and the French armies cut in two. If this attack succeeded it would free at once the German right and separate into two impotent parts the entire French military force. During the 7th, 8th, and 9th of September the Imperial Prussian Guard directed to the compassing of that end all its energy and courage. All in vain. General Foch not only checked the German onslaught, but drove it back. Thus the French center was not pierced, Von Kluck was not relieved, and he found himself in a position that grew more and more critical. The general retreat of the German armies was the inevitable result. To this decision the German General Staff came, and on the evening of September 9 orders were given to all the armies of the right and center to retire sixty kilometers to the rear. Thus the battle of the Marne was won by the French."
The writer then goes on to say: "It was on September 5, toward the end of the morning, that the general order of General Joffre, leading to the great battle, reached the French armies. Each separate army immediately turned and vigorously engaged in battle. The army of Manoury, the first to get ready, sprang forward to the attack. It thrust back the German forces which were at first inferior in number, and it attained on the evening of the 5th the Pinchard—St. Soulplet—Ver front; but Von Kluck threw two army corps over the Marne and hurled himself on Manoury. He summoned from Compiègne all the reenforcements at his disposal, and he placed all his heavy artillery between Vareddes and May-en-Multien. During the day of September 6th Manoury made headway toward the Ourcq. On the following day he advanced at a lesser pace on its left bank, taking and then losing the villages of Marcilly and Chambry—murderous struggles maintained amid terrible heat. General Galliéni, who followed the battle with the utmost attention, hurriedly came to the assistance of Manoury; he sent to him on the 7th and 8th the Seventh Division, which had just arrived at Paris, half of the division being transferred by rail, the other half by means of thousands of automobiles requisitioned for the purpose. General Joffre likewise sent to Manoury the Fourth Army Corps, recruited from the Third Army, though an almost entire division of it was called for by the British to safeguard the junction of forces.
"The day of September 8 turned out the most arduous for Manoury; the Germans, making attacks of extreme violence, won some success. They occupied Betz, Thury-en-Vallois and Nanteuil-le-Haudouin. Von Kluck attacked all his force on the right, and it was at that time he who threatened Manoury with an encircling movement. The Fourth French Army Corps, sent forward at full speed by General Joffre and arriving at the spot, had the order to allow itself to be killed to the last man, but to maintain its ground. It maintained it. It succeeded toward evening in checking the advance of the Germans. In a brilliant action the army of Manoury took three standards. It rallied the main body of its forces on the left and prepared for a new attack.
"During this time the British army, following on the retreat of part of the forces of Von Kluck, was able to make headway toward the north. It was the same with the Fifth French Army. The British, leaving behind it on September 6 the Rosoy—Lagny line, reached in the evening the south bank of the Great Morin. On the 7th and 8th they continued their march; on the 9th they debouched to the north of the Marne below Château Thierry, flanking the German forces which on that day were opposing the army of Manoury. It was then that the German forces began to retreat, while the British army, pursuing the enemy, took seven cannon and many prisoners and reached the Aisne between Soissons and Longueval. The British army continued till before Coulommiers, and after a brilliant struggle forced the passage of the Little Morin. The Fifth French Army under General Franchet d'Espérey made the same advance. It drove back the three active army corps of the Germans and the reserve corps that it found facing it. On September 7 it pressed forward to the Courtaçon—Cerneux—Monceaux—les—Provins—Courgivaux—Esternay line. During the days that followed it reached and crossed the Marne, capturing in fierce combats some howitzers and machine guns.
"General Foch showed admirable sang-froid and energy. At the most critical moment, the decisive hour of the battle, he accomplished a magnificent maneuver, which is known under the name of the maneuver of Fère Champenoise. Foch noted a rift between the German army of Von Bülow and that of Von Hausen. The German Guard was engaged with the Tenth Division of the reserve in the region of the marshes of St. Gond.
"On September 9 Foch resolutely threw into this rift the Forty-Second Division under General Grossetti, which was at his left, and his army corps of the left. He thus made a flank attack on the German forces, notably the Guard which had bent back his army corps on the right. The effect produced by the flank attack of Manoury on the right of General von Kluck's army was renewed here. The enemy, taken aback by this audacious maneuver, did not resist and made a precipitate retreat. On the evening of the 9th the game was thus lost to the Germans. Their armies of the right and of the center were beaten and the retreat followed. The Imperial Guard left in the marshes of St. Gond more than 8,000 men and almost all its artillery. Victory henceforth began to perch on the Allied banners over all the vast battle field."
Such was this battle of seven days in which almost 3,000,000 men were engaged. If it is examined in its ensemble, it will be seen that each French army advanced step by step, opening up the road to the neighboring army, which immediately gave it support, and then striking at the flank of the enemy which the other attacked in front. The efforts of the one were closely coordinated with the efforts of the other. A deep unity of ideas, of methods, and of courage animated the whole Allied line.
CHAPTER XIX
"CROSSING THE AISNE"
In order to gain a clear idea of what was involved in the feat of "crossing the Aisne," which more than one expert has declared to be the greatest military feat in river crossing in the history of arms, it is well to look at the topography of that point, first in its relation to the whole German line, and, second, in its relation to possible attack in September, 1914.
The prepared positions on the Aisne to which the Germans fell back after the battle of the Marne, were along a line of exceptionally strong natural barriers. The line extends from a point north of Verdun, on the heights of the Meuse, across the wooded country of the Argonne and the plain of Champagne to Rheims, thence northwest to Brimont, crossing the Aisne near its confluence with the Suippe, and from thence proceeding to Craonne, whence it takes a westerly course along the heights of the Aisne to the Forest of the Eagle, north of Compiègne. The eastern end of this line has already been described in connection with the battles of the Marne, and it is the western section of this line which now demands consideration. Just as the River Marne was taken as a basis for the consideration of the topography of the battles that centered round the crossing of the Ourcq, Grand Morin, Petit Morin, and the Marne, so the Aisne is naturally the most important determinant in the problems of its crossing.
The River Aisne rises in the Argonne, southwest of Verdun. Through the Champagne region its banks are of gradual slope, but shortly after it passes Rethel, on its westerly course, the configuration changes sharply, and at Craonne the bluffs overlooking the river are 450 feet high. It is easy to see what an inaccessible barrier is made by such a line of cliffs. For forty miles this line of bluffs continues, almost reaching to Compiègne, where the Aisne enters the Oise. Not only are the banks of the Aisne thus guarded by steep bluffs, but the character of those bluffs is peculiarly fitted for military purposes. For long stretches along the north side the cliffs stand sheer and have spurs that dip down sharply to the valley. The ridge, or the top of the bluff, which looks from below like the scarp of a great plateau, lies at an average of a mile or more from the stream. Many of these spurs jut out in such a way that if fortified they could enfilade up and downstream. To add to the military value of such a barrier the edge of the scarp is heavily wooded, while the lower slopes are steep and grassy, with small woods at irregular intervals. Even from the high ground on the south bank of the stream, the top of the plateau on the north cannot be seen, and from below it is effectually cloaked.
Two tributaries are to be considered in this river valley which thus forms so natural a post of defense. Both flow in from the south, the Suippe, which joins the main stream at Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne and the Vesle, on which stands the ancient city of Rheims. This river joins the Aisne a little over seven miles east of Soissons, which is itself twenty miles east of Compiègne.
The