WHERE VON KLUCK FAILED

By Louis Madelin.

ON August 30th Von Kluck was nearing Paris, he was at Chantilly, only twenty-two and a half miles distant. The great town, encouraged and comforted by Gallieni's words, which will become historic, but abandoned by the Government, awaited the barbarous hordes with outward calm, just as in former days, Genevieve de Nanterre had calmed the people of Lutetia menaced by Attila's Huns.

But already on September 3rd it seemed as if Von Kluck, heading towards Meaux and Coulommiers, was turning away from Paris for the time being. It is said that he was applying Moltke's doctrine : "Defeat and throw back the French beyond the Marne, the Yonne and the Loire, and only then march upon Paris." Was this posthumous order necessary? Had Von Kluck attempted to enter the capital without fighting, it would have been a great risk Maunoury would have barred the way and Gallieni was there behind Maunoury, what magnificent strength wasted just when it was going to be proved that the entire German army massed together could not withstand the French army! Of what worth would Von Kluck's troops have been, hampered as they were by conquest, and drunk with something that did not resemble pride, before our armies so easily victorious?

Nevertheless, Von Kluck pushed on towards the Marne, possessed with the idea that he would attack our left, the British army and d'Esperey's, and enveloping it, turn the entire French army. The maneuver was an obvious one and imposed itself on strategy, it would have succeeded had not Maunoury been on Von Kluck's right flank. But, curiously enough, and most inexplicable, the German general who prided himself on his knowledge of everything seems to have ignored the existence of a French army on his right, or if he knew of it, he underestimated its strength and continued marching south, while Maunoury let him get encircled and spread out his own forces fan-wise from north to south, facing east.

The mistake was all the graver since Von Kluck, and the other German generals, were going to encounter an army no longer in retreat, but an army which by order of its chief was ready to hold and determined to attack.

The mistake rested mainly with Von Kluck and was due in a measure to his misconception of the opponent and to his unbounded audacity. Gallieni had warned Joffre on the 4th of Von Kluck's daring advance, and everything since had confirmed the news received from Paris. In agreement with the Governor of the city, our Generalissimo clearly saw what steps the event immediately necessitated. He wants the battle fought on our left. Kluck hopes to envelop Sir John French and d'Esperey, but it is Maunoury, disregarded by Kluck, who will attempt to envelop Von Muck with the help of Sir John and d'Esperey.

The mission of the armies on the left is thus already defined by General Joffre's order of the 4th :

"1st. It is expedient to take advantage of the foolhardy position of the 1st German Army and hurl against it the strength of our left flank. All steps will be taken on the 5th for an attack on the 6th."

The first days are more especially Maunoury's. The latter has scarcely moved, threatening to envelop and crush the 40,000 men of Schwerin's corps, when the Prussian general, alarmed, calls for help. Von Kluck, at the very moment when he engages the four-fifths of his army against Sir John French and d'Esperey, learns that a recently formed army is menacing his left flank. With a promptitude that enhances his reputation as a strategist, he does not hesitate to abandon his plan in order to break the attack prepared against him. He turns round and faces Maunoury, certain that after having crushed him, he can turn again south and finish off Sir John French and d'Esperey.

Everything will therefore depend on Maunoury's resistance. If he is able to hold, Sir John French and d'Esperey can repulse the troops left against them and in their turn menace Von Kluck, not on his right, but on his left flank. And menaced he was on the third day, obliged to admit he is vanquished and beat a retreat for fear of being caught between Maunoury, French and d'Esperey.

This battle is the Battle of the Ourcq. By losing it and retreating prudently, . Von Kluck laid Von Bulow's front bare and weakened the entire German front, which could not be strengthened owing to Foch's violent attacks elsewhere. That is why the Battle of the Ourcq has been termed the decisive factor in the victory of the Marne. . . . The German High Command, we have proof of it today, knew then that the game was up. The Emperor, abandoning France, had gone to Luxemburg ; on every hand Von Kluck's mistake aroused the fiercest anger.

"With a heavy heart," says a German account, "he gave the order for a general retreat northwards." He and his many thousand soldiers were vanquished and so as to avoid imminent and terrible disaster, this general, who had the greatest reputation for strategy in the German army, fell back defeated to the north. From every side, mournfully, German columns are pouring forth; some in bad array having suffered heavily and all now experiencing a fatigue not felt the day before when they hoped to carry all before them. No more cries of "Nach Paris," but everywhere stupefying silence. They were unable to pick up their wounded or bury their dead, for they had to give way as they went. The earth was strewn with dead. To quote one instance: The Magdeburg regiment was torn almost to shreds in a desperate struggle near d'Acy-en-Multien.

Maunoury helps to clear up the field; he sends from right to left wing the necessary reenforcements to dislodge the German detachments from Nanteuil. He presses closely on the rear of the retiring columns, following both banks of the Ourcq, while the Germans retreat hastily towards the forest of Villers-Cotterets, whence they are obliged to push on towards Soissons the next day.

The 6th Army, having forced Von Kluck to abandon abruptly his offensive against the British and the 5th Army, had in this way attracted the attention of the greater bulk of the powerful German army and for four days had offered a firm front to a formidable attack. Finally, helped by the menacing advance of the armies of the Marne, it forced the "incomparable" army and its eminent chief to beat a hasty retreat in order to avoid utter ruin.

GENERAL JOFFRE'S PROCLAMATION TO MAUNOURY's ARMY

THE 6th Army has just sustained, during five entire days, without interruption or rest, an engagement against a numerous enemy whose previous successes had raised their morale to a high pitch. The struggle has been a severe one, and the losses from fire, as well as from fatigue due to want of sleep, and occasionally of provisions, have surpassed any that have been hitherto imagined; you have supported all this with a valor, a firmness, and an endurance to which no words can possibly give adequate expression.

Comrades! Your General asked you, for the sake of your country, to do more than your plain duty;your answer has exceeded his most sanguine expectations. Thanks to you, victory has crowned our colors. Now that you have realized the glorious satisfaction of victory, you will in future never let it fall from your grasp.

As for myself, if I have been able to help I have been fully compensated by the greatest honor of my long career, namely, to have commanded troops such as you are. For all you have done I thank you with sincerest emotion, because to you I owe that to which all my efforts and energy for the last forty-four years have been directed Revenge for 1870! My thanks to you; honor to all the combatants of the 6th Army !