The Marne, 1914
Page 45
47. Kluck, Marsch auf Paris, 124–26.
48. Lyncker diary entry dated 9 September 1914. BA-MA, RH 61/948, Der Krieg im Westen 1914–1916.
49. Stein to Reichsarchiv, 6 October 19125. BA-MA, RH 61/51063.
50. Ibid.
51. Diary entry dated 9 September 1914. BA-MA, RH 61/50661, Kriegserinnerungen des Generalleutnants v. [sic] Tappen.
52. WK, 4:327–28.
53. Ibid., 4:328.
54. Ibid.
55. Graevenitz to Marchtaler, 11 September 1914. HStA, M 1/2 Berichte des Militärbevollmächtigten beim Grossen Hauptquartier und des stellv. Militärbevollmächtigten in Berlin, September 1914, vol. 55.
56. Bircher, Krisis in der Marneschlacht, 268–69.
57. Diary entry dated 8 September 1914. Tagebuch Rupprecht, BHStA-GH, Nachlaß Kronprinz Rupprecht 699. Also Crown Prince Rupprecht von Bayern, Mein Kriegstagebuch (Munich: Deutscher National Verlag, 1923), 1:103.
58. Hans von Zwehl, Erich v. Falkenhayn, General der Infanterie. Eine biographische Studie (Berlin: E. S. Mittler, 1926), 66.
59. Wenninger diary dated 7, 10, and 16 September 1914. BHStA-KA, HS 2543, Tagebücher General von Wenninger.
60. Diary entries dated 9 and 12 September 1914. BA-MA, RH 61/50676, Der Krieg im Westen 1914–1916.
61. Lyncker diary dated 9, 10, and 13 September 1914. Ibid.
62. Overall for 5 September, the French official history lists seventy-five infantry and ten cavalry divisions for Germany and eighty-five infantry and ten cavalry divisions for France. AFGG, 2:811, 818.
63. Ibid., 3:71.
64. Joffre to Millerand, 8 September 1914. SHD, 5 N 66.
65. Tyng, Campaign of the Marne, 251.
66. AFGG, 3-1:554.
67. Special Order No. 19. Ibid., 3-2:22–23.
68. Fifth Army Order, 7 September 1914. Ibid., 3:236.
69. M. v. Poseck, Die Deutsche Kavallerie 1914 in Belgien und Frankreich (Berlin: E. S. Mittler, 1921), 101–02.
70. HGW-MO, 1:337–39.
71. Hew Strachan, The First World War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1:260.
72. Cited in Tyng, Campaign of the Marne, 333.
73. Ibid., 334; AFGG, 3:288.
74. Christian Mallet, Impressions and Experiences of a French Trooper, 1914–1915 (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1916), 39.
75. Cited in Strachan, First World War, 1:260.
76. Franchet d’Espèrey, 9 September 1914. AFGG, 3-2:528. Also Edward Spears, Liaison 1914: A Narrative of the Great Retreat (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1930), 446–47.
77. Instruction particulière No. 20, 9 September 1914. AFGG, 3-2:446. Also Joffre to Millerand, 9 September 1914. SHD, 5 N 66.
78. Joffre to all commanders, 9 September 1914. SHD, 16 N 1674.
79. Langle de Cary to Joffre, 8 September 1914. AFGG, 3-2:87.
80. WK, 4:115–16, 118.
81. Sarrail’s General Operations Order No. 32. AFGG, 2-2:790–91.
82. Berthelot to Sarrail, 5 September 1914. Ibid., 2-2:771.
83. Ibid., 3:555.
84. Joffre to Sarrail, 6 September 1914. SHD, 16 N 1674.
85. Joffre to Sarrail, 10 PM, 8 September 1914. AFGG, 3-2:24.
86. Ibid., 2:762–63.
87. Tyng, Campaign of the Marne, 304–06; 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), 95.
88. Sanitätsbericht über das Deutsche Heer im Weltkriege 1914/1918 (Berlin: E. S. Mittler, 1934), 3:38.
89. See AFGG, 3:610–11, 658.
90. Koeltz, Le G.Q.G. allemand, 384.
91. AFGG, 3:648ff.
92. WK, 4:304.
93. HStA, M 33/2 General Kommando XIII. Armee Korps 1914–1918, Kriegstagebuch 28.7.1914–21.1.1915, vol. 884.
94. WK, 4:307.
95. Sarrail to Joffre, 10 September 1914. AFGG, 3-3:65.
96. Joffre to Millerand, 11 September 1914. Ibid., 3-3:426. Also Joffre, 1:420.
97. BA-MA, RH 61/161, Die Fahrten Moltkes, Dommes, Steins und Tappens zur Front am 11., 12., 13. und 14.9.1914, 2.
98. Artur Baumgarten-Crusius, Die Marneschlacht insbesondere auf der Front der deutschen dritten Armee (Leipzig: R. M. Lippold, 1919), 170–71, gives 443 officers and 10,402 ranks lost just at the Marne. For casualty figures (killed, missing, wounded, and ill), see Sanitätsbericht über das Deutsche Heer im Weltkriege 1914/1918 (Berlin: E. S. Mittler, 1934), 3:38.
99. Dresden to Third Army, 18 September 1914. SHStA, 11356 Generalkommando des XII. Reservekorps 273, Ersatz von Mannschaften und Pferden, vol. 1.
100. Moltke, 24; Koeltz, Le G.Q.G. allemand, 389.
101. BA-MA, RH 61/161, Die Fahrten Moltkes, Dommes, Steins und Tappens zur Front am 11., 12., 13. und 14.9.1914, 7.
102. Ibid., 5.
103. Ibid., 8.
104. Moltke, 24.
105. BA-MA, RH 61/161, Die Fahrten Moltkes, Donmmes, Steins und Tappenz zur Front am 11., 12., 13. und 14.9.1914, 12.
106. WK, 4:451.
107. Diary entry dated 12 September 1914. BA-MA, RH 61/948, Tagebuch v. Plessen.
108. BA-MA, RH 61/161, Die Fahrten Moltkes, Dommes, Steins und Tappens zur Front am 11., 12., 13. und 14.9.1914, 1–7.
109. Diary entry dated 14 September 1914. BA-MA, RH 61/948, Der Krieg im Westen 1914–1916.
110. WK, 4:483–84.
111. BA-MA, RH 61/50739, Generalleutnant von Stein, der Generalquartiermeister der sechs ersten Kriegswochen, 24. Stein was given command of XIV Reserve Corps.
112. General von Pless diary dated 14 September 1914. BA-MA, RH 61/50676.
113. Moltke, 25.
114. Lange, Marneschlacht, 89.
115. Karl von Einem, Erinnerungen eines Soldaten 1853–1933 (Leipzig: K. F. Koehler, 1933), 176–77.
116. Cited in WK, 4:272.
117. Ibid., 4:284–85.
118. Hausen, “Meine Erlebnisse,” 218.
119. WK, 4:283.
120. Ibid., 4:282.
121. Diary entry dated 9 September 1914. RH 61/85, Finck v. Finckenstein, Das Kaiser Alexander Garde-Grenadier Regiment Nr. 1 in der Schlacht an der Marne im September 1914; WK, 4:283.
122. Das Marnedrama 1914. Der Ausgang der Schlacht, ed. Thilo von Bose (Oldenburg and Berlin: Gerhard Stalling, 1928), 161, 165.
123. Walter Bloem, The Advance from Mons, 1914 (London: Peter Davies, 1930), 171.
124. Deputy War Minister Franz von Wandel to all corps commanders, 10 September 1914. HStA, M 1/4 Kriegsministerium, Allg. Armee-Angelegenheiten 1524.
125. Instruction particulière No. 21, 10 September 1914. AFGG, 3-3:18–19. Also Joffre, 1:424.
126. Instruction particulière No. 23, 12 September 1914. AFGG, 3-3:790–91.
127. Maunoury to Joffre, 13 September 1914. Ibid., 3-4:88–89.
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
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Hamburg, Germany, on 25 September 1941, HOLGER H. HERWIG holds a dual position at the University of Calgary as professor of history and as Canada research chair in the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies. He received his BA (1965) from the University of British Columbia and his MA (1967) and PhD (1971) from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dr. Herwig taught at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1971 until 1989. He served as head of the Department of History at Calgary from 1991 until 1996.
Dr. Herwig has published more than a dozen scholarly books, some of which have been translated into Chinese, Czech, German, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish, including the prizewinning The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914–1918 and The Origins of World War I, with Richard Hamilton.
Copyright © 2009 by Holger
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All photographs from the George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress)
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Herwig, Holger H.
The Marne, 1914: the opening of World War I and the battle that changed the world / Holger H. Herwig.
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