Moreover, certain incompetencies had revealed themselves in the French high command. These General Joffre attended to without the loss of an instant. Every general that appeared to him incapable of fulfilling the task allotted to him was weeded out on the spot, without considering friendships or the bonds of comradeship, or intimacy that might be between them. As things were seen in Paris, all may be summed up in this formula: That the German army was better prepared for war than the French army, for the simple reason that Germany had long prepared for the war, because she had it in view, a thing which could not be said of France. But the French army revealed right from the beginning the most admirable and marvelous qualities. The soldiers fought with a skill and heroism that have never been equaled. Sometimes, indeed, their enthusiasm and courage carried them too far. It mattered little. In spite of losses, in spite even of retreat, the morale of the whole French army on the entire front from Alsace to the Somme remained extraordinarily high. The violation of Belgian neutrality and the passage of the German armies through Belgium had been foreseen by the French General Staff, but opinions differed in regard to the breadth of the turning movement likely to be made by the German right wing in crossing Belgian territory. Among French experts some were of opinion that the Germans would confine themselves to the right bank of the Meuse, while others thought that they would cross the Meuse, and make a much vaster turning movement, thus descending on France in a direction due north and south. If the violation of Belgian neutrality was no surprise to the French Staff, it was nevertheless hardly expected that the Germans would be able to put in line with such rapidity at the outset all their reserve formations. Each army corps was supported by its reserve corps, which showed itself as quick in mobilization and preparation as the active corps. Germany, while maintaining sufficient forces on the Russian front, was still able to put in the field for its great offensive against France a more numerous body of troops than would have been believed in France. This permitted them to maintain in Alsace, in Lorraine, and in Belgian Luxembourg armies as numerous as those which faced them on the French side, and at the same time to mass the major part of their troops on the right so as to pour into the valley of the Oise their chief invading forces. This explains why the French left, which was exposed to the offensive of the German right, was obliged to make a rapid retreat, permitting the German armies of General von Kluck and General von Buelow to advance with all speed in the direction of Paris.