The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of 12): The War Begins, Invasion of Belgium, Battle of the Marne
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of 12): The War Begins, Invasion of Belgium, Battle of the Marne
World War, 1914-1918
From this review of the forced retirement of General von Kluck,
it will be seen that the German right was compelled to sustain an
attack at three points, from the Sixth French Army on the banks of
the Ourcq, from the British army in the region of Coulommiers and
from the Fifth French Army near Courtacon. Each of these attacks
was of a widely different character. The result of this attack
lias been shown in the summary of the three days (four days on
the Ourcq) which resulted in the British capture of Coulommiers
and in the French capture of Montmirail. This was General Joffre's
counteroffensive, and it developed in detail almost exactly along
the lines that he had laid down.
The scene of the fighting across the west bank of the Ourcq was that
of a wide-open country, gently undulating, dotted with comfortable
farmhouses, and made up of a mosaic of green meadow lands and the
stubble of grain fields. The German heavy guns came into action
as soon as the French offensive developed. Tremendous detonations
that shook the earth, and which were followed by sluggish clouds
of an oily smoke showed where the high-explosive shells had struck.
Already, by the evening of the first day's fighting, there were
blazing haystacks and farmhouses to be seen, and the happy and
smiling plain showed scarred and rent with the mangling hand of
war. On the 6th, a sugar refinery, which had been held as an outpost
by a force of 1,800 Germans, was set on fire by a French battery.
The infantry had been successful in getting to within close range
and as the invaders sought to escape from the burning building,
they were picked off one by one by the French marksmen. The French
infantry, well intrenched, suffered scarcely any loss. It was in
brilliant sunshine that the fire broke out, and the conflagration
was so fierce that the empty building sent up little smoke. The
flames scarcely showed in the bright light, and to the onlooker, it
seemed as if some rapid leprous disease was eating up the building.
The situation was horrible for the Germans, either to be trapped and
to perish in the flames, or to face the withering French infantry
fire without any opportunity to fight back. Less than 300 of the
occupants of the refinery won clear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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