“The Guns of August:” First Battle of the Marne

First Battle of the Marne in 1914, where French and the British Expeditionary Forces fought to prevent the German advance on Paris in WWI.

The first Battle of the Marne took place 30 miles from Paris between September 6th – 12th. It was an opportunity for the BEF and French to stop the German advancement, that had already marched through Belgium and parts of France in their advance towards Paris.

Using French air reconnaissance and radio intercepts, the very first time these had been used in a major conflict, French Commander in Chief, General Joseph Joffre, ordered Michel-Joseph Maunoury’s French Sixth Army to attack.

Using requisitioned Paris taxis and buses—the first extensive use of motorized transport in wartime and forever celebrated as the “taxis of the Marne” – Maunoury and his reinforcements rushed to the front. Soon, six French Armies and the BEF met an overextended Imperial German Army. Famously the men of the BEF employed their bolt action Lee enfield with such speed and accuracy that the advancing Germans believed they were being met with machine guns.

By September 9th, they had seemingly encircled and destroyed the German First and Second Armies. General von Moltke faltered and a general retreat to the Aisne River was ordered. The Germans dug in, resulting in trench warfare and an eventual stalemate that would last for four years.

The German retreat ended their hopes of a quick victory and foiled the German Schlieffen Plan. The war now would certainly not be over by Christmas.

Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August” famously leads with the following passage, highlighting the last great show of European royalty before World War I alters the course of history forever.

“So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens—four dowager and three regnant—and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries.

Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortège left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.” — Tuchman, p. 1