[Illustration]

Entire Roman Empire army at it's height, to police and maintain that massive ancient state: 450,000 to 750,000 men.

The number of men who are making their way through Belgium in August 1914 is at least 750,000 to 1.2 million. That's not the entire Germany military, just the troops heading through Belgium.

That's what you have moving through the tiny road system in Belgium. Napoleon's grand army is your flanking force.

German leadership have done this before. They've fought France before. Just 43 years earlier, the Prussians crushed the French in a month and a half.

British army was small, but very professional.

[Image]

The French go into combat with almost the same uniform that their grandfather's wore in 1870.

Think about the coin flips that have already happened. They were hoping that when they invaded Belgium, they would just stand by the road and let them go through. Maybe they would even feed them. Instead the Belgiums resisted and destroyed the communication and transportation system they were hoping to use and some of the people were shooting at you and then they started executing citizens which made the Germans look terrible on the world stage.

And then they flip the coin again. Maybe Britain won't get involved when they violate the neutrality of Belgium. Oop, the coin landed the wrong way on that too, the British came in.

Aug 15, 1914: The Austro-Hungarians are camped out on the side of a hill and 150,000 Serbs attack them.

Aug 17, 1914: The Russians arrive early.

Meanwhile... on Aug 14, 1914: Joffre and the French attack at Alsace and Lorraine. The first real attack. The French push the Germans back.

...but the German retreat was all part of the Schlieffen Plan.

[Map showing where east Prussia is]

The Russians are in east Prussia now.

[Map showing Austro-Hungarian-Serbian front]


The Austro-Hungarians have been defeated by the Serbs on their front.

Since Aug 7 - 11, 1914, the British Expeditionary Force has been on the continent. The French would like them to hurry up and get ready to fight.

Improvised German counter-attack. Bavaria guy asks Von Mulke if he can attack the French instead of retreat

Artillery

[Show illustration / map]

Gaps in lines are the worst.

[Map: Joffre knows the Germans are strong down in Alcance Lorraine by Switzerland. They're strong in Belgium where they've knocked down those forts. So they're weak in the middle]

Aug 21 - 22, 1914: Joffre thinks the Germans are probably weak in the center of the line and so that's where the French attacks.

[Image: hilly forested terrain]

The centre is a hard place to fight because of the terrain. The giant Arden forest is there. It is hilly with not a lot of roads. Everyone was surprised in WWII when the Germans came through that way with their tank – everyone thought it was impenetrable, but that's where Joffre decides to attack because the Germans must be weak there.

No helmets

Lt. Charles DeGaulle

The Battle of the Frontiers, in just a couple of days manages to change the complexion of the entire war, what had seemed to be leading up to a German defeat all of a sudden looks like maybe the Germans are going to win this war, and quickly. Nobody expects the French to lose in a couple of days more than 75,000 men and more than 250,000 wounded. That stuns everyone and the French especially.

Von Mulke makes some improvised decisions (deviating from the Schlieffen Plan), based on having slammed the French so hard.

Prince of Bavaria? He's part of Germany?

Why didn't Von Mulke just slam the French? He could collapse the whole southern flank [what is a flank?] and if the whole southern flank collapses and you still get the northern flank collapsing because of your sledgehammer, you've recreated the battle of Battle of Cannae. It's every general's dream, a double envelopment a total surrounding.

The Germans seem to be better than the French. They dominate another army pretty easily. So maybe they can get away with taking a few troops away from the west and moving them to the east. (Deviating from the original plan) The Russians are taking towns in east Prussia... and that's what Von Mulke does.

Meanwhile... here come the British / The Battle of the Mons

German "tip of the spear" was commanded by one of these great German generals, a guy named Alexander von Kluck. He's an aggressive general. He's a hard-driver. He seizes the initiative. He gets you off balance, he keeps pushing and he moves. It's all about speed and deadliness when he gets to the place where you don't expect him yet. He's commanding 320,000 thousand men in German's first army. Right next to him is German's second army, 260,000 men under Karl von Bülow. Below him is the third army under Max von Hausen has 180,000 men. This is the flanking maneuver. [map needed to show this flanking maneuver]

The British run into the German army on the furthest right flank. They only run into a part of it actually, 160000 men who are surprised to find the British waiting for them in defensive positions along a canal. This is called a "defensive obstacle", which is something that magnifies the power of the defence because now the Germans have to cross this canal under fire.

This British think they've going to face a corp of Germans, maybe two. But they face are facing 4+ corps.

This is a mining town so the canal is more of a sludge and it is black and it gives off fumes. There are slag heeps in amoungst the flowers and vegetable gardens.

The British troops think this is fun and exciting and a grand adventure.

Alexander von Kluck is like a general you would get out of Central Casting. Scared face. Iron cross. Caring a rifle and a pistol at the same time while he's walking around. Fearsome.

British guy: "What a wonderful army we are. The German attack was completely repulsed. Maybe not for long but it was enough to get the guns away. It saved us."

Miracle at Mons? But the French and the English both thought the British were defeated there, at the time.

"the myth is one of heroic successful defence with well-trained British tommies mowing down hoards of Germans repeatedly attacking in mass formations, finally the British would be forced to retreat only because the fickle French had given away on their right flank. This view of the battle is a great yarn, but like the angels at Mons, at its heart is the product of wishful thinking"

The Great Retreat

"Neither the British, nor the French were able to stop this movement through Belgium that's coming down on them now. And they're all retiring at speed" (which means retreating quickly?)

The British General, French, is already thinking about how to get his army to the other side of Paris and even the logical challenges of get his army off the mainland all together and back to the safety of Britain. 90% of the British army is there and they don't want to be in a situation where they are surrounded by the Germans and have 90% of the British army is in captivity.

The best time to kill people is while they are fleeing. Any military class tells you this.

The Germans are coming toward Paris and the allied armies are moving back in that direction.

But even if the German armies get within sight of Paris, they're going to lose the war if the Russians from the east are marching in the German capital of Berlin.

Enter Hindenburg and Ludendorf, arriving by train in the east to take command of that one loan German army that's got to hold off the Russian steamroller as it approaches.

Two weeks in and the Russians are already taking towns in east Prussia, a region where historic German nobility has their big estates, including the Kaiser himself, an abnormal number of heristocracy is there. It's a gateway to Berlin.

The Russians were ahead of schedule because they were ready before the war even officially started. 2/5ths of their army was already in Poland, ready to go ahead of time. It didn't matter anyway because the Russians were a mess, a chaotic disaster.

Lundendorf and Hindenberg get filled in on the situation, which is this: There's about a half million Russians near by and about 175,000 Germans to deal with them. The Russians are divided into two armies, the first and the second army, and they're making their way across a piece of really difficult terrain. It's a series of lakes and forests and marshes and rivers that's just going to make these two armies have a hard time helping each other out while they are on opposite sides of this big terrain feature. [map of this terrain area]. He also tells Hindenberg and Ludendorf that they have a pretty good idea of what the Russians are trying to do because the Russians have been broadcasting radio messages and telegraph messages to each other without using any code. They also find a Russian officer's body after he's been killed and he has the plans on him.

The actual strength of the Russians when they get to combat is going to be a lot less than it looks like. They are missing equipment, using rags as shoes and they don't have enough food for the troops.

The Germans have airplanes and zepplins doing reconassaince, looking at what the Russians are doing. The Russians have no aircraft.

The Germans know the terrain and they have their railroads to use (the Russians are past their railroads so they're on foot). The Germans set a trap for the Russians. They will nulify the disadvantage in numbers by crushing the two Russian armies one at a time. The Russians are clueless about what's going on.

The Germans crush both Russian armies, taking their equipment and imprisoning many of the soldiers to work camps and all of a sudden the Germans have removed the threat of the Russians coming in and taking Berlin before the Germans can take Paris. All of a sudden the whole strategy that the British and French were thinking of, the assumpting that if they can just delay long enough the Russians will solve the war problem for them. But now the British and French are going to have to be victorious on the western front if they want to save themselves. That help isn't coming from the east.

In the West, The Great Retreat Continues

The French have lost in a couple of days more than what the United States lost in terms of killed and wounded in the 10 year involvement they had in the Vietnam War.

Maybe it would have been better for the history of Europe if the Germans would have just won the war right here.

The Germans are moving forward across almost the entire line and the French and British are moving backwards across almost the entire line and at some point they've got to turn around. THey have to make a stand. They have to push the Germans in the nose or there's nothing that's going to stop them.

Troops are getting worn down, supplies aren't keeping up.

Germans are down to about 50% strength.

"(German) uniforms are in rags, one might call them living rag bags, they march with closed eyes and sing in chorus to keep from falling asleep as they march. The certainty of victory close at hand and of their triumphal entry into Paris sustains them and whips up their enthusiam, without this certainty of victory they would fall exhausted they would lie down where they are (?) to sleep at last, no matter where or how."

When the Germans saw the sign that saying that Paris was 20-22 miles in the distance it was as though they had been given a B-12 shot.

"One of our batalions was marching weeringly forward when all at once they discovered a sign post which read Paris: 37 km. It was the first sign post that had not been erased. Upon seeing it the batalion was as though they'd been shaken up by an electric current. The word "Paris" which they had just read drives them crazy. Some embrace the wretched sign post, others dance around it, cries, yells of enthusiasm accompany these mad actions."

The Germans take a detour.

The battle that's shaping up, if you even call it a battle, is very complicated and confusing.

Jofre takes charge

In boxing, if you're knocked down three times in one round, the fight is over. The French are knocked down twice in the first round and there's no reason to think the Germans aren't just going to do it again. Except the giant of a man, the French's Joseph Jofre.

This is where he makes his name. This is his destiny. Jofre is exactly what France needs now. He performs miracles. When everyone is panicing and the British prime minister thinks the war is worried about how he gets his army out, and the Kaiser is slapping everyone on the back, but Jofre is taking charge and starts firing generals who aren't. He's replacing them with much, much better people. Fighthing generals.

During all of this Jofre is freakishly calm.

"(Jofre) became famous for the care he would take to have a good lunch, followed by a nap, end the day with a good dinner and always get a full night's sleep, in bed at nine back to work at five."

Jofre makes his speech to the Sir John French that now is the time. The Germans have turned and it is their chance to counter attack because the Germans have exposed their flank by changing course.

This is what sets up the Battle of the Marne, the most complicated battle.

A hundred years ago a battle would start in the morning and be over by the end of the day.

This battle will last officially for a week but really it's longer than that. The battle field is at least 100 miles long, depending on who you believe, or the entire front according to other historians. You could have legitimately fought at the Battle of the Marne and not know it. It's a catch all term for all the fighting that goes on when the French and British armies turn around and launch into contact again.

"What's been known as the Battle of the Marne, should really be known as the Battle of France... along the line from Paris to the eastern frontier"

When the general in charge of Paris, Joseph Gallieni, is asked by the general of sixth army what's the plan if they get overrun? Where will they go if they are overrun? Gallieni just says "Nowhere." This is it.

The crux of the battle of the marne is described like this: "What followed was a complex battle that defies easy explanation. By this time the German right wing was actually out numbered by the French division rushing up from the south. As the German first army tried to turn to face the assault from the French sixth army along the line of the River Ork a huge chasm of some 30 miles between Von Kluke and his the second army on his left flank. Amidst the chaos, the men of the BEF having dutifully aboutturned found themselves advancing alongside the French fifth army into the gap between the German first and second armies. There was no great battle. No huge drama. But the penetration between their armies threatened utter disaster for the Germans and on the 9th of September, von Motlke orders his right wing to retreat." [Could really use a map of all of this]

This war is three weeks old and all the major participants have clashed head on. There's more than a million people dead. This is the worst nightmare of every pre-war profit that was predicting what would happen when you combined the mass armies that the Napoleonic era unleashed on steroids, by the way, with the modern technology and weapons and systems that were being developed all through the 1800s. This is a great filter. When you lose a million people in the first blink of an eye and the war is now obviously going to last a while, how many people are going to die before this thing reaches a resolution? What is a resolution?

To simplify it, what really happens is when the entire French and British line turns around and smashes back into the German line, there's one spot where they just penetrate. There's nothign really in front of them. And that the spot where the BEF and French forces go through. Had von Kluk and von Beulow not already been fighting somebody they could have turned and crushed these forces that had been penetrating into that gap. But they are fighting other people. THis is what's known as "pinning the enemy" von Kluk is fighting those forces that are coming at him from Paris. Von Beulow is fighting other armies so they can't turn and if they do turn then the armies they were fighting will hit them in the back. They're trapped. They only thing the Germans can do alieviate this open flank issue is to pull back.

Von Mulke, when all this is going on falls apart. He's been under tremendous pressure and as he watches this plan that for years as been known as Der Tag "The Day" when this plan is finally used, he's watching it collapse in front of his eyes. He realizing that this will all be blamed on him. He's coming apart at the seems.

"I cannot find words to describe the crushing responsibility that has been placed on my shoulders... the appaling cirmstances that are before us hang before my eyes like a dark curtain through which I can see nothing"

The Germans haven't lost the war, as von Mulke may think. But the chance for an early knock out blow, an outright German victory is over.

It wasn't like the Germans just blew it. The French were heroic.

The Germans are the best and wickedest nation in the world (HG Wells). Their science and education and everything and all these wonderful things about the Germans. But they have this flaw and it's their militarism. They are a new nation and full of potential and somewhere along the Anikan Skywalker turns into Darth Vadar and that turns out to be their image for the 20th Century.

If von Mulke had been victorious here, the entire German history of the 20th century is different and perhaps much much much more positive, almost certainly for Germans and for everyone else too. It's a very interesting What If Scenario

"If war was now a chivalrous duel, it's now a dastardly slaughter."