Book Review: The Marne, 1914

Wall Street Journal ^ | December 3, 2009 | Robert Messenger

[C19fan]

France and Germany marshaled 3.7 million soldiers for the Western offensives that began World War I in August 1914—with Britain adding an additional 130,000. In the decisive days between Sept. 5 and Sept. 11, the two sides threw two million men into desperate combat along the Marne River, the right tributary of Paris's famed Seine. More than 610,000 men were killed and wounded during the month-long campaign—two-thirds the number of casualties suffered by the U.S. in the whole of World War II.

But such numbers do little to bring home the ordeal. To reach the Marne, Alexander von Kluck's First Army had marched more than 300 miles on stiff-nailed boots through August's stifling heat and had to forage for whatever food it could find at day's end. A single infantry regiment (5,000 men) took up more than a mile of road, and a fully mobilized army corps covered 30. Kluck was driving seven corps (320,000 men) toward Paris. Will Irwin, a correspondent for Collier's magazine, reporting on the progress of the German "gray machine of death," noted: "Over it all lay a smell of which I have never heard mentioned in any book on war—the smell of a half-million unbathed men, the stench of a menagerie raised to the nth power. That smell lay for days over every town through which the Germans passed."

[C19fan]

New book, taking advantage of German military archives that became available after the Berlin Wall fell, on the First Battle of the Marne. Bit more gentle on Moltke the Younger than other books. I find the interesting opinions of Kluck. Some blame him for not sweeping around Paris but others give him tremendous credit for almost pulling off a great victory when the French threw a new army, transported by taxis, from Paris on his flank. Of course one of the great ifs is what would of happened if Germany won the battle and ended the war then. Would the European civilization that was at its heights not committed suicide in the trenches.

[2banana]

More than 610,000 men were killed and wounded during the month-long campaign—two-thirds the number of casualties suffered by the U.S. in the whole of World War II.

For those who like to call the French "Chess eating surrender monkeys" (including me) - the French fought hard and well and many units were completely wiped out in this battle. Maybe some of these same genes still linger in the French population today...

[I Buried My Guns]

"...Maybe some of these same genes still linger in the French population today... ..."

I dunno. Once an entire culture has been emasculated, will the 'nads grow back on their own, like a starfishes' arm?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

In a tiny cemetery in Prior Lake, Minnesota where we used to live is the grave of an 18 year old American who fell in WW I. Prior Lake and Scott County were MN farm country back then.

[US Navy Vet]

Between The Somme, Verdun and the Marne The French and Brits were almost bled white.

[Skooz]

Good gravy, now I have yet another book added to my Amazon.com wish list.