The first battle of the Marne happened during the begin of the 1st World War between the 6th of September to 12th 1914. The first battle of the Marne is known as one of “the most decisive battle of the First World War” (A.J.P. Taylor) because after this event, positions did not really change during the entire war. The defeat of this battle led to a war on two front for Germany. It means that Germany had to divide its troops into two, the eastern and the western front. Due to this battle, the Schlieffen plan failed. The goal of the plan was to quickly defeat France before the Russians could fully mobilize their forces. With France defeated, Germany would be able to focus their attention to the east. However, Germans were stopped during this battle and after that, they had to divide their troops between the west and the east. There are many reasons why Germans lost the 1st Battle of the Marne but in this case, I will focus on Von Moltke’s mistakes, tactical mistakes of the german army, the Belgian slow done (it helped the French and the English army to place their troops) and what French did to save Paris.
Helmuth Von Moltke succeed to Von Schlieffen as chief of the General Staff. AS chief of Staff, one of Von Moltke’s job was to revise the Schlieffen plan to meet modern conditions. The Schlieffen plan was invented by a man more offensive. However, Von Moltke is much more defensive. So, when he revised the Schlieffen plan, he decided to send more troops in Russia in case that the Russian army would mobilized quicker than the estimation. It means less troops in France and so, the attack on France was less powerful. On the 5th of September 1914, Hensche (Commander in chief of the German intelligence) sent a wrong communiqué to Von Moltke explaining that the 6th and 7th armies were blocked and that the new fresh English troops were coming. It scared Von Moltke and he ordered the retreat. It let the allies to have more time to prepare their defensive plan and place their troops like they wanted.
Another reason why the German army lost this battle is because of some tactical mistakes they made. One example of theses mistakes that, when the 2nd and the 1st armies arrived next to Paris, one should have gone on the east and the other one on the west but they went both on the same side and after they have been separated from each other (gap of 30 miles). General Alexander von Kluck (head of the 1st army) decided to disobey orders from his headquarters to double back and support General Karl von Bulow’s 2nd Army, thus protecting itself from possible attacks from the French on its right flank, from the direction of Paris. Kluck decided to proceed in the pursuit of the retreating French 5th army across the Marne river (crossed it on September 3 1914). The day, Kluck crossed the Marne, Gallieni decided to to attack with the French 6th army the German flanck. Another mistake was the rapidity of the the tactic of the Schlieffen plan an the freshness of Germans soldiers who had to make a lot of efforts ( they had to walk around 240 km) before the battle and they were exhausted but also due to the demolition of roads, bridges, rails,etc… the supply chain was constricted. It means that the soldiers were fighting exhausted and hungry.
The Schlieffen plan planned that Belgium would accept the German cross the country to attack France. So, in August 1914, Germany demanded permission to march its army through Belgium to attack France. The King Albert I refused. Like he said in 1909 to the Kaiser Wilhelm II, “Belgium is a nation, not a road”. The Germans thought that even if Belgium said no, it would still be easy to invade Belgium and it would not take a lot of time. However, even if the Belgian army was small and poorly equipped, the brave Belgian action forced Germany to slow done and is of the key factors that saved Paris. One example of the slow done is the battle of Liege, the Battle ran for twelve days from 5-16 August 1914. The Germans thought that it would but they did not think about the fact that the city was surrounded by 12 heavily armed forts. So, the first day, the Germans attacked, they had heavy losses and made little or no advances at all. Belgians finally had to surround in Liege but Germans will still have to conquer all of these forts across the country and it will be harder than they thought.
After the delay in Belgium, the German armies advanced in France without strong resistance because the defenders were still not ready. So during 12 days, allies fell back toward Paris. At the same time, the General Joffre had secretly been collecting another army to attack Germans on the flank from the west and at the same time, another army was fighting Germans knowing that they were “scarifying” themselves. Then, during the 1st battle of the Marne, allies continued these types of attacks. By doing that and by winning this battle, France saved herself and Europe at the same time.
In conclusion, Germans lost the 1st battle of the Marne du to many reasons like Von Moltke’s mistakes, Germans’ tactical mistakes, the Belgian Slow down or the French tactic to save Paris and many others. After the battle, Moltke told to Wilhelm II “ Your Majesty, we have lost the war”. This sentence means a lot because it shows that even at the beginning of the war, everybody knew that this battle was crucial. Between these four reasons why Germany lost the war, I would say that the main mistake of the tactical mistakes before the battle. Kluck did not obey to orders and after his army had been attack on the flanck, it created a gap with the 2nd army and soldiers were exhausted. The second main reason why Germany lost this battle is because of Von Moltke’s mistakes. He was too defensive for a plan like that and he did not follow it like he should have done. Thirdly, the Belgian slow done is the third most important reason because even if French were still not totally ready, it gave them much more time to be prepared. Finally the French tactic was still very important because at the end, who won the battle? The French with English’s help but still mainly French.
Bibliographie:
– http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/moltke.htm
– http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari/p/World-War-I-First-Battle-Of-The-Marne.htm
– http://www.britannica.com/biography/Helmuth-Johannes-Ludwig-von-Moltke
– http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/battle_marne.shtml
– http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/liege.htm
– http://www.visitbelgium.com/?page=world-war-i
–