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Updated: June 9, 2025
They greeted the advance of Manoury's army coming east out of Paris and striking at Kluck's open flank. Allies. Germans. The next day Manoury rolled up Kluck's flank, drove his troops in on the Ourcq River, and threatened his army with destruction.
"But," replied his Minister of the Interior, "one cannot improvise population; ... as it is, Paris would scarcely support one million"; and he instanced the want of good drinking water. "What are your plans for giving water to Paris?" Chaptal gave two alternatives artesian wells or the bringing of water from the River Ourcq to Paris.
A woman occupant said they fled precipitately. "There was a great deal of hand-to-hand fighting and bayonet work on the Ourcq, which resulted in the terrible Magdeburg regiment beating a retreat. "Monday night General von Kluck's army had been thrown back from the Marne and from the Morin and to the region of Sezanne and his position was serious.
It was on this day, Tuesday, September 8, 1914, that the British army realizing that it had turned the flank of General von Kluck's southern divisions sent its heavy batteries to the pressure on the banks of the Ourcq. A graphic picture of the artillery side of the fighting on the Ourcq was given by one of the artillery officers detached from the British force.
In three days the enemy forces swept from the Aisne southward across the Vesle and the Ourcq. Their most advanced position came to rest on the Marne. For the second time the German army was on the banks of the Marne. "Papa" Joffre had hurled them back from this river in the first year of the war; now Marshal Foch must do as well or France was doomed. But Foch was handicapped.
Just as the River Marne was taken as a basis for the consideration of the topography of the battles that centered round the crossing of the Ourcq, Grand Morin, Petit Morin, and the Marne, so the Aisne is naturally the most important determinant in the problems of its crossing. The River Aisne rises in the Argonne, southwest of Verdun.
"I am sure I shall not call upon them in vain, but that, on the contrary, by another manifestation of the magnificent spirit which they have shown in the past fortnight, they will fall on the enemy's flank with all their strength and, in unison with the Allies, drive them back." As before, the day's fighting began with the efforts of the Sixth French Army against the Ourcq.
But the advance of the British troops from the south of the Marne, on the heels of Von Kluck, was in truth all-important to the success of Maunoury on the Ourcq.
This extreme right comprised the Second Corps and the Fourth Reserve Corps, encamped on the western bank of the little stream the Ourcq; while the Fourth Corps was given the honor of the tip of the right, being camped on the Marne at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, supported by the Third Corps, the Seventh Corps and the Seventh Corps Reserve.
Somewhat cooler weather, with cloudy sky and with south to southwesterly wind, at times blowing in sharp gusts. Thermometer at five P.M. 21 degrees centigrade. The air is still overcharged with uncertainty as to the result of the great battle along the front of one hundred and twenty miles between the Ourcq and Verdun.
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