice improved the British were able to use this lightmachine gun to give effective mobile support to their ground troops. Chief of the German General Staff Helmuth von Moltke. [47] The German retreat ended their hope of pushing the French beyond the VerdunMarneParis line and winning a quick victory. [11] Both armies on the western flank had been depleted by the march and August battles. Also on that day, French troops counterattacked in the Battle of the Ourcq 512 September, marking the end of the Great Retreat of the western flank of the Franco-British armies.[9]. But theyremainedvulnerable to enemy fire and were still mechanicallyunreliable. In September 1916, the face of battle changed forever. [66], From 17 September17 October the belligerents made reciprocal attempts to turn the northern flank of their opponent. Hickman, Kennedy. Field Marshal Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), began to plan for a full British retreat to port cities on the English Channel for an immediate evacuation. Following the detonation of the mines, nine Allied infantry divisions attacked under a creeping artillery barrage, supported by tanks. Even though the U.S. was the first to use railway guns during the American Civil War, Germany was the first to use them in World War I. [38] On 7 September German advances created a salient south of Verdun at St. Mihiel, which threatened to separate the Second and Third Armies. Such weapons were also ideal for silent killing during raids. On 31 August, 1 September and 3 September, German aviators reported columns of French troops west of the 1st Army. [citation needed], Joffre, whose planning had led to the disastrous Battle of the Frontiers, was able to bring the Entente to a tactical victory. As the speed andflying capabilities of aircraft improved they evenbombed airfields, transportation networks and industrial facilities. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/first-battle-of-the-marne-2361397. In August 1914, the Germans mistook the speed andprecision of the British rifle fire for machine guns. Their direction of advance was across a region intersected by frequent rivers, and this handicap was intensified by a lack of initiative on the part of their chiefs. The Schlieffen Plan called for a massive flank attack on the French defenses, but Plan XVII would have carried the bulk of the French army beyond those defenses and left it open to envelopment. Moltke ordered that Paris would now be bypassed and the sweep intended to encircle the city would now seek to entrap the French forces between Paris and Verdun. However, in General Gallieni's memoirs, he notes how some had "exaggerated somewhat the importance of the taxis. The heavy weight of the flamethrower made the weapon's operators easy targets. Aircraft were a such a new technology during the First World War that no one recognised their potential as a weapon at first. Greater results might have come if more effort had been made, as Gallieni urged, to strike at the rear flank of the Klucks First Army instead of the front and to direct reinforcements to the northwest of Paris for this purpose. The military governor of Paris, Joseph Simon Gallieni, wanted the FrancoBritish units to counter-attack the Germans along the Marne River and halt the German advance. The German armies ceased their retreat after 40mi (65km) on a line north of the Aisne River, where they dug in on the heights and fought the First Battle of the Aisne. First World War That night he issued commands to halt the French retreat in his Instruction General No. This led Joffre to transfer the Second Army west to the left flank of the Sixth Army, the first phase of Entente attempts to outflank the German armies in "The Race to the Sea". Later that day, the first orders were issued for a retreat effectively negating the Schlieffen Plan. On 17 September, the French Sixth Army attacked from Soissons to Noyon, at the westernmost point of the French flank, with the XIII and IV corps, which were supported by the 61st and 62nd divisions of the 6th Group of Reserve Divisions. The right wing of the Fifth Army attacked on 6 September and pinned the 2nd Army in the Battle of the Two Morins, named for the two rivers in the area, the Grand Morin and Petit Morin. Both sides were faced with the prospect of costly siege warfare operations if they chose to continue an offensive strategy in France. . Tunnels would be dug under no-mans land to lay explosive mines beneath enemy positions. In fact, the situation on the Western Front during the First World War was why the term trench warfare became synonymous with attrition, futile conflict, and stalemate. On the other side, the Schlieffen Plan continued to proceed, however, Moltke was increasingly losing control of his forces, most notably the key First and Second Armies. Technologically, the machines became more advanced. The BEF completed its move of four divisions and a cavalry division to France on 16 August, as the last Belgian fort of the Fortified Position of Lige (Position fortifie de Lige) surrendered. The German retreat from 9 to 13 September marked the end of the attempt to defeat France by crushing the French armies with an invasion from the north through Belgium and in the south over the common border. [50][51] Ian Sumner called it a flawed victory and that it proved impossible to deal the German armies "a decisive blow". Because so much of the war was fought in trenches, trench railways emerged as a way to get food, water, and ammunition to all the soldiers. Technology Despite the advances in technology, cavalry retained a significant role in World War I, and horses died by the millions in the conflict. On September 5, Kluck learned of the approaching enemy and began to wheel his First Army west to meet the threat posed by Sixth Army. There was a gap between the left of the Second Army and the right of the Third Army at Verdun, which faced north-west, on a line towards Revigny, against the Fifth Army advance west of the Meuse between Varennes and Sainte-Menehould. Need a reference? They were placed far enough from the trenches to prevent the enemy from approaching close enough to throw grenades in. Thedevastating effect of the mines helped the men gain their initial objectives. [7], On 26 August, German forces captured Valenciennes and began the Siege of Maubeuge (24 August 7 September). In the first days of September, the final decisions were made that were to directly create the circumstances for the Battle of the Marne. Mustard gas proved more effective. At Gallienis urging, Maunoury was already off the mark on September 5, and as his pressure developed on the Germans sensitive flank, Kluck was constrained to draw off first one part and then the remaining part of his army to support his threatened flank guard. . These were later replaced by asmall box filter respirator which provided greater protection. It could be fired into the trenches via shells. The Battle of Marne was the first time aeroplanes were used in war to spy behind enemy lines. [26] The Germans had still hoped to smash the Sixth Army between 6 and 8 September, but the Sixth Army was reinforced on the night of 7/8 September by 10,000 French reserve infantry ferried from Paris. One of the few ways that tanks were effective during the war, was that they were capable of crossing barbed wire defences, although their tracks were still at risk of becoming entangled. The new pessimism of Moltke and the renewed optimism of his army commanders together produced a fresh change of plan, which contained the seeds of disaster. It is difficult to see how the German command could have reasonably pinned its faith on achieving as an improvised expedient the very task which in cool calculation before the war had appeared so hopeless as to lead it to take the momentous decision to advance through Belgium as the only feasible alternative. In March 1915 they used a form of tear gas against the French at Nieuport. By the next day, both the German First and Second Armies were being threatened with encirclement and destruction. In this disappearance lay the unintentional cause of victory. The Battle of Amiens in August 1918 and the subsequent 'Hundred Days' offensiveillustrated that the British had learned how to combine infantry assaults (men armed with rifles, grenades and machine guns) with gas, artillery, tanks and aircraft in a co-coordinated attack orall arms approach. The next day, with some difficulty, Gallieni won Joffres sanction. Together with his Chief of Staff General Kuhl, Kluck ordered his armies to continue south-east rather than turning to the west to face possible reinforcements that could endanger the German flank. The Allies won a victory against the German armies in the West and ended their plans of crushing the French armies with an attack from the north through Belgium. French garrisons were besieged at Metz, Thionville, Longwy, Montmdy, and Maubeuge. Ferdinand Foch received the baton of a Marshal of France. Following this meeting, Sir John French agreed to the operational plan to commence the following day.[20]. During the Battle of Ypres, also in 1915, the Germans used chlorine gas for the first time. The Germans introduced it, but it was later used by other forces. Super dreadnoughts, such as the HMS Orion, ruled the waves; their reign was short, however, as developments in naval aviation would soon render such ships obsolete. [17] Gallieni had come to the same conclusion on 3 September and had started marching the Sixth Army east. Still, most men could run, even walk faster and found the tanks unreliable due to engine failures and frequently missed targets. Once convinced, Joffre acted decisively. To defend against a wide use of artillery and other long range weapons, trench warfare was used by both the allied and central powers . In doing so, they exposed the right flank of the German advance to attack. First Battle of the Marne, (September 6-12, 1914), an offensive during World War I by the French army and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) against the advancing Germans who had invaded Belgium and northeastern France and were within 30 miles (48 km) of Paris. . Both sides dug in and a line of trenches soon ran from the Channel to the Swiss frontier. That learning curve along with the strategic use of Napoleonic principles caused many of the deadliest battles in history. During the critical period of 6 to 7 September von Moltke issued no orders to either von Kluck or Blow, and received no reports from them between 7 and 9 September. After the Battle of the Marne, the Germans retreated for up to 90 kilometres (56mi) and lost 11,717 prisoners, 30 field guns and 100 machine-guns to the French and 3,500 prisoners to the British before reaching the Aisne. 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