Germany’s Western Front: 1914: Translations from the German Official History of the Great War, Part 1

Contents

List of Maps, Sketches, and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A Note on the Translation and Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Part I: the Battle of the frontIers In the West 1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Two-Front War and Comparison of Strengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Outbreak of War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 The War’s Duration and Economic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 2. The Campaign Plan for the Western Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 The Historical Development of the Operative Idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 The Campaign Plan in 1914. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 3. The Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 The German Deployment in the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Initial Border and Railway Security Operations in the West and the Occupation of Luxembourg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 The Capture of Fortress Liège . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 The Strategic Reconnaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 The Execution of the German Deployment in the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 4. The Beginning of Major Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 The German OHL before the Start of the Advance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 The Advance of the German Wheeling Wing, 18–20 August . . . . . . . . . . . 136 The Right Wing (First, Second, and Third Armies) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 contents Pp vi contents 5. The Battle of the Frontiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 The OHL before the Start of the Battle of the Frontiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 The Battles of Mons and Namur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 The Operations of First, Second, and Third Armies on 21 August . . . . . . . 156 The Operations of First, Second, and Third Armies on 22 August . . . . . . . 162 Second and Third Armies, 23 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Second and Third Armies on 24 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 The Capture of Namur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 First Army’s Operations on 23 and 24 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 The OHL during the Frontier Battles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 6. The Pursuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 1. The Operations of the German Right Wing until 27 August . . . . . . . . . 243 Second Army on 25 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Third Army on 25 and 26 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Second Army on 26 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 First Army’s Pursuit of the British from 25 to 27 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Second and Third Armies on 27 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 The OHL during the Pursuit-Operations to 27 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 7. Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Part II: from the samBre to the marne 8. The OHL at the Beginning of the New Phase of Operations. . . . . 301 9. Operations on the Meuse and Aisne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 1. Third Army’s Battle North of the Aisne, 28–30 August. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 2. The Operations of Third and Fourth Armies on the Aisne, 31 August and 1 September . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 10. The Operations of First and Second Armies to the Oise . . . . . . . . 341 1. The Operations of First Army on the Somme and Avre, 28–30 August. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 2. The Battle at St. Quentin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 The Beginning of the Battle, 28 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 The Battle on the Right German Flank on 29 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 The Battle on the Left German Flank on 29 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 Continuation and Conclusion of the Battle on 30 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 11. The OHL, 29–30 August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 contents vii 12. The Pursuit by the German Right Wing to the Marne, 31 August–2 September. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 1. First Army’s Crossing of the Oise (31 August) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 2. Second Army’s Halt (31 August) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 3. First Army’s Advance across the Aisne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412 4. Second Army’s Advance on the Aisne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 5. First Army’s Pursuit Battle South of the Aisne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 6. Second Army’s Crossing of the Aisne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 7. Third Army’s Pursuit East of Reims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 13. The OHL, 31 August–2 September . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 14. The Pursuit of the German Right Wing across the Marne on 3–4 September. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 1. First Army Crosses the Marne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 2. Second Army’s Advance towards the Marne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454 3. Third Army’s Pursuit Battles up to the River Vesle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457 4. First Army’s Operations South of the Marne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458 5. Second Army’s Pursuit across the Marne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462 6. Third Army Reaches the Marne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464 15. The OHL, 3–4 September . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 aPPendIces Appendix 1 Comparison of the Organization of German, French, British, and Belgian Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 Appendix 2 The Strength of the Mutual Forces on the Western Front on 22 August 1914. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503 This page intentionally left blank ...