Read The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World Online
Authors: Holger H. Herwig
Tags: #History, #Military, #World War I, #Marne, #France, #1st Battle of the, #1914
128.
Franchet d’Espèrey to Joffre, 7 PM, 14 September 1914. Ibid., 3-4:468–69.
129.
Foch to Joffre, 14 September 1914. Ibid., 3-4:481.
130.
Letter dated 24 October 1914. Archive of the Historial de la Grande Guerre, Château de Péronne.
131.
Joffre to Millerand, 17 and 18 September 1914. SHD, 5 N 66; AFGG, 4-1:232, 368.
132.
Joffre to Sarrail, 13 September 1914. AFGG, 3-4:14.
133.
Ibid., 3-4:59.
134.
Foch’s General Order of Operations, 13 September 1914. Ibid., 3-4:97–98.
135.
Ibid., 3:949, 965.
136.
Maréchal Foch,
Mémoires pour server a l’histoire de la guerre de 1914–1918
(Paris: Plon, 1931), 1:143–44.
137.
Franchet d’Espèrey to Corps Commanders, 20 September 1914. AFGG, 4-1.
“Durer et tenir.”
138.
Joffre to Foch, 21 September 1914. Ibid., 4-1:653.
139.
Ibid., 4:7.
140.
Reichsarchiv calculation, 1 May 1929. BA-MA, RH 61/50603, Kriegsverluste, Feldstärken, Munitionsverbrauch und Kriegsgefangene im Ersten Weltkrieg. Statistisches Material.
141.
Precise figures in AFGG, 3-4:846.
142.
Joffre, 1:425.
143.
AFGG, 3-4:845. Slightly different figures in ibid., 4-1:554.
EPILOGUE
1.
“Taktisch-strategische Aufsätze aus den Jahren 1857 bis 1871,” in
Moltkes Militärische Werke
, ed. Großer Generalstab (Berlin: E. S. Mittler, 1900), 2/2:291.
2.
Carl von Clausewitz,
On War
, eds. Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), 101.
3.
Diary entry for 9 September 1914. Marc Bloch,
Memoirs of War, 1914–15
(Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 1980), 87.
4.
Hew Strachan,
The First World War
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1:261.
5.
See
Der Schlieffenplan: Analysen und Dokumente
, eds. Hans Ehlert, Michael Epkenhans, and Gerhard P. Groß (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2006).
6.
Sewell Tyng,
The Campaign of the Marne, 1914
(New York and Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1935), 349.
7.
Maréchal Foch,
Mémoires pur server à l’histoire de la guerre de 1914–1918
(Paris: Plon, 1931), 1:144.
8.
Clausewitz,
On War
, 76.
9.
Diary entry dated 9 September 1914. Moltke, 385.
10.
Letter dated 9 September 1914. BHStA-KA, HS 2662 Wenninger.
11.
Gabriel Hanotaux,
Histoire illustrée de la guerre de 1914
(Paris: Gounouilhou, 1915–24), 9:104.
12.
Gerhard Tappen,
Bis zur Marne. Beiträge zur Beurteilung der Kriegführung bis zum Abschluß der Marne-Schlacht
(Oldenburg: Gerhard Stalling, 1920), 32.
13.
Robert T. Foley, “Preparing the German Army for the First World War: The Operational Ideas of Alfred von Schlieffen and Helmuth von Moltke the Younger,”
War & Society
22 (October 2004): 19.
14.
Diary entry dated 13 September 1914. BA-MA, RH 61/50676, Der Krieg im Westen 1914–1916.
15.
Diary entry dated 1 October 1914. Karl von Einem,
Ein Armeeführer erlebt den Weltkrieg. Persönliche Aufzeichnungen
(Leipzig: v. Hase & Koehler, 1938), 62.
16.
Joffre, 1:421.
17.
Ibid., 1:370; Robert A. Doughty,
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
(Cambridge, MA, and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005), 85.
18.
Tyng,
Campaign of the Marne
, 189.
19.
See AFGG, 3-4:846.
20.
Of the active army of 1.6 million, for August it lists 20,253 killed, 78,468 wounded, and 107,794 missing; for September, 18,073 killed, 111,963 wounded, and 83,409 missing. AFGG, 2:825; and 3-4:845.
21.
Charles de Gaulle,
France and Her Army
(London and New York: Hutchinson, 1945), 102.
22.
Sanitätsbericht über das Deutsche Heer im Weltkriege 1914/1918
(Berlin: E. S. Mittler, 1938), 3:36.
23.
Ibid., 3:39.
24.
Ibid., 3:38.
25.
BA-MA, RH 61/50775, Die Verluste an Pferden 1914–1918, 2–37.
26.
Robert B. Asprey,
The First Battle of the Marne
(Philadelphia and New York: Lippin-cott, 1962), 100–01.
27.
“War Letter by a Socialist Worker,” published 10 October 1914. Cited in Bernd Ulrich,
Die Augenzeugen. Deutsche Feldpostbriefe in Kriegs-und Nachkriegszeit 1914–1933
(Essen: Klartext, 1997), 136.
28.
Letter dated 17 September 1914. August Messer, “Zur Psychologie des Krieges,”
Preussische Jahrbücher
159 (February 1915): 229. This likely pertains to Karl von Drigalski, professor of medicine at Halle University and a reserve officer serving with the medical corps at the front in 1914. Most authors credit the letter to the famous polar explorer Professor of Geography Erich von Drygalski of Munich University, but his birth date of 1865 would preclude active service at the front in 1914.
29.
Letter dated 7 September 1914.
Paroles de poilus: lettres et carnets du front 1914–1918
, eds. Jean-Pierre Guéno and Yves Laplume (Paris: Librio, 1998), 39.
30.
Letter dated 27 September 1914. Ibid., 45.
31.
Bloch,
Memoirs of War
, 159.
32.
Diary entry dated 12 September 1914. Ibid., 152.
33.
Cited in
Kriegsbriefe gefallener Studenten
, ed. Philipp Witkop (Munich: Georg Müller, 1928), 59.
34.
Der Sanitätsdienst im Gefechts-und Schlachtenverlauf im Weltkriege 1914/1918
(Berlin: E. S. Mittler, 1938), 2:31, 57 (First Army); 2:93, 120 (Second Army); 2:147–48, 169 (Third Army); 2:208, 229 (Fourth Army); 2:274, 307 (Fifth Army); 2:342, 343 (Sixth Army); and 2:421, 436 (Seventh Army).
35.
Sanitätsbericht über das Deutsche Heer
, 3:27; Holger H. Herwig,
The First World War:
Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914–1918
(London: Arnold, 1997), 119. Germany, with a population of 65 million in 1911, had 10,683 suicides. The Kingdom of Württemberg, with a population (2.1 million) roughly equal to that of the German armies, registered 357 suicides.
Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1914
(Berlin: Putt kammer & Mühlbrecht, 1914), 1, 132–33.
36.
See Fritz Fischer,
Griff nach der Weltmacht. Die Kriegszielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914/18
(Düsseldorf: Droste, 1961), 113ff.
37.
Arnold Rechberg,
Reichsniedergang. Ein Beitrag zu dessen Ursachen aus meinen persönlichen Erinnerungen
(Munich: Musarion, 1919), 21.
38.
Diary of Major Hans von Haeften, 18–21 December 1914. BA-MA, MSg 1/1228, Nachlaß v. Alten.
GLOSSARY
Aufmarschplan | | German strategic deployment plan |
Burgfrieden | | Literally, “castle truce;” used by Wilhelm II in 1914 to announce an end to domestic strife |
Cannae | | Battle of the Second Punic War in which Hannibal in 216 BC —in one of the greatest tactical feats in military history—defeated a superior Roman army under Consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro; model for Alfred von Schlieffen |
Casus belli | | An occasion for war |
Casus foederis | | A case within the stipulations of a treaty |
Climacteric | | A major turning point, or critical stage; a Churchill term |
Coup de main | | A bold strike; see also Handstreich |
Coup de théâtre | | A theatrical blow |
Couverture | | French: “covering force” |
En avant! | | Forward! |
Ersatz | | Draft replacements |
Francs-tireurs | | Irregulars; guerrillas; common term for armed civilians |
Handstreich | | A bold strike; see also Coup de main |
Hors de combat | | “Put out of the fight;” casualties |
Kriegsgefahr | | Danger of war; state of German premobilization |
Landser | | German term for common soldier |
Landwehr | | German reserve; Territorial Army (British); National Guard (American) |
Offensive à outrance | | All-out offensive; French army doctrine |
Poilu | | French term for common soldier |
La position fortifée | | Fortified positions, such as Liège, Namur, Nancy, Verdun |
Pantalon rouge | | “Red trousers;” worn by French soldiers |
Plan de renseignements | | French: “deployment plan” |
Schlacke | | “Cinders;” applied to German troops at the Marne |
Schwenkungsflügel | | “Pivot wing;” applied to German First, Second, and Third armies |
Soixante-quinzes | | 75s; French 75mm guns |
Union sacrée | | “Sacred union;” French domestic truce of 1914 |
Vollmacht | | Full power of authority |
Westaufmarsch | | German strategic deployment plan in the west |