GOING TO WAR IN A TAXI

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30342, 18 January 1964, Page 9

GOING TO WAR IN A TAXI

[Specially written for "The Press” by JEHU} “ r buses are not strategic war material you would look damned silly going to war in a bus.” That was the reply Mr Donald Stokes, head of the Leyland Corporation, made last week to American claims that the 400 buses sold to Cuba by his firm were strategic goods. Technicaly Mr Stokes was correct in maintaining that buses were not strategic war material. They are not included in the list of goods covered by Britain’s strategic control order. But Mr Stokes was quite wrong to suggest that soldiers would look damned silly going to war in a bus. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Marne, one of the decisive battles of the First World War. Six thousand French troops who helped to win. that battle went to war in taxis—a* d buses. The world remembers die battle by the taxis. But trucks, buses, and assort-

ed vehicles were also pressed into service. As the world knows, the Battle of the Marne ended in a German retreat, The Germans had a six weeks’ schedule for victqry over France. In the four days left of their schedule their bid for decisive victory failed, and they lost their opportunity to win the war. Because the Germans had come so close to victory, and the French had been so near to disaster, the battle that saved France came to be known as the Miracle of the Marne. The miracle happened because . the French Com-mander-in-Chief, General Joffre, took - a momentous decision—not to carry out the planned retreat to the Seine, but to face the enemy and fight on the Marne. Without the taxis—and the buses—of the Marne there might well have been no miracle. Credit for the taxis, trucks, and buses goes to Joffre's former superior, Gallieni, the austere and brilliant' general in pince-nez, who.was Military Governor of Paris, and Commander of the Army. of Paris. The core of his army was General Maunory’s Sixth Army, largely composed of reserve divisions, and considered by Gallieni, and his col-

leagues, as of mediocre value. In the Battle of the Marne Maunory’s attack on the German flank and General von Kluck’s turnabout to meet it opened a gap between the-, German First and Second armies. The issue of the battle depended on whether the Germans could. succeed in crushing the two wings—

Maunory and Foch—before Franchet d’Esperey and the British succeeed in exploiting the gap and pushing through the German centre.

Maunory, when almost defeated by von Kluck, was reinforced by the IVth Corps. Gallieni rushed 6000 men of the corps from Paris to the front in taxis, and Maunory managed to hold his ground. Foch, pressed hard by the Germans, gave his famous order at a moment when his right was driven back and his left ceding: .“Attack, whatever happens! The Germans are at the extreme' limit of their efforts. . . . Victory will come to the side that outlasts the othet.” Bulow’s right was ushed back by Franchet d' Esperey, the British entered the gap, and the German armies withdraw in time to avoid a piercing of their line. When the call came for reinforcements for Maunory there were 100 taxis in service with the Military Government of Paris. Gallieni’s Chief of Staff. General Clergerie, decided that with 500 more, each carrying five soldiers, and making- the trip to the Ourcq twice, he could send 6000 men to the hard-pressed Sixth Army. An order was issued at 1

p.m. and police passed the word to taxi drivers in the streets. They got rid of their passengers, telling them proudly they had to “go to battle.” Each driver went to his garage for petrol, and at 6 p.m., the hour for departure, 600 taxis lined up ready for the journey to the battlefield. Gallieni was called to inspect the taxis of the Marne. He was rarely demonstrative, but this time he cried: “Well, here at least is something out of the ordinary!” Then, each loaded with soldiers, and with the trucks and buses added to the convoy, the taxis drove oft into battle —and history.

“The last gallantry of 1914, the last crusade of the old world.” That is "how Barbara W. Tuchman describes the departure of the taxis in “August, 1914,” her story of the first 30 days of battle in the first World War. Perhaps the days of such gallantry are gone for ever. Cuban soldiers are never likely to be driven towards the United States naval base at Guantanamo in -the fast new buses supplied by the Leyland Corporation. But to those who still remember the taxis—and the buses—of the Marne, no soldier would look damned silly, going to war in a bus.