The Marne (1914) & the Real Failure of a Quick War

Military History: World War I

Chapter 3 · The Marne (1914) & the Real Failure of a Quick War

At the end of August 1914 the German plan from Chapter 2 seemed to be working: German armies were pouring into northern France, and the French and British were in full retreat. Within two weeks the Germans were falling back, the idea of a quick war was dead, and the armies had begun digging the trench lines that would define the next four years.

The Great Retreat

After the Battle of the Frontiers and Mons, French and British forces retreated south for about two weeks. It looked like a disaster, but the French commander-in-chief, General Joseph Joffre, kept his armies together, sacked commanders he didn't trust, and moved troops by rail from his eastern border to build up a new army, the Sixth, around Paris.

German Exhaustion

German soldiers on the right wing had marched hundreds of miles in intense heat, often 20 miles or more a day, outrunning their supplies. Destroyed Belgian and French railways made resupply slow.

Troops Sent East

Alarmed by a faster-than-expected Russian invasion of East Prussia, Moltke took troops away from the Western Front and sent them east — where they arrived too late for the victory at Tannenberg (Chapter 8), but were missing in France.

Weak Communication

Moltke ran the campaign from headquarters far behind the front, relying on slow, unreliable radio and messengers. He often didn't know where his armies actually were.

The Fatal Turn

Kluck Swings East of Paris

The German plan had the right wing sweeping west of Paris. Instead, General Alexander von Kluck's First Army, the outermost German army, turned south-east to chase the retreating French and keep in touch with its neighbour, Karl von Bülow's Second Army. That took it past Paris on the east side — and exposed its flank to the new French army gathering in the city.

3–4 September French airmen and cavalry spot the German First Army moving east of Paris. General Joseph Gallieni, military governor of Paris, urges an immediate attack.
5–6 September Joffre orders a general counter-offensive along the whole front. The French Sixth Army attacks Kluck's flank from Paris.
6–8 September Kluck turns his army to face west against the Sixth Army. That opens a gap of about 50 km between him and Bülow — and the British Expeditionary Force and French Fifth Army advance slowly into it.
8–9 September Moltke sends a staff officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hentsch, to assess the situation. After meetings with Bülow, who is shaken and fears being cut off, Hentsch agrees to a withdrawal. The retreat begins.
9–12 September The German armies fall back about 65 km to the River Aisne and dig in on the high ground above it.

The Taxis of the Marne The most famous image of the battle is of Paris taxis rushing soldiers to the front. It's true: several hundred taxis carried around 4,000–6,000 men on the nights of 6–7 September. But that was a tiny fraction of the troops involved, and most reinforcements came by train. The taxis were far more important as a symbol of Paris rallying to its own defence than as a military factor.

Did One Staff Officer Lose the War? After the war, some Germans blamed Hentsch personally for "losing" the Marne by ordering a retreat that wasn't necessary. A German inquiry in 1917 cleared him, finding he had acted within his orders. Most historians now see the retreat as a reasonable response to a genuinely dangerous gap — and the real problem as Moltke's distance from the battle and loss of control.

The Cost

Army	Estimated casualties (5–12 September 1914)
French	About 250,000
British	About 12,700
German	About 300,000

"The Miracle of the Marne" The French called it a miracle, but it wasn't one. It was the result of Joffre's calm management of the retreat, the use of railways to move troops across the front, air reconnaissance spotting Kluck's turn, and German exhaustion, overstretched supply lines, and weak command. Moltke suffered a breakdown and was replaced by Erich von Falkenhayn on 14 September.

The Race to the Sea

The Germans held firm on the Aisne. Neither side could break through the other's front, so each tried to get round the other's open northern flank. From mid-September to mid-October 1914 the two sides leapfrogged north, each trying and failing to outflank the other, until they reached the North Sea coast in Belgium.

The Yser

The Belgian army, retreating from Antwerp, held a line on the River Yser. In late October the Belgians opened sluice gates near the coast and flooded the low-lying land in front of them, stopping the German advance there for the rest of the war.

First Ypres

From 19 October to 22 November, German attacks around the Belgian town of Ypres were held by British, French, and Belgian troops. The original, pre-war British regular army was largely destroyed there.

A Line Is Drawn

By the end of 1914 a continuous line of trenches ran from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border — roughly 700 km. It would move very little for more than three years.

The "Massacre of the Innocents" In Germany, attacks near Langemarck during First Ypres in November 1914 became a legend of young student volunteers marching into British fire singing the national anthem. Many of the men really were young, hastily trained volunteers, and losses were heavy. But the story was polished for propaganda, and later used heavily by the Nazis. It's a good example of a battle turned into a myth almost as soon as it was over.

Christmas 1914 In December, in parts of the British and German lines, soldiers stopped fighting for an unofficial Christmas truce, exchanging greetings and burying the dead. It was real, but local and short-lived — and it was never repeated on anything like that scale.

Questions to Sit With

Was the Marne lost by the German plan, by Kluck and Bülow, or by Moltke? What evidence supports each?

Why did the war of movement in 1914 turn into trench warfare in only a few months?

Why might a symbol like the taxis of the Marne become more famous than the railways that actually moved most of the troops?

Quick Reference — Chapter 3

Joffre kept his armies together during the Great Retreat and built a new Sixth Army around Paris by rail
German forces were exhausted, short of supplies, weakened by troops sent east, and poorly controlled by Moltke
Kluck's First Army swung east of Paris, exposing its flank; a 50 km gap opened between Kluck and Bülow
The Marne, 5–12 September 1914: after Hentsch's visit, the Germans retreated about 65 km to the Aisne; around 250,000 French and 300,000 German casualties
The taxis of the Marne carried only a few thousand men; Moltke was replaced by Falkenhayn on 14 September
The Race to the Sea (September–October), Belgian flooding of the Yser, and First Ypres (19 October – 22 November) ended in a continuous trench line of about 700 km

What's Next

Chapter 4: Trench Warfare: Real Technology & Tactics of Stalemate.