5th September
Western Front
End of the Retreat from Mons
Lille evacuated by German forces
The German 1st Army reaches Claye, ten miles from Paris
Kluck receives orders to halt and face toward Paris, but most of 1st Army continues advancing south
Advancing to its attack positions on the Ourcq, French 6th Army unexpectedly collides with Kluck’s right flank near St. Soupplet east of Paris: the first battle of the marne to sep.10: Kluck is alerted to the danger to his right wing
GQG pulls further back to Chatillon-sur-Seine - Joffre tells his staff “Gentlemen, we will fight on the Marne.”, and issues a proclamation to his troops, concluding with “Under present conditions no weakness can be tolerated.”
Colonel Hentsch from OHL persuades Kluck to withdraw north of the Marne
Joffre forcefully confronts the vacillating Sir John French, and exclaims “…the honor of England is at stake!”; with tears in his eyes, Sir John finally agrees to cooperate in a counteroffensive
The final day of retreat by the BEF; British forces turn about and begin advancing eastwards
(to Sep.06) After a prolonged bombardment, German forces storm four of the bypassed Maubeuge forts
An advance party of Kluck’s 1st Army reaches the Villiers-St. Georges area, a few miles north of the Seine near Provins: the furthest-south German penetration into France of World War I
Battle of the Ourcq (Maunoury's 6th Army) begins at mid-day. 5 - 9 September, 1914
The advance towards Paris of five of the German Armies stretching along a line from Verdun to Amiens was set to continue at the end of August 1914. The German First Army was within 30 miles of the French capital. By 3rd September the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) had crossed the Marne river in a retreat to the south and was in a position east of Paris between the French Sixth and French Fifth Armies. However, the commander of the German First Army made a fateful change to the original directive of The Schlieffen Plan, making an assumption that the Allies were not in a position to hold out against an attack on Paris from the east. The original Schlieffen Plan directive had been for German forces to attack Paris from the north in an encircling manoeuvre. Launching an attack east of Paris on 4th September the German First Army made progress in a southerly direction. However, the change to the Schlieffen Plan now exposed the right flank of the German attacking force. From 5th to 8th September the French Armies and British First Army carried out counter-attacks against the German advance on a line of approximately 100 miles from Compiègne east of Paris to Verdun. The Battle of the Ourcq River was carried out by the French Sixth Army against the German First Army of General von Kluck.
On 9th September the German First Army began to pull back as the British First Army moved in on its left flank. With no option but to make a fighting withdrawal, all the German forces in the Marne river region retreated in a northerly direction, crossing the Aisne to the high ground of the Chemin des Dames ridge.
The First Battle of the Marne was a strategic victory for the Allied Forces. It marked a decisive turn of events for the Allies in the early weeks of the war and Germany's Schlieffen Plan was stopped in its tracks. One of the famous events in the crucial defence of Paris is that 600 Parisian taxis were sent from the city carrying French reinforcement troops to the fighting front.
Foch’s forces become fully independent of French 4th Army and are officially constituted the 9th Army
German 6th Army takes Reims and Pont-á-Mousson, north of Nancy
A General Directive from OHL details Moltke’s halt order of Sep.04
Eastern Front
On the Southwest Front, the Austro-Hungarians were defeated by the Russians at Tomashov, in Kholm province in Poland. The Russian 5th Army moved in the rear of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army at Rava Russka.
Naval and Overseas Operations
East Africa: German forces cross frontier of North Rhodesia. Defence of Abercorn
H.M.S. "Pathfinder" sunk by submarine in the North Sea (first British warship so destroyed).
Wilson liner "Runo" blown up by a mine.
Political, etc.
The "Pact of London," otherwise known as the "Entente Treaty" was signed between Great Britain, France, and Russia, each agreeing they would not make a separate peace with the Central Powers. German forces were now only 16 km from Paris.
Prussian War Minister Falkenhayn writes: “Only one thing is certain: our General Staff has completely lost its head.”
When asked the line of retreat from in front of Paris, Gallieni replies “Nowhere;” he gives secret orders to destroy vital resources and bridges in Paris in the event of defeat
Noted French Catholic-socialist-patriot-poet Charles Péguy is killed in action by German rifle fire near Villeroy.
Ship Losses:
HMS Pathfinder ( Royal Navy): The Pathfinder-class cruiser was torpedoed and sunk in the Firth of Forth by SM U-21 ( Kaiserliche Marine) with the loss of 256 of the 270 people on board.
Runo ( United Kingdom): The passenger ship struck a mine and sank in the North Sea with the loss of 29 of the 300-plus people on board.
|