As early as August 19, French troops had crossed Alsace and continued their attack on Lorraine.
At this time, the Liege Fortress had been lost, and a steady stream of German troops were launching attacks into the hinterland of France through Belgium. As many as 500 train carriages passed through the Rhine River every day, and a train passed through the Cologne Railway Bridge every ten minutes.
The French intelligence agency seriously misjudged Germany's troop allocation. French Commander-in-Chief Jaffe received the information that the German army had 68 divisions. In fact, the German army had 78 infantry divisions and 10 cavalry divisions, plus 16 newly formed divisions.
infantry brigade.
These infantry brigades are composed of soldiers who have retired within two years. They do not need long-term training to be sent to the battlefield. More troops are still in training camps. Although Germany's mobilization ability is strong, many soldiers who have returned to the army also need
Time restores combat effectiveness.
On the 21st, the French army organized a new round of offensive. Joffre judged that the German army concentrated its main forces on the left and right wings, and that the defense power of the central Ardennes was empty, so he committed 14 divisions to launch an attack on the Ardennes.
What Xiafei never expected was that the German defenders in the Ardennes also had 14 divisions, and they were elite divisions that were fully trained and well-equipped.
The German army built strong fortifications in the Ardennes, equipped with a large number of artillery and heavy machine guns. The unprepared French army suffered heavy casualties. It lost 27,000 people in one day on the 22nd. A division of colonial troops was used to attack Rossignol.
Within 40 minutes of Er's attack, one-third of the 14,000-strong army was killed.
The French attack in the center affected both the attack on the right wing and the defense on the left wing.
The Fifth Army, which was originally intended to attack the right wing, was transferred to the center, but did not participate in the battle. At this time, the commander of the German left wing had been replaced by Bavarian Crown Prince Ruprecht, who keenly discovered that the French offensive was weakening.
, so he organized the German Fifth Army and the Sixth Army to launch a counterattack, which not only drove the French troops out of Alsace and Lorraine, but also launched an attack on Nancy in France.
The person responsible for the defense of Nancy was Ferdinand Foch, commander of the French 20th Army. Foch took over the task at the critical moment and resisted the German attack, keeping Nancy under control.
In order to capture Nancy, Ruprecht asked Moltke for more troops.
Moltke agreed to Ruprecht's request and transferred part of the right-wing troops used to bypass Paris to Ruprecht.
It is difficult to evaluate Ruprecht's role. His counterattack did drive the French troops out of Alsace and Lorraine, but his request for more troops also affected the German right-wing attack. The battlefield situation at this time was very serious.
Subtlety, the German army is making good progress on the right wing, the left wing is on the defensive, the French army's attack on the right wing has failed, and the left wing is retreating steadily. If Moltke can resolutely implement the "Schlieffen Plan", then it is hard to say whether Paris can be defended.
After the French army withdrew from Alsace and Lorraine, they returned to the fortified fortress. Ruprecht tried to imitate the tactics of capturing the Liege fortress and moved the "Slender Emma" and "Grand Bertha" to the south.
Tin, attacking Ferdinand Foch's defenses with all his might.
But Ruprecht underestimated the ability of Ferdinand Foch. Ruprecht was not Ludendorff. Foch was obviously stronger than Lemann who guarded the Liege Fortress. Despite paying a huge price, Ferdinand Foch
Foch still defended Nancy.
In the first month of the war, the French army lost 260,000 people, with 75,000 killed, while the German army only lost 18,000. Foch's son-in-law and only son were both killed in this month, as was a young French captain, Charles de Gaulle.
After being wounded in the battle, he wrote in his diary: I knew at that moment that in this world, courage can never defeat artillery fire.
The casualties of the French troops who returned to the fortifications began to decrease, and Joffre was able to deploy more troops to strengthen the defense of the left wing. As a result, the German right wing was further weakened.
After the Liege Fortress was captured, Belgium did not surrender. Moltke deployed two armies from the right to besiege Antwerp, and deployed one army to attack Maupurge in France. The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not use most of its forces as Schlieffen had imagined.
To defend against Russia, he launched an attack on Serbia. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was defeated miserably in Serbia, so Moltke transferred three more armies and a cavalry division to reinforce East Prussia. These troops were all drawn from the right wing, and the right wing was drawn from seventeen armies.
Reduced to twelve corps, the total strength was reduced by 275,000 people. Compared with the right wing in the Schlieffen Plan, the strength was reduced by one-third.
When the German army was making good progress, the hidden danger of insufficient manpower was not obvious. As the war progressed, the German army's casualties increased, and more troops were needed to siege cities and occupy territory. This problem will become more and more obvious as time goes by.
At this time, the commander of the German right wing was Alexander Crook, commander of the First Army. He was energetic, resolute and decisive. If Moltke's abilities could be half as good as Alexander Crook's, Germany could end the war in September.
On August 13th, the First Army captured the Liege Fortress.
On August 20, Alexander Crook captured Brussels.
On August 22, the forward troops of the First Army encountered the British Expeditionary Force in Mons.
At this time, Alexander Crook's opponent was the French Fifth Army. The commander of the army was Charles Lanrezac. This was another extremely smart man but was born at the wrong time. His situation was the same as Alexander Crook's.
, with extraordinary abilities but limited by his stupid superiors, Jia Fei's performance when the world war just broke out was as tragic as that of Little Moltke. The French army miscalculated the strength of France and Germany, and Jia Fei, who was eager for revenge, invested more troops.
The attack on Alsace and Lorraine left the left wing with insufficient strength and defense. Facing Alexander Crook's attack, Charles Lanrezac commanded the Fifth Army to fight and retreat, preserving the strength of the army to the greatest extent.
On the night of the 21st, the First Corps of the British Expeditionary Force entered Mons to protect Charles Lanrezac's flank. On the 23rd, Alexander Crook launched an attack on Mons.
The battle was very fierce, and Lee Enfield, who had a faster rate of fire, performed well in the battle. During the Second Boer War, the British army found that the Boer guerrillas had better marksmanship than themselves, so they strengthened their training in this area.
The attacking German troops suffered heavy losses. On this day, 1,600 British troops were killed and 5,000 German troops were killed.
Also on this day, Japan declared war on Germany.
On the night of the 23rd, Haig, who was appointed commander of the Second Army, joined the First Army, and the two armies built defensive positions in Mons overnight.
At night, Haig and the commander of the First Army, Smith Dorling, learned that the French army had withdrawn and the British army withdrew from Mons overnight.
French was very angry about this and believed that there was no need for the French army to retreat. From then on, French generals were full of contempt for French generals, thinking that they were all cowards who were afraid of fighting.
Under the rapid attack of the German army, it was almost impossible to escape from the battle easily. In order to allow most of the expeditionary force to withdraw from the battle smoothly, Smith Dolin organized a force to go behind and fight the German army in Le Cateau.
As a result, in order to save this army, Smith Dolin had to invest more troops, and the battle did not end until dark. In the end, the British army lost 8,000 soldiers, equivalent to one-tenth of the expeditionary force.
Such huge casualties completely violated the reminder Kitchener gave to French before the expedition set out, and French disliked Smith-Dolin because of this.
Smith Doering also didn't like Haig. He believed that Haig's troops arrived late at Mons and Le Cateau and retreated very quickly, all the way to the Marne River.
In short, in the first month of the World War, both the Entente and the Central Powers exposed many problems. The coordination problems between the German army and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were serious. The problems within the German army were equally serious. The British and French coalition forces were not much better. The British
The expeditionary force suffered heavy losses. Although London newspapers promoted the British battles in Mons and Le Cateau as huge victories, this did not change the fact that the expeditionary force was retreating steadily. British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described
The whole of August was called "the scariest August ever".
From the 23rd to the 28th, London sent telegrams to Pretoria every day, urging southern Africa to send more troops to fight in France.
"Don't believe the propaganda in the newspapers. There is no such thing as a great victory. The troops suffered heavy losses on the front line. The coalition lost at least 200,000 people this month. If we send troops to France now, we will become victims of the German offensive front.
"Roque firmly disagreed. The war in Southwest Africa is not over yet, and Roque does not have any spare troops to send to France before then.
"Locke, the War Department has given you the autonomy you want. The troops sent to France from southern Africa do not have to be dispatched by the French headquarters, nor are they dispatched by the expeditionary force headquarters. They only accept the coordination of the War Department, and the War Department does not
He will treat the Southern African troops as expendables at will." Ade still tried his best to find a more favorable way for the Southern African troops to participate in the war.
"More troops will go to France before November." Roque carefully measured the progress in Southwest Africa and gave an approximate time point.
Unlike the retreat of the British and French forces in France, the southern African attack on southwest Africa went smoothly. The Walvis Bay Railway finally played its due role. After the war broke out, the troops assembled in Bechuanaland launched an attack along the railway. The German army even
Before they had time to destroy the railway, the southern African army had already captured Windhoek.
So far, the Southern African army has not encountered organized resistance in Southwest Africa. The Southwest African attack on Walvis Bay has also ended. There were only some sporadic battles during the capture of Windhoek. The losses of the Southern African army were not significant.
When the number reached 100, the German losses were also less than 100.
"November? No, we may not be able to save Paris by then." Ade was relatively pessimistic about the war situation in France. The Allies urgently needed a huge victory to boost their morale.