September 5, 1914 
LAND AND AVATER 
'OSTEND. 
DUNKIRK 
CALAIS 
BOULOGNE 
^^f5 CHARLEROI 
ARRAS 
BAPAUME 
ABBEVILLE 
lAMBRAr 
LECATEAU CHIMAY 
AMIENS^ 
ERONNE GUISE' 
NOYON* 
LA FERE 
O 5 lO 15 20 15 
■ ' I I I I 
SCALE OF MILES 
50 
PARIS 
THE WAR BY LAND. 
By HILAIRE BELLOC. 
AT the moment this article "vvas first written — some thirty-six hours before it could be in the 
hands of the public — the situation at the front in the western field of the war was more 
difficult to grasp, and one's judgment upon it was more dependent upon mere conjecture, 
than had been the case in any previous phase of the operations. The news was more meagre 
than it had yet been, and, while meagre, was made the more useless by occasional very vivid and 
very ignorant descriptions of warfare, \viitten by correspondents who had in mind, not our 
information, but a momentary nervous effect and a corresponding profit for their proprietors. 
Nevertheless, it was possible upon that, Wednesday, evening to arrive at a general judgment 
of the situation, or at any rate of the positions ; and one which did not include too mucli 
doubtful matter. The news of Thiu'sday coiToborated those conclusions. 
If the reader will look at the sketch outline which is set at the head of this article he will perceive 
that there is no mark made ujwn it for the position of the opposing troops or for the frontiers 
existing before the war between the different governments, French, Gennan, and Belgian. Both these 
omissions arc deliljcrately made, because I desire to show by a series of reasoned steps what has 
liapjjcned — and only then, by diagrams, to show how the Allied line fell back. 
I will therefore beg the reader to follow the very elementary exposition I shall now midcrtake 
w ith the aid of tlie few lines and iK)ints marked upon this sketch map. It only concerns the northciu 
front between Verdun and Paris, because it is upon this front that the issue of the first phase of our 
western war will be decided in the next few days. What is happening south of Verdun is of little 
consequence to the groat issue north and west of that fortress — it is of the less consequence since the 
repelling of the Crown Prince's army, which was attemjjting to pierce the line of the Meuse north of 
Verdun. 
It will be remembered that from the Friday evening, August 21, to the Sunday evening, 
j\ugust 2.T, the Allied line was massed upon the River Meuse above Namur, and also along the line of 
the Sambre, and so on to Mous. This long cordon of men from a little west of Mons to Namur itself 
?d thi'ouy;h Charlcroi. It consisted upon the left (that is in the neighljourhood of Mons) of 
somewhat less than 80,000 British troops. Th 
e remaining 
two-thirds of the line 
ruimnig up 
along 
