ON THIS DAY ·
First Battle of the Marne
5-12 Sep 1914 — Joffre’s counterstroke catches the German First and Second Armies 40 km from Paris with a gap between them. Six hundred Paris taxis carry one brigade to the front; the whole German line falls back to the Aisne — and digs in.
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The moment in context
The arrows sweeping through Belgium show Germany’s attempt to defeat France before Russia could bring its full weight to bear. Belgian resistance at the frontier forts and German violence against Belgian civilians slowed the advance and handed the Allies a powerful propaganda story. France’s own attacks in Lorraine, launched in the belief that spirit would overcome firepower, failed within days at appalling cost. Russia meanwhile invaded East Prussia earlier than German planners had expected, forcing Germany to divide its attention between two fronts at the decisive moment.
From Schlieffen Plan and the Marne, chapter 4 of The Great War, 1871–1923 (AUG 1914).
The place: First Battle of the Marne — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — The two-front arithmetic. Germany’s core problem since 1894: France and Russia together outnumbered it, but Russia mobilized slowly. Schlieffen’s answer was sequence —…
- The turn — The Marne, 5–12 September. A German staff officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Hentsch, sent forward with authority to coordinate a retreat, found the gap between First and Second…
- What it changed — The race to the sea — and the wall. Each side tries to turn the other’s open flank northward until there are no flanks left, only a fortified line from Switzerland to the Channel.…
Then ask the room: The Schlieffen Plan came within 50 km of Paris. Was it a near-run gamble, or never really possible? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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