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Updated: June 9, 2025
At the time of its dispatch there may still have been hopes for the success of Joffre's larger strategical scheme of bending back the German flank in Flanders behind the Scheldt; and obviously, if the failure of the Germans at the Marne and a successful defence of Antwerp by the Entente should induce the Dutch to intervene, the German position in the West would be completely turned.
Had their will prevailed there would have been no real battle at Verdun and the Germans would long ago have occupied the ashes of the town. Joffre's view was easily explicable, and it was hardly possible to quarrel with the military judgment it discloses.
"He was attached to General Joffre's staff when we left. Remember?" "Yes," replied Chester. "Must be some momentous move under way." Other officers now began to appear. They dashed up to the British commander, made their reports and immediately dashed away again. "Lieutenant Paine! Lieutenant Crawford!" It was General French summoning them and the boys approached and came to attention.
In Paris, where one may hear anything, there are those that will tell you that Joffre's work is done and that France waits for the man who will complete the task; that the strain of the terrible months has wearied the general who won the Battle of the Marne and saved France.
"We are both willing and eager to make the attempt." "Then," said the general, "we shall consider the matter settled." "But," protested the Prime Minister, "it seems to me that they are much too young to be allowed to assume such a risk." "From General Joffre's letter," remarked the military governor of Paris dryly, "I should say that they have already assumed risks every whit as great."
Whatever vicissitudes of politics, whatever campaigns ensue, whatever changes come in the world after the war, Joffre's victory at the Marne and Castelnau's victory in Lorraine, which was its complement in masterly tactics, make their niches in the national Pantheon secure.
The disposition of forces aimed at in General Joffre's order of August 25 was thus accomplished; the French escaped the turning movement, and they were in a position to counter with an enveloping movement themselves. The wings of the French forces found support in their maneuvering in their contact with the strongholds of Paris and Verdun.
Gigantic preparations had been in the making. Large drafts of fresh British troops had been poured into France, which enabled Sir John French to take over the defense of a portion of the lines hitherto held by General Joffre's men.
A cripple, he couldn't fight and he couldn't work, for his job needed two arms, and he had given one, up yonder on the Marne. He drifted from shop to shop in Paris. But he didn't know a trade. Life was through with him, so one day, he shot himself. That, we learn from authoritative sources, is the story of more than one broken soldier of Joffre's army.
Next, at General Joffre's request, they retired some twelve miles farther southward with a view to taking a position behind the Seine. In the meantime the Germans had built pontoon bridges across the Marne, and were threatening the Allies all along the line of the British forces and the Fifth and Ninth French Armies. Consequently several outpost actions took place.
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