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Just as the world was beginning to say that the war was over, General Joffre decided that the iron was hot, that the time to strike had arrived. "The moment has come," he wrote, "to die where you stand, rather than give way." The outlook changed from black to rose with the completeness and ease of a pantomime transformation scene. The Verdun heights remained impregnable.
The idea had occurred to Sir John French before the end of September, and on the 29th he propounded it to Joffre; Joffre concurred, called up an 8th Army under D'Urbal to support and prolong the extension of the line into Flanders, and placed Foch in general charge of the operations north of Noyon.
The points break off, or are worn off what difference does it make? Joffre, French, Cardona, Neville, Asquith, Painleve, Kitchener, Haig the drill never ceases; the power behind it never falters. For once in the world the spirit of democracy is organized; organized across lines of race, of language, of national boundary!
The Germans hoped, if not to turn the Entente flank, at least to seize Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne; and Joffre and French were planning to make La Bassée, Lille, and Menin the pivot of a turning movement which should liberate Brussels, isolate Von Beseler in Antwerp, and threaten the rear of the German position along the Aisne.
By these tactics, in which General Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, co-operated with the British field-marshal, Sir John French, the Allies prevented their lines being overwhelmed by the superior numbers of their foe, but the German right flank and center, strung out over a line more than 150 miles long, northeast of Paris, kept smashing on.
The object of this maneuver is thus already on August 25, 1914, clearly indicated; it looked not to a defensive, but to an offensive movement, which was to be resumed as soon as circumstances appeared favorable. Much is made clear in these orders of General Joffre, which are characterized by perspicuity, foresight, and precision. The retreat was effected; but it was only a provisional retreat.
"And you shall have it, sir!" thundered General Joffre, now very angry, as he took a step forward. General Tromp quailed before him. His eyes fell to the ground and his injured dignity dropped from him like a mask. "I accuse you," continued General Joffre, "of being a traitor to France. I accuse you of aiding and abetting the escape of another traitor, one Dersi.
"Before the German armies," he says, "became engulfed in the vast depression that stretches from Paris to Verdun, General Joffre with admirable foresight had brought together a powerful army commanded by General Manoury and having as its support the fortified camp of Paris.
One of the officers told me that General Joffre had put his winter tactics in three words: "I nibble them." I wakened early this morning and went to church a great empty place, very cold but with the red light of the sanctuary lamp burning before a shrine. There were perhaps a dozen people there when I went in. Before the Mater Dolorosa two women in black were praying with upturned eyes.
As I pushed past him we nodded slightly with an effect of mutual understanding. And we said with our nods just exactly what General Joffre had said with his horizontal gestures of the hand and what the King of Italy conveyed by his friendly manner; we said to each other that here was the trouble those Germans had brought upon us and here was the task that had to be done.
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