LAND AND WATEE 
September 19, 1914 
Go/ 
^ Seine 
POSITION OF VOX KLUCk's AKMT ON SUXUAI NIGHT, 
SEFl'EMBEB GtH. 
fought their way through and beyond the Forest of 
Crecy and through Coulommiers. The 5th Trench 
Army heyond them to the east attacked La Ferte 
Gaucher and Esternay and this southern part of the 
Allied line crossed the Grand Morin Eiver and 
approached the next defensible line held by the 
Germans, the Petit Morin. 
On Tuesday, the Sth, the British contingent and 
the 5th French Army continued to advance and pushed 
the German line right over the Petit Morin on to the 
Manie, after capturing Montmirail. 
On the AV'ednesday, the 9th, these two bodies, 
the British contingent and the French Sth Army, 
continued to push the Germans back. The British 
crossed the Marnc, mainly in the neighbourhood of 
La Fertd-s.-Jouan-e, in spite of very sharp resistance 
at that point, while the French 5th Anuy, which, by 
the nature of the local topography had to swing 
further round and cover more distance to reach the 
Marne, put in a day and a half of forced marching, 
and arrived upon that river u^wn the Thufsday, the 
10th, between Chateau ThiexTy and Dormans. 
On Thui'sday, the 10th, therefore, so far as the 
southern forces were concerned, they had pushed the 
Germans everyAvhere right back to and over the Manie, 
their sweep pivoting, as it were, upon the neighbour- 
hood of Meaux. 
But meanwhile, during those same three days, 
the GeiTnan rearguard stretched along the plateau to 
the west of the Ourcq was putting up a very fine 
defence against the increasing pressure it had to meet, 
an increasing pressure because what had been the Gth 
French Army was now very largely reinforced, and 
with every hour more and more reinforced from the 
reserve behind and in Paris, the presence of which has 
turned the campaign. 
The French lost very hcavil}- during this 
fighting, especially round Bt'gy and Penchard. It 
was mainly an artillery action. They finally 
succeeded in forcing the line of the Ourcq (which is 
liere a deep ravine between two plateaux upon either 
side), and when that was done, the position of the 
German first Army being that suggested in the 
following map, it had no choice but to retreat as 
i-apidly as it could towards the north-east, along the 
arrows AAA., and so reach the next defensive 
position about thii-ty-five miles away along the Aisne. 
This, General von Kluck's great command, which, 
during the retreat of the Allies, had advanced directly 
upon Paris with such wonderful organization, 
speed, and success, now did with organization 
and speed hardly less worthy of admiration. 
It is true that, as is always the case in a retire- 
ment, and especially in a rapid retirement, much 
material, and many halting and wounded men were 
left behind to fall into the hands of the advancing 
enemy. But the proportion of prisoners, guns, and 
material lost was not at all large compared with the 
very great force concerned. There woidd seem to 
have been picked up in the first two days of this 
retu-ement, Thursday, the 10th, and Friday, the 11th, 
somewhat over 20 guns, many wagons of course, and 
about G,000 stragglers and Avounded. 
Bv Saturday morning, the 12th, the retreat had 
reached the line of the Yesle where it falls into the 
Aisne, and so down the Aisne to the town of Soissons, 
and the advanced cavalry of the Allies could observe 
the rapitUy retiring enemy from the high, steep ridge 
which lies just to the south of those rivers. 
During Sunday, the first check was administered 
to the pursuit by the German forces which Avas now 
taking up its defensive position along and to the 
north of the line of the Aisne. 
By Monday the German retreat had thoroughly 
establi.'^hed itself in the new defensive position north 
of the Aisne and to the east along the Suippe. Ifc 
<J) Ibzvst of^ 
• ---A 
COMPl£CN£ 
aCTHEl. 
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PORMANS 
I 
SccLle of Miles 
SKETCH SHOWING THE FORCING OP THE MARNE AND THE OVRCQ 
BT THE ALLIES ON BEPTEMBEB 9tH TO IOtH, AND THE RETREAT 
Oi' VOX KLUCK ON TO THE DEFENSIVE POSITIONS NORTH OF THB 
AISNE AND VESLE, 
was a general concentration of neariy the whole 
German Army — not only of Von Kluck's retreat, 
but of the other retreating bodies to the east of him 
which had 'come up through Champagne and joined, 
each in its place, along this defensive line from 
Soissons eastward. On that day the Germans 
turned on their pursuers, and began the great 
defensive action which is still in doubt at the 
moment in Avhich I write these lines. The other 
parts of this general concentration concern my next 
section, the retreat of the Germans in the centre, 
and their pursuit by the French (the 4th and 3rd 
French Armies) over the central Marne and towards 
lihcinis. 
THE GERMAN RETREAT FROM 
SEZANNE. 
The story of the retreat undertaken by the 
second of the great German masses, that immediately 
to the east or left of Yon Kluck's larger army, can be 
told in far less space. It concerns those bodies Avhich 
lay east of Montmirail and west of the escarpment 
from which the plateau of Sezanne looks down upon 
the great plain of Champagne. 
^It would srem that the German forces here 
engaged belonged in the main to the command of 
von IJueloAV. They probably included the Guard. 
But details of this sort are unimportant in the under- 
standing of a movement ; the names and numbers of 
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