The Battle of the MarnePerris, G. H. (George Herbert)
History
The Battle of the Marne
Perris, G. H. (George Herbert)
Marne, 1st Battle of the, France, 1914; World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- France
But there was a vital difference in the infantry organisation, as to
which the French Command had been completely deceived. Not only had it
failed to foresee the creation of brigades of Ersatz troops (to say
nothing of the Landwehr divisions which appeared in September): it had
never contemplated the use of reserve formations as troops of shock. In
the French Army, the reserve battalions, regiments, and divisions were
so many poor relations——inadequate in younger officers and non-coms,
insufficiently armed (especially in artillery), insufficiently trained
and disciplined, and, accordingly, destined only for lesser tasks.
When, as occurred almost at once under pressure of the successful
example of the enemy, reserve divisions and groups of divisions had
to be thrown into the front line, the homogeneity of the armies and
the confidence of their chiefs suffered. Meanwhile, realising a plan
initiated in 1913, the German Staff had created 16 army corps of
reserves, of which 13 were used on the Western front, where they proved
as solid as the regulars, and were given tasks as responsible in all
parts of the field. The main mass of attack, therefore, consisted not
of 22, but 34, army corps——a difference larger than the strength of the
two armies of Kluck and Bülow to which the great enveloping movement
was entrusted.[5] Without this supplementary force——the result not
of numbers available, but of superior training and organisation——the
invasion could hardly have been attempted, or would assuredly have
failed. On the other hand, as we shall see, had it been anticipated,
the French plan of campaign must have been profoundly modified.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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