In thexnorth, the German First Army crossed into Belgium on the 15th August and – giving clear warning of what was to come –  spent five consecutive days pillaging the city of Louvain, (map above), killing 248 civilians in the process. The invaders then moved on to Brussels. In the capital there was no resistance. It is recorded that it took three nights and three days for the infantry, cavalry and siege guns to pass through, on their way, as it turned out, to the Battle of Mons. Brussels remained in German hands until 1918.

     Furtherxsouth, the first target was the heavily fortified city of Liège (map above) perched on a steep slope overlooking the River Meuse and defended by twelve heavily armoured forts. Here the Belgian army made such a courageous stand that the Germans were obliged to bring up eleven huge howitzers (including “Big Bertha”, then the largest of its kind) to destroy the forts and seize thexcity. The Second German army was then able to march on to Namur (map above). This was also a fortified city, but the Germans used their howitzers on arrival and the Belgian troops were forced out by the 25th August. In the meantime, fighting broke out in the Ardennes, where the French were defeated with heavy loses and were forced to withdraw to the towns of Verdun and Sedan.

     Afterxtaking Namur, the German Second Army, joined by the Third, reached the city of Charloi on the Meuse and came face to face with the French Fifth Army, advancing from the south. It was a major encounter, and the first one in which the Britsh Expeditionary Force was seen in action. It also ended in an Allied retreat, lasting close on two weeks!

THE BATTLE OF MONS

    On arriving in France the British Expeditionary Force settled at Maubeuge, close to the Belgian Frontier and it was there, to their right, that they joined up with the French Fifth Army on the Sambre River (see map above). The French were soon hard pressed, however, and to strengthen their left flank the British moved forward to the town of Mons to defend the Condé-Mons-Charleroi Canal. Here, at The Battle of Mons, they too were confronted and out-numbered by units of the German First Army. They could muster 75,000 men and 300 guns, but the Germans had twice those numbers. Contact was first made by patrols, the odd sorties, and brief cavalry encounters, but when the Germans attacked in strength, confident of a quick victory, the British infantry, all professional soldiers, stood their ground and produced a constant volley of rifle fire that halted the assault for twenty-four hours and killed and wounded many. It is estimated that the British lost 1,500 men and the Germans 5,000, though that figure is disputed.

    But it was clear that the British could not hold their line much longer, and this became a great deal more evident when the French were forced to pull back, leaving the British right flank open to attack. Indeed, the B.E.F, though retiring in fairly good order and speed, only just managed to escape complete encirclement. From then on – together with the French – it was a long, arduous and humbling retreat southwards to the Battle of the Marne. ThexBritish did stage a rearguard action at Le Cateau on the 26th August, and the French did likewise at the Battle of Guise three days later, but both failed to stop the German advance. The Allies were outnumbered and without the long-range artillery possessed by the Germans. By the end of August both the French and Germans had suffered some 300,000 casualties, killed or wounded.

     The Battle of Mons, short though it was, can rightly be seen as an outstanding British victory against heavy odds. It stressed if nothing else the importance of training in the art of combat. For the Germans, however, it was an outstanding tactical victory, which succeeded in pushing their enemies into total flight, thereby opening the road to Paris and victory. As we shall see, it didn’t work out that way, but it seemed a very likely outcome at that time!

     Incidentally, after Mons it was rumoured that the Kaiser himself had issued an Order of the Day in which he referred to the “treacherous English” and their “contemptable little army”. From this came the nickname “the Old Contemptables”. In fact, the story is not true. It seems it was issued by the War Office for “propaganda purposes”!

     Itxis estimated that during the invasion of Belgium and northern France – and notably in August – the Germans committed a series of atrocities, pillaging towns and villages and carrying out the mass execution of civilians. As noted earlier, it is said that 248 were killed in Louvain, and in the city of Dinant, for example, the number is put at 674. It is estimated that during the entire period some 6,500 civilians lost their lives in these circumstances – the so-called Rape of Belgium. It was likewise reported that the area within the towns of Malines, Charteroi and Liège became a “Triangle of Terror” where people, regardless of age or sex, were tortured, buried and burned alive, and even crucified. At the time, the Germans claimed that civilians were only killed when taking up arms, and this could be true in some cases, but in general these figures and the atrocities reported have been verified and generally accepted. Sadly, such figures were to prove but a drop in the ocean compared with those alleged throughout the entire First World War!

     CountxAlfred von Schlieffen (1833-1913), soldier and strategist, fought in both the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars, and served as Chief of the German General Staff from 1891 to 1906. It was while in this office that he devised the plan which bears his name, a “strategic offensive operation” whereby German forces would swiftly invade France through the Netherlands and Belgium and, swinging eastward, encircle and capture Paris from the south.

    GeneralxHelmuth von Moltke (1848-1916) served in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 – in which he was cited for bravery – and inherited the Schlieffen Plan when he succeeded Schlieffen as Chief of the General Staff in 1906. He approved the strategy in principle, but he weakened the strength of his attack by sending troops to assist in other theatres (Alsace-Lorraine and the Eastern Front)  prior to his invasion of Belgium or soon afterwards. This seriously slowed down the speed of his advance – a vital ingredient – and gave the French and, indeed, the British Expeditionary Force, time to form a reasonable challenge as the Germans entered northern France. Come the Battle of the Marne, the German troops were battle weary and somewhat disorganised. Their defeat and retreat marked the end of Moltke’s career. In his view it meant that the war had been lost, and so it proved to be. He was relieved of his post in September 1914, and died a broken man less than two years later. Moltke was the nephew of Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke, rememberd above all as the commander who master-minded the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, thereby creating the new German Empire. No such distinction came his nephew’s way.

    At the same time as the launching of the Schlieffen Plan – which, by the end of August, seemed on course for the capture of Paris – went a long-awaited French commitment, the invasion and recapture of Alsace-Lorraine, the two border provinces which had been snatched from the French following their defeat at the hands of the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War of  1870-71. That was a humiliation that had to be assuaged. Within a few days of war being declared, two French Armies crossed the German border on a mission of sweet revenge. As we shall see, however, it was to have a bitter ending.

THE WESTERN FRONT

THExSCHLIEFFEN PLAN:  AUGUST 1914  

THE BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS AND THE BATTLE OF MONS

     The Schlieffen Plan was drawn up in 1905 by the then Chief of the Imperial German General Staff, Count Alfred von Schlieffen, and, with minor changes, was put into operation by his successor Helmuth von Moltke in August 1914. It was specifically designed to deal with the strategic problem that Germany was likely to face in any future war, namely, the need to fight on two fronts. France, a certain opponent, lay to the west, and Czarist Russia, a vast country with a vast army – and much feared because of it – lay to the east. In the history of warfare a situation of this kind, given its demands on resources and logistics, had led to the downfall of many a nation. Strong though Germany was in its armed forces, it needed to come up with a workable and successful solution if it were to succeed.

     The obvious need was to gain a quick victory over one of your opponents or, at least, to reduce its fighting capacity to such an extent that containment was possible with a minimum of forces. The possibility of achieving this over the width and depth of the Russian front – even with the support of Austria-Hungary – was not very likely. In addition, it was calculated that the Russians would take some time to mobilize their forces, and this favoured a pre-emptive strike on France. It had succeeded before. The Prussians, by speed of attack and concentration of forces, had surprised the French in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Entering France via Belgium they had won an overwhelming victory at Sedan, and then gone on to capture Paris and win the conflict.

     Thus the Schlieffen Plan envisaged entering northern France via a powerful attack through the Low Countries (shown by the green arrows on the map) and then, swinging towards the east, to take Paris from the south and attack the French lines from the rear. With France forced to surrender within a matter of five to six weeks, troops could then be sent by rail to defend East Prussia, seen as the first major target for a Russian offensive. The Kaiser was looking forward to having a lunch in Paris and a dinner at St. Petersburg!

    But there was no lunch to be had in Paris. Firstly, just prior to the plan’s launch, Moltke substantially reduced the right wing of his invasion force. Having caught word of a French plan to invade Alsace-Lorraine, he had sent close on 90,000 troops to that area. Then, shortly before the Battle of the Marne, he despatched over 80,000 troops to defend East Prussia against a Russian attack. This, together with the 180,000 men he had sent to the Eastern Front just before the outbreak of the war, meant that the Schlieffen Plan was made up of 34 corps rather then the 48 previously seen as the required strength. He was to pay dearly for this sizeable reduction in manpower (and later he admitted that). Secondly, when he invaded Belgium on the 4th August, he brought Great Britain straight into the war, committed by a defence treaty signed to support Belgium back in 1839. As a result, the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F), some 80,000 regular troops, was despatched to the continent on the 7th August – much earlier than expected – to join the French in the defence of Paris. And thirdly, the Belgians, despite the odds against them, put up a spirited defence of their homeland, delaying the invasion of France and giving time for the Allies to take up better defensive positions. (The cartoon “Bravo Belgium” is from the British magazine Punch of August 1914.)

     Incidentally, the agreement reached in London in 1839 regarding the neutrality of Belgium – commiting Britain and other nations to go to the defence of the country if it were attacked – was also signed by the Prussians!

THExBATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS

     As the map below shows, after crossing Luxembourg, the Germans attacked Belgium on three major fronts, beginning in early August, and opening up what has come to be called The Battle of the Frontiers, a series of engagements which traces the advance of the German forces to within 20 miles of Paris by mid-August, and the final failure of the Schlieffen Plan at the Battle of the Marne by mid-September.

Acknowledgements

Schlieffen Plan: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0. Cartoon: Punch Magazine. spartacus-educational. Map of Belgium: en.wikipedia.org. Defence of Liege: by English war artist W.B. Wollen. Battle of Namur: Look and Learn, Elgar Collection. Map-Battle of Mons: Bristol Cathedral. Battle of Mons: Forces Network, Cheshire Military Museum. Agony of Belgium: book cover, author Australian-born journalist Major Frank Fox. Helmuth von Moltke: pixels.com.photographer unknown.

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