RETREAT FROM PARIS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 146, 22 June 1915, Page 7

RETREAT FROM PARIS

whole brigades have to be sacrificed for the safety of the main body.) Their sole object was to get to Paris as quickly as possible, for, once there, they knew they could turn upon the pursuing enemy with immensely superior force as soon as the ranks had been reassembled and the gaps filled up. From Belfort the whole of the French 7th Army Corps was hurried up in an endless succession of military trains, while half the Paris garrison army, equipped with numerous batteries and fortress mortars, together with a large number of heavy British naval guns, completed the host, 2,000,000 strong, which stretched from the banks of the Marne to the woods of the Argonne, waiting to shatter the oncoming German forces. YON KLUCIt'S TACTICS. But events fell out otherwise. General Joffre had certainly chosen his ground well. No better battlefield could have been found than the ground before Paris, with its labyrinth of rivers, brooks, and canals. But General yon Kluck would not be drawn. Being the weaker he did not desire an early termination of the battle of the Marne, as naturally did the French, who were the stronger. His object was to delay matters as much as lay in his power. With this aim the commander of the First Army, who occupied the most advanced post, left the j French for the moment to amuse themselves with their strategy and answered their tactics with a German trump which dumbfounded the French Army that had been so carefully drawn up between the Marne and the Ornain. Thus it came about that what the French had intended to be the battle of the Marne resulted in the battle of the Aisne. After hi*, successful engagement at Senlis, Kluck marched straight down from the north in a southerly direction on Paris. In the meantime, however, ,the Ger- | man Flying Corps, constantly circling over the Seine and the Marne districts, had not been wasting their time, and the concentration of the French force had, not escaped them, To the general surprise, even of the German "beer" strategists — who could not shake their w orthy heads enough over this failure i to take Paris on the spot— the First j Army made a broad sweep towards the south-east and, protected by a flank <Hvi' sion that was stationed to the south of the Ourcq River, pushtd forward against. Previns. This movement took ! place between, the Sth and Bth SeptemI ber, and it was here that Joffre attacked in great strength on the morning of the Bth. He closed with the German Army | simultaneously on the front- and on the I flank, firmly convinced that in this manner Kluck's legions could be annihilated. Another division of the French under the command of General Maunoury also attacked Kluck from the direction of Amiens. His attempt to break the German lines failed completely, however, thanks to the splendid effort of the German covering flank to the west of tho Ourcq. The French lost over 5000 prisoners and a large number of guns, but this can only be reckoned as a trifling loss to the French "million" army with the gaping muzzles of hundreds of guns assembled in the rear. At this juncture a daring German aviator reported the advance of the British Army on Kluck's left flank : this movement had been made possible by the failure of yon Hausen to keep pace with the rapkl advance of the First Army. " DUMMY BATTERIES. The situation was critical. During the following night of 9th September yon Kluck retired over the Marne in the direction of the mouth of the Ourcq, and now began this most memorable retreat, which must be admitted as classical, even by the Parisians. Widely different was it, seen close at hand, from the descriptions of it given in the French and German telegrams. Never was retreat carried out in a more orderly fashion — not a single man, horse, or gun was left behind. The French peasants, peering furtively from their little huts at the vast array flowing through the dark woods of the Ourcq, were silent witnesses of the grim determination of officers and men alike. The Germans were iv no doubt as to the awful fact that "to be or not to be" depended upon the success of this great retreat. When the moon broke through the clouds, the dark outline of the Ourcq plateau came into the view of the panting soldier^ and the exhausted riders, lashiug their staggering _ horses. Here Kluck's army found awaiting them long rows of trenches, dug by the pioneers who had been left behind. The plateau was reached on the morning of 10th September, and there, once the positions had been manned, the worst danger was over. Now the enemy could come on. But for the moment he did not. Down at Sanzy, where the Marne makes its great bend, in the low -lying country, the British naval guns, side by side with the mortars brought from Paris, were firing madly and recklessly at the German positions. So closely packed were they that in some places twelve and even fourteen batteries were crowded together. But the missiles of death and destruction that were belched from the hundreds of fiery muzzles were wasted upon the dummy batteries constructed out of wagon wheels and trunks of trees, while peering above the rim of the trenches rows of helmets glistened in the j sun. j WHOLE BATTALIONS SACRIFICED Not everywhere, though, was the enemy so _ easily shaken off. At Chateau Thierry and westward in the direction of Vitry whole battalions had to be sacrificed in order to cover the orderly retreat of the main German Army. It was fortunate, indeed, that the French aviators, during the days that were occupied by the German retreat, had not yet given up their circus tricks and accustomed themselves to the serious wcrk of war ; otherwise the French General Staff would have been better informed as to the movements of the German Army. Enough — Kluck's intrepid hosts, in company with the eastern army of General yon Hausen and that of General yon Bulow, retreated just as rapidly as they had advanced. Not for a moment, however, was there the slightest disorder in the ranks, although, it 'must be admitted, everything did not pass off exactly as if on the parade ground. The thought that only the most supreme effort of marching could save the Germans from the enemy's superior force was written large .on every face, from the youngest soldier to the oldest general. All the time the army remained master of the situation. The axles of the gun-carriages were well greased and did not creak, and the soldiers unfalteringly drew the last ounce of strength from their weary limbs. And so throughout a second night did the long serpentine columns of grey battalions wend their way through the woods of the upland between the Marne and the Aisne up to the heights dominating the valley of the river for a considerable distance. From this point the passage over the valley was proceeded with in perfect peace, and the construction of the field works, the like of winch have never been seen in any previous war, was completed. All this had been accomplished in two days and two nights. The pioneers who motored in front of the main body, throwing bridges over rivers before the approach of the vanguard, were undoubtedly the heroes of the retreat. Neither the doubled superiority of the enemy nor the depression of mind dependent upon the unavoidable retreat could shake the morale of the German Army. From the Marne to the Aisne, the army had withstood the test of German manhood. Kvery soldier who had shared -iii tho Wifek-lomr .march,.. to -y^Ci,

tory and then with gnashing of teeth endured the hardships of the two days' retreat, learnt in labour and pain the , fundamental differences between the French and the German character, and never again can he lose the consciousness of our superior strength and stead- • fastness.