Download First Battle of the Marne

First Battle of the Marne
The French victory in the First Battle of the Marne from September 5 to 12, 1914 robbed
Germany of its planned rapid defeat of France during World War I and resulted in four
years of trench warfare outside Paris.
German general Alfred von Schlieffen had developed a plan for operations against France
as early as 1894. The French possessed the even older Plan XVII to invade Germany.
After Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist on
June 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's demand for retribution necessitated Russia
to aid Serbia; Germany's alliance with Austria meant a Russo-German war, which
therefore meant a Franco-German war. That interlocking set of alliances, developed over
the previous three decades, guaranteed that if any two nations started fighting, it would
almost immediately become a conflict involving all of Europe.
On August 4, 1914, the Germans violated Belgian neutrality as Germany's First, Second,
and Third Armies marched through on the way to Paris. The Germans were slowed by a
stubborn Belgian defense, and German general Helmuth von Moltke Jr. ordered divisions
drawn from the sweeping attack on France to deal with the Belgians. Their numbers were
not reduced until late August. Another factor that harmed the German plan was the action
taking place on the Franco-German frontier. Moltke's shifting of troops had strengthened
the German defense but not sufficiently enough to launch an offensive if the opportunity
presented itself, which it did. The Germans attacked the surprised French armies and
forced their withdrawal to a series of fortified positions, but the Germans lacked the
numbers necessary to push past those forts. Thus, the French were able to reduce their
numbers and move personnel west to aid Paris once it was realized that Plan XVII was
useless.
French general Joseph Joffre ordered the creation of the Sixth Army, and Parisian
military governor Gen. Joseph Galliéni rounded up almost anyone of military age in the
Paris region. Using the only available transportation, Parisian taxis, thousands of men
were carried to the Marne River to stand against the German onslaught.
Meanwhile, British forces, allied with the French, landed sooner than Germany expected,
but the ineffective defensive stand made by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and
the French Fifth Army allowed the German Army to move faster than planned. Yet
Moltke again abandoned the tenets of the Schlieffen Plan and unwittingly gave the
French and British an opportunity to strike German positions. Instead of a wide-sweeping
front that would turn the flank of the entire French Army, Moltke ordered a shortening of
the line and an encirclement, not of Paris, but of the French fortress city of Verdun.
The Germans met the Sixth Army at the Marne River, while the French Fifth Army and
the BEF stopped their retreats and counterattacked at the exposed German right flank.
The German Army ground to a halt and, with its flank and rear open to attack, had to
retreat. With that, the Germans and both the British and French began to dig in their
positions; the next four years were fought in the trenches, an enduring symbol of the
Western Front.
Further Reading
Blond, Georges, The Marne, 1966; Dupuy, Trevor N., A Genius for War, the German Army and the
General Staff, 1807-1945, 1984; Kluck, Alexander von, The March on Paris and the Battle of the Marne,
1923; Liddell Hart, Basil, The Real War, 1931; Tuchman, Barbara Wertheim. The Guns of August. New
York: Ballantine, 1994.
Select Citation Style:
MLA
"First Battle of the Marne." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 13
Mar. 2011.
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Second Battle of the Marne
The Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 marked the last turning point in World War I and
led to Allied victory.
After three years of trench warfare in France, German field marshal Erich von
Ludendorff was ready for a killing blow that would end World War I in Germany's favor.
Ludendorff's position was that of first quartermaster general of the German military, but
actually he was commander in chief. Thus, he planned and directed the operations of
spring and summer 1918 that were supposed to bring the war to a positive end. He
planned to do that by decisively defeating the British forces on the northern end of the
Allied front.
To sufficiently prepare the way for the battle that would do so, however, Ludendorff
planned a series of diversionary offensives to hold French troops in place and draw off
reserves from the British sector. In March 1918, he began the first of five planned feints.
Ludendorff also planned a tactical change: using smaller units that were trained to break
through weak points and threaten rear areas. The British and French forces were
unprepared for that type of attack, and it proved extremely successful.
When the first German offensive began on March 21, 1918 along the Somme River, the
Germans enjoyed more success than they had since the opening days of the war. The
British Fifth Army was virtually destroyed as three German armies advanced along a
front more than 40 miles wide and drove the British 40 miles backward before finally
being stopped by Allied reinforcements. The Germans had outrun their ability to keep
their own men supplied. Both sides lost nearly 250,000 men.
Ludendorff's second offensive was launched against the region that he was planning
ultimately to attack as his last major target. On April 9, 1918, German troops attacked
British positions along the Lys River and made major gains, although not as impressive
as those the previous month. At the end of May, the third German offensive again
acquired a major piece of territory that established a salient 30 miles wide, crossing the
Aisne and Vesle rivers and approaching the Marne River 20 miles from where the
Germans had started.
Ludendorff's plans then ran into serious trouble. Each German offensive thus far,
although successful, had seriously depleted the number of men trained as storm troopers.
Therefore, the more traditional massed attacks would have to be employed, and the
German soldiers, after three years of such tactics, were not thrilled with the prospect. The
result was a large number of German deserters who gave the Allied intelligence officers
all the information they needed about the times and places of the upcoming German
attack. Thus, the Allies were ready when, on June 9, Ludendorff readied his fourth attack
along a line from Noyon to Mondidier, southward from the territory gained in his first
offensive back in March. German gains were slight in four days of fighting.
Ludendorff at that point probably should have started his grand offensive against the
British, but he thought to launch one more diversion against the city of Reims. U.S.
forces, the Third Infantry Division in particular, barred the German advance. After only
two days of fighting, Ludendorff ordered his troops to withdraw to a defensive position
along the Vesle River. The Allies were quick to exploit the German retreat; by August 5,
1918, the Allied attack had completely regained all the territory lost to the Germans in
their third offensive in May and June, and the German Army from that point onward was
completely on the defensive.
In five major assaults, the Germans suffered about a half million men dead, wounded,
and prisoner. Ludendorff had announced in advance that the offensive was the big push,
the great leap forward that would win the war. When it failed, the morale of the German
Army plummeted. The Second Battle of the Marne, although not an overwhelming
tactical success for the Allies, was the morale boost they sorely needed. In addition, the
arrival of the Americans brought the Allied numbers up, and their competence in battle
did wonders for Allied spirits. Although Ludendorff realized on August 8, 1918 that the
war was lost, it was not until October 6 that the German government requested talks.
Further Reading
Gies, Joseph, Crisis, 1918, 1974; Liddell Hart, Basil, The Real War, 1931; Stallings, Laurence, The
Doughboys, 1963; Stokesbury, James L., Short History of World War I, 1981; Terraine, John, To Win a
War: 1918, the Year of Victory, 1981.
Select Citation Style:
MLA
"Second Battle of the Marne." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web.
13 Mar. 2011.
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