The Story of the Great War, Volume 2: History of the European War from Official Sources
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 2: History of the European War from Official Sources
World War, 1914-1918
The writer then goes on to say: "It was on September 5, toward the end
of the morning, that the general order of General Joffre, leading to the
great battle, reached the French armies. Each separate army immediately
turned and vigorously engaged in battle. The army of Manoury, the first
to get ready, sprang forward to the attack. It thrust back the German
forces which were at first inferior in number, and it attained on the
evening of the 5th the Pinchard--St. Soulplet--Ver front; but Von Kluck
threw two army corps over the Marne and hurled himself on Manoury. He
summoned from Compiegne all the reenforcements at his disposal, and he
placed all his heavy artillery between Vareddes and May-en-Multien.
During the day of September 6th Manoury made headway toward the Ourcq.
On the following day he advanced at a lesser pace on its left bank,
taking and then losing the villages of Marcilly and Chambry--murderous
struggles maintained amid terrible heat. General Gallieni, who followed
the battle with the utmost attention, hurriedly came to the assistance
of Manoury; he sent to him on the 7th and 8th the Seventh Division,
which had just arrived at Paris, half of the division being transferred
by rail, the other half by means of thousands of automobiles
requisitioned for the purpose. General Joffre likewise sent to Manoury
the Fourth Army Corps, recruited from the Third Army, though an almost
entire division of it was called for by the British to safeguard the
junction of forces.
"The day of September 8 turned out the most arduous for Manoury; the
Germans, making attacks of extreme violence, won some success. They
occupied Betz, Thury-en-Vallois and Nanteuil-le-Haudouin. Von Kluck
attacked all his force on the right, and it was at that time he who
threatened Manoury with an encircling movement. The Fourth French Army
Corps, sent forward at full speed by General Joffre and arriving at the
spot, had the order to allow itself to be killed to the last man, but to
maintain its ground. It maintained it. It succeeded toward evening in
checking the advance of the Germans. In a brilliant action the army of
Manoury took three standards. It rallied the main body of its forces on
the left and prepared for a new attack.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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