Nevertheless, the effects of the battle on both sides should not be understated.

The Battle of the Marne was also one of the first battles in which reconnaissanc
e aircraft played a decisive role by discovering weak points in the German lines
, which the Allies were able to exploit.[29] The mobility and destructive power
of the numerous French 75 batteries engaged also played a key role in slowing do
wn and then halting German progress everywhere. The transport of troops from Par
is on taxis and omnibuses is notable as the first example of motorized troop tra
nsport.
Casualties[edit]
Over two million men fought in the First Battle of the Marne and although there
are no exact official casualty counts for the battle, estimates for the actions
of September along the Marne front for all armies are often given as c.?500,000
killed or wounded.[23] French casualties totalled 250,000 men, of whom 80,000 we
re killed. Some notable people died in the battle, such as Charles Pguy was kille
d while leading his platoon during an attack at the beginning of the battle. Tuc
hman gave French casualties for August as 206,515 from Armes Franaises and Herwig
gave French casualties for September as 213,445, also from Armes Franaises for a t
otal of just under 420,000 in the first two months of the war.[23] According to
Roger Chickering, German casualties for the 1914 campaigns on the Western Front
were 500,000.[30] British casualties were 13,000 men, with 1,700 killed. The Ger
mans suffered c.?250,000 casualties. No future battle on the Western Front would
average so many casualties per day.[31]
In 2009, Herwig re-estimated the casualties for the battle. He wrote that the Fr
ench Official History, Les armes franaises dans la grande guerre, gave 213,445 Fre
nch casualties in September and assumed that c.?40% occurred during the Battle o
f the Marne. Using the German Sanittsberichte, Herwig recorded that from 110 Septe
mber, the 1st Army had 13,254 casualties, the 2nd Army had 10,607 casualties, th
e 3rd Army had 14,987 casualties, the 4th Army had 9,433 casualties, the 5th Arm
y had 19,434 casualties, the 6th Army had 21,200 casualties and the 7th Army had
10,164 casualties. Herwig estimated that the five German armies from Verdun to
Paris had 67,700 casualties during the battle and assumed 85,000 casualties for
the French. Herwig wrote that there were 1,701 British casualties (the British O
fficial History noted that these losses were incurred from 610 September).[32] He
rwig estimated 300,000 casualties for all sides at the Marne but questioned whet
her isolating the battle was justified.[33]
In 2010, Ian Sumner wrote that there were 12,733 British casualties, including 1
,700 dead.[34] Sumner cites the same overall casualty figure for the French for
September as Herwig from Armes Franaises, which includes the losses at the battle
of the Aisne, as 213,445 but provides a further breakdown: 18,073 killed, 111,96
3 wounded and 83,409 missing.[35]
Subsequent operations[edit]
First Battle of the Aisne, 1328 September[edit]
Main article: First Battle of the Aisne
Opposing positions: 5 September (dashed line) 13 September (black line)
On 10 September, Joffre ordered the French armies and the BEF to advance and for
four days, the armies on the left flank moved forward and gathered up German st
ragglers, wounded and equipment, opposed only by rearguards. On 11 and 12 Septem
ber, Joffre ordered outflanking manoeuvres by the armies on the left flank but t
he advance was too slow to catch the Germans, who ended their withdrawal on 14 S
eptember, on high ground on the north bank of the Aisne and began to dig in, whi
ch reduced the French advance on 1516 September to a few local gains. French troo
ps had begun to move westwards on 2 September, using the undamaged railways behi
nd the French front, which were able to move a corps to the left flank in 56 days
. On 17 September, the French Sixth Army attacked from Soissons to Noyon, at the
westernmost point of the French flank, with the XIII and IV corps, which were s
upported by the 61st and 62nd divisions of the 6th Group of Reserve Divisions, a
fter which the fighting moved north to Lassigny and the French dug in around Nam
pcel.[36]
The French Second Army completed a move from Lorraine and took over command of t
he left-hand corps of the Sixth Army, as indications appeared that German troops
were also being moved from the eastern flank.[37] The German IX Reserve Corps a
rrived from Belgium by 15 September and next day joined the 1st Army for an atta
ck to the south-west, with the IV Corps and the 4th and 7th Cavalry divisions, a
gainst the attempted French envelopment. The attack was cancelled and the IX Res
erve Corps was ordered to withdraw behind the right flank of the 1st Army. The 2
nd and 9th Cavalry divisions were dispatched as reinforcements next day but befo
re the retirement began, the French attack reached Carlepont and Noyon, before b
eing contained on 18 September. The German armies attacked from Verdun westwards
to Rheims and the Aisne at the Battle of Flirey (19 September 11 October), cut
the main railway from Verdun to Paris and created the St. Mihiel salient, south
of the Verdun fortress zone. The main German effort remained on the western flan
k, which was revealed to the French by intercepted wireless messages.[38] By 28
September, the Aisne front had stabilised and the BEF began to withdraw on the n
ight of 1/2 October, with the first troops arriving in the Abbeville area on 8/9
October. The BEF prepared to commence operations in Flanders and join with the
British forces which had been in Belgium since August.[39]
Race to the Sea[edit]
Main article: Race to the Sea
German and Allied moves to Picardy and Flanders, SeptemberNovember 1914
From 17 September17 October the belligerents made reciprocal attempts to turn the
northern flank of their opponent. Joffre ordered the French Second Army to move
to the north of the French Sixth Army, by moving from eastern France from 29 Sep
tember and Falkenhayn ordered the German 6th Army to move from the German-French
border to the northern flank on 17 September. By the next day French attacks no
rth of the Aisne led to Falkenhayn ordering the 6th Army to repulse French force
s to secure the flank.[40] When French advanced at the First Battle of Picardy (
2226 September) it met a German attack rather than an open flank and by the end o
f the Battle of Albert (2529 September), the Second Army had been reinforced to e
ight corps but was still opposed by German forces at the Battle of Arras (14 Octo
ber), rather than advancing around the German northern flank. The German 6th Arm
y had also found that on arrival in the north, it was forced to oppose the Frenc
h attack rather than advance around the flank and that the secondary objective o
f protecting the northern flank of the German armies in France had become the ma
in task. By 6 October, the French needed British reinforcements to withstand Ger
man attacks around Lille. The BEF had begun to move from the Aisne to Flanders o
n 5 October and reinforcements from England assembled on the left flank of the T
enth Army, which had been formed from the left flank units of the Second Army on
4 October.[41]
The Allies and the Germans attempted to take more ground after the "open" northe
rn flank had disappeared. The Franco-British attacks towards Lille in October at
the battles of La Basse, Messines and Armentires (OctoberNovember) were followed u
p by attempts to advance between the BEF and the Belgian army by a new French Ei
ghth Army. The moves of the 7th and then the 6th Army from Alsace and Lorraine h
ad been intended to secure German lines of communication through Belgium, where
the Belgian army had sortied several times, during the period between the Great
Retreat and the Battle of the Marne. In August, British marines had landed at Du
nkirk.[42] In October a new 4th Army was assembled from the III Reserve Corps, t
he siege artillery used against Antwerp, and four of the new reserve corps train
ing in Germany. A German offensive began by 21 October but the 4th and 6th armie
s were only able to take small amounts of ground, at great cost to both sides at
the Battle of the Yser (1631 October) and further south the First Battle of Ypre
s. Falkenhayn then attempted to achieve a limited goal of capturing Ypres and Mo
unt Kemmel, in the First Battle of Ypres (19 October22 November).[43]
See also[edit]
Portal icon World War I portal
World War I casualties
La Fert-sous-Jouarre memorial
Second Battle of the Marne
Footnotes[edit]
Jump up ^ Skinner & Stacke 1922, p. 7.
^ Jump up to: a b Skinner & Stacke 1922, pp. 78.
Jump up ^ Skinner & Stacke 1922, pp. 89.
^ Jump up to: a b Tyng 1935, p. 128.
Jump up ^ Tyng 1935, p. 154.
Jump up ^ Skinner & Stacke 1922, p. 9.
Jump up ^ Tyng 1935, pp. 173, 210.
Jump up ^ Spears 1930, pp. 554555.
Jump up ^ Strachan 2001, pp. 243253.
Jump up ^ Mead 1983, pp. 5556.
Jump up ^ Doughty 2005, pp. 9295.
Jump up ^ Doughty 2005, pp. 9598.
Jump up ^ Tyng 1935, pp. 239240.
Jump up ^ Tuchman 1962, p. 518, 521.
Jump up ^ Blond 1967, p. 157-160.
Jump up ^ Strachan 2001, pp. 242262.
Jump up ^ Herwig 2009, p. 262.
Jump up ^ Herwig 2009, pp. 266306.
Jump up ^ Spears 1930, pp. 551552, 554.
Jump up ^ Tyng 1935, p. 317.
Jump up ^ Tyng 1935, pp. 318319.
Jump up ^ Sumner 2010, p. 5.
^ Jump up to: a b c Tuchman 1962, p. 522.
Jump up ^ Tyng 1935, p. 336.
Jump up ^ Tuchman 1962, p. 521.
Jump up ^ Doughty 2005, p. 96.
Jump up ^ Sumner 2010, p. 86.
Jump up ^ Tuchman 1962, p. 519.
Jump up ^ Mead 1983, pp. 5658.
Jump up ^ Chickering 2004, p. 31.
Jump up ^ The First World War: Part 2: Under the Eagle (1914)TV MINI-SERIES 2003
Jump up ^ Edmonds 1926, p. 313.
Jump up ^ Herwig 2009, pp. xii, xv, 315316.
Jump up ^ Sumner 2010, p. 89.
Jump up ^ S