First Battle of the Marne
Fought from 5 to 12 September 1914 along the Marne River east of Paris, the First Battle of the Marne halted the German offensive that had come within 40 kilometres of the French capital and reversed the strategic initiative on the Western Front. After five weeks of rapid retreat, French commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre orchestrated a counter-attack by ruthlessly stripping troops from quieter sectors and feeding them into the threatened front — including emergency reinforcements ferried to the line in requisitioned Paris taxis and buses, though their tactical contribution was limited. The battle's decisive feature was a gap that opened between the German First Army under von Kluck, which had turned southeast of Paris rather than west of it, and the German Second Army. French forces and the British Expeditionary Force under Field Marshal French drove into this gap, threatening encirclement. German Chief of Staff von Moltke, already on the edge of a nervous breakdown, authorised a retreat to the Aisne River on 9 September. The German armies dug in on the north bank of the Aisne, and the stalemate that would define the Western Front for the next four years had begun. For France, the battle saved Paris and the war; for Germany, it confirmed that the Schlieffen Plan's calculated gamble — defeat France in six weeks before Russia could fully mobilise — had failed.
- Year: 1914 CE
- Category: Military
