The Battle of the Frontiers August - September 1914

In the earliest stage of the war - the Battle of the Frontiers - the German 1st and 2nd armies pour into Belgium and advance on the key fortified towns of Liege and Namur, which guard the crossings over the River Meuse. Fierce resistance by the Belgian army of 200,000 manages to delay German progress, but cannot halt it. By 16 August Liege's last fort has fallen to the overwhelming numbers and the heavy artillery of its attackers. Namur comes under siege, and four days later the Belgian capital, Brussels, falls. France is slow to appreciate that the main thrust of the German invasion is through Belgium, as France's own plan for war with Germany - Plan XVII - envisages that the contested provinces of Alsace and Lorraine will be the decisive battlefield. The French 1st and 2nd Armies begin a vigorous in the Rhineland, and enjoy early success, advancing to within 10 miles of the Rhine. But the 1st Army is repulsed at Mulhouse (in Alsace) on 19 August, and the following day the 2nd Army's advance on Lorraine is routed at Morhange. The French fall into retreat and are driven back to their own frontier, with heavy casualties.

The Battle of the Frontiers and the Retreat to the Marne, August-September 1914

French Commander-in-Chief, Joffre, is undeterred by defeat in Alsace-Lorraine, and by Belgian warnings that the advance through Belgium is no diversion, but rather Germany's main route of invasion in the west. On 23 August, Joffre launches his three northern armies (the Third, Fourth and Fifth) into a renewed offensive in Lorraine and in the Ardennes forest. This offensive smashes into the German armies stationed east of the Meuse, and is driven back 20 miles into France. Joffre's determination to follow Plan XVII and pursue the war in Alsace-Lorraine means that the French are slow to appreciate that the overwhelming threat to France comes from the German armies in the north. By 22 August, two German armies (comprising 580,000 men) under von Kluck and von Bulow have penetrated deeply into central Belgium. The French Fifth Army and 36,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force, newly-arrived in Belgium, find themselves facing this massive force, as it wheels south to invade France. In the last week of August, the Anglo-French forces fight a series of fierce rearguard actions, at the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, Guise and Laon, but are inexorably forced back. To their right, the French Third and Fourth Armies fight unsuccessfully to halt the Germans at Namur, Charlesroi and Reims, and they too join the Great Retreat southwards of August/September 1914. By 3 September, the Anglo-French forces have retreated 150 miles to the River Marne, west of Paris, and German forces are within 23 miles of the French capital. The Allied troops are exhausted by their fighting retreat, but the advance has taken its toll too on the Germans, who have now seen 33 days of constant action, and whose supply lines are now dangerously stretched. Allied forces regroup south of the Marne, and on 5 September begin a series of offensives - collectively known as the First Battle of the Marne - which will save Paris and finally turn the tide of the German advance.

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