September 19, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
corps are only of value in sueh an niuler.standing if 
tlioy enable us to keep a continuous picture in mind. 
The main point to seize is that the second of the 
great German masses holding' the line against the 
Allies between Paris and the Toul — Verdun line was 
RHEIMS 
FLAN SHOWISO THK GEKMAV I,rSB OF RETREAT TO PREFAJtXD 
POSITION KOSTH OV RHXIMS. 
operating upon what is calW '!»* PlaV'-'u of Sezanne, 
and lay next upon the left of And to the east of von 
Kluck's army. This second of the great German 
masses stood iirm in front of the high road that leads 
from La Fere Champenoise, through Sezanne to 
Esteniay. It extended beyond that high road at the 
moment of tlie fiuthest German advance towards the 
south. 
The German forces upon and beyond this road 
had behind them an interesting and difficult piece of 
countiy, called the Marshes of Saut Gond, which are 
the sources of the river called the Petit Morin. These 
marshes are in process of reclamation, but they ai-e 
not yet entirely reclaimed ; and, even in a dry siimmer 
like this, they present some slight obstacle to an anny 
tliat should be heavily pressed or in too desperate 
a retreat. They are formed by the presence in a 
calcareous soil of a clay Ijasin which holds the water, 
and by the fashion in which the heights aronnd leave 
a great flat, in which the watei-s can gather, but Avhich 
is pinched at its western issue, where the river runs 
out near St. Prix between two opposing hills. 
Through these marshes of St. Gond the Petit 
Morin i-uns in the shape of a canalised drain or ditch, 
into which the other ditches of the reclamation scheme 
fall. 
These marshes are about ten miles long : at their 
naiTOwest less than a mile, at their broadest over two 
miles broad. They are crossed by no less than fom- 
country roads, branching, two from Brous.sy, two from 
Bannes ; and above and below the.se country roads go 
the great high roads northwards on either side of the 
marsh^one through St. Prix to Epemay, upon the 
Mai-ne, and the other through Morains' to Mareuil 
upon the JIame. At Epemay and at Mareuil are 
bridges, and the second road — tiiat to Mareuil — runs 
everywhere just upon and below that escarpment 
whereby the plateau of Sezanne falls on to the plain 
of Champagne. 
I have said that in a hurried retreat very heavily 
pressed by the enemy these marshes of St. Gond 
might prove an awkward ob.stacle, even in a dry 
summer, and even though they are crossed by five 
roads ; for a large force would be strictly conGned to 
tliose roads and would Ije ui^on defiles, tliat is, confined 
to long and narrow columns, while it was crossing the 
marshes. But it is evident that there was no such 
heavy pressure upon this retreat of the German second 
group. All the energy to be spent in those days by 
the Allies was being exercised upon the ami)' of von 
Kluck immediately to the west. A\niat happened was 
that when the army of von Kluck was driven out of 
Montmirail and all the points to the west thei-eof, 
this second German mass, lying upon the plateau and 
along the high road through Sezanne and Esteruay 
had to fall back because its western or right tlank was 
isolated. It probably fell back in the night between 
the 9th and lOtli September. It continuetl its retreat 
(followed by the 4th French Army) over the ^Marne 
at Epernay and the neighbourhood, marching by the 
two great roads to the east and to the west of the 
marsh, and probably somewhat relieved the pressure 
on its columns by using the roads across the marsli 
as well. It made for liheims and, in common with 
all the other German forces, took up by the Sunday 
night (September 13th) that main defensive line 
north of Bheims which I shall describe when I 
summarize all these movements. 
It is possible that this ro'reat, which the French 
closely followed, was the scene of that capture of guns 
Ch 
RHEIMS ^-iC-^e 
5^ 
VITR7 
"^ftso. 
'n£ 
SKETCH SHOWINe THB DKFEXSITB POSITION ON WHICH TUB 
OEBKANS KXTIR£D. 
of which we have had brief notice by telegram, but it 
is more likely that this capture took place more to the 
east, in the retreat of the third Gennan mass Avhich I 
shall next describe. 
While I am upon this point it is worth explain- 
ing that the captm-e of corjjs artillery does not moan 
the capture of the arlillery of a corps. Tlic Pi-ess 
Bureau made a highly exaggerated estimate when they 
talked of ICO guns; thirty-six wiU turn out to be 
nearer the mark. The corps artillery consists only of 
those guns which are at the disposal of the corps as a 
whole and not attached to divisions. It is but a 
fi-action, vaiying according to organisation, of the 
whole artillery attached to a corps d'armee. 
THE GERMAN RETREAT ACROSS 
CHAMPAGNE FROM THE LINE 
LA FERE CHAMPENOISE— VITRY 
— REVIGNY. 
Most important, and most lasting in its effects, 
of all the various eo-oixlinated Gennan retirements 
last week was the retirement of the third great mass 
of troops, which had pushed furthest to the south and 
Avliich, having come right across the great plain of 
Champagne, was holding Sommesous,Vitry-le-Francois, 
the railway line and the high road between them, and 
.1* 
