On 5-12 September 1914, the Battle of the Marne was fought between the French under Joseph Joffre against the Germans under Helmuth von Moltke during the First World War.
Why did it happen?
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated by Serbian nationalists in Sarajevo, Bosnia. On 28 July, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, and Germany allied with Austria-Hungary before invading Belgium and France on 3 August. Britain, a guarantor of Belgian neutrality, declared war on Germany the following day. Due to the threat of a war on two fronts, The German plan was to send a large enveloping force through the Netherlands and Belgium into France to capture Paris. Once France had been defeated, the bulk of the German army would be transported to the Eastern Front to fight the Russians, whom German military leaders assumed would take a long period of time to mobilise their forces. Known as the Schlieffen Plan, this manoeuvre was conducted by the book until 3 September when General Alexander von Kluck decided to turn his First Army south towards the east of Paris rather than the west. Reconnaissance by French aircraft alerted Joseph Joffre of this change in direction and exploited it by positioning the Sixth Army under General Michel-Joseph Maunoury near Paris to attack the German army in the flank.
Who was involved?
The French army at the Marne numbered 1,037,000 infantry, 45,000 cavalry and 3,240 artillery. The French forces were divided into three Field Armies and a British Expeditionary Force comprising 120,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry. The French Sixth Army under Michel-Joseph Maunoury occupied the French left wing along with the BEF, while the French Fifth Army under Franchet Esperey and the French Ninth Army under Ferdinand Foch occupied the centre and right wing, respectively. The German army at the Marne numbered 865,000 infantry, 35,000 cavalry and 3,888 artillery. The German Third Army under Max von Hausen was positioned on the left wing, with the German Second Army under Karl von Bulow commanding the centre. The German First Army under Alexander von Kluck was on the right wing.
What happened?
On 5 September, the French Sixth Army attacked the flank of the German First Army. On 6 September, the German Second and Third Armies forced the French Ninth Army back across the St. Gond Marshes. At the same time, the French Fifth Army and the British Expeditionary Force advanced across the Grand Morin. On 7 September, General Alexander von Kluck ordered two corps to counterattack the French Sixth Army, causing a dangerous gap to open between the German First and Second Armies. On 8 September, a surprise attack by the French Fifth Army forced the German Second Army to pull back behind the Petit Morin. During the night, an attack by the German Third Army forced the French Ninth Army to retreat. Finally, on 9 September, the British Expeditionary Force advanced into the gap between the First and Second German Armies. The German commanders then ordered their armies to retreat across the Aisne River, where they dug in by 12 September. Throughout the battle, the French lost 80,000 killed while the Germans lost 68,000 killed.
What changed as a result?
The Battle of the Marne was a decisive French victory. The German defeat at the Marne led to the collapse of the Schlieffen Plan and “doomed Germany to what it had always wanted to avoid – a prolonged war on two fronts” (Westwell, 2012, p.40). On 14 September, Helmuth von Moltke was replaced by General Erich von Falkenhayn, and Joseph Joffre sought to finish off the German armies once and for all. Between 15 September and 24 November, the Allied and German armies sought to outflank each other towards the North Sea before consolidating their positions by digging trenches stretching from the coast of Belgium to the Swiss Alps. Four years of trench warfare led to the deaths of at least nine million soldiers on the Western Front and elsewhere. In many ways, the French victory at the Battle of the Marne helped shape the course of the twentieth century. As stated by R.G. Grant: “Had they [the Germans] triumphed at the Marne, the war might have been over by Christmas 1914, and the subsequent history of Europe would have been changed. There would have been no Russian Revolution in 1917, no Nazi government in Germany in the 1930s, no World War II” (Grant, 2011, p.9).
Bibliography
Grant, R.G. 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. London, Cassell Illustrated, 2011.
Grant, R.G. World War I: The Definitive Visual Guide. London, Dorling Kindersley, 2014.
Regan, Geoffrey. Battles That Changed History: Fifty Decisive Battles Spanning Over 2,500 Years of Warfare. London, Andre Deutsch, 2002.
Sumner, Ian. The First Battle of the Marne 1914: The French 'miracle' halts the Germans. Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 2010.
Westwell, Ian. The Complete Illustrated History of World War I. Wigston, Hermes House, 2012.
Willmott, H.P. World War I. New York, Dorling Kindersley, 2007.