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The First Battle of the Marne (also known as the '''Miracle of the Marne''') was a World War I battle fought from 5 September to 12 September 1914 . It resulted in a Franco - British victory against the German army under Chief of Staff Helmuth Von Moltke The Younger . By the end of August 1914, the whole Allied army on the Western Front had been forced into a general retreat back towards Paris . Meanwhile the two main German armies continued through France. It seemed that Paris would be taken as both the French Army and the British Expeditionary Force fell back towards the Marne River . PRELUDE British troops suffered heavy casualties during the German attack into France. Field Marshal Sir John French , commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), blamed his heavy losses on French vacillation and uncoordinated withdrawals. In particular, he blamed French General Lanrezac , commander of the French Fifth Army, for Lanrezac's failure to fight and unannounced pullbacks. This notwithstanding the fact that communications between the French and BEF were very poor, and that Lanrezac's timely and often necessary withdrawals in the face of superior German forces probably saved the bulk of the French Fifth Army from being destroyed in the early weeks of the war. Relations between the British commander and the French commanders suffered greatly. Field Marshal French made plans to move all British troops back from the front along their lines of communication for rest and reorganization. French Commander-In-Chief Joseph Joffre persuaded Lord Kitchener to intervene, and Kitchener met personally with Field Marshal French. Kitchener told Field Marshal French that a withdrawal by the British would be disastrous for both the French and British. Field Marshal French agreed to keep British troops on the front line as long as their flanks were not exposed by French withdrawals. As the German First and Second Armies approached Paris, they began to swerve to the southeast away from Paris, exposing their right flank to the allies. By 3 September, Joffre recognized the German armies' tactical error, and quickly made plans to halt the French and British withdrawal and attack the Germans all along the front. The British army and the French Sixth Army were given the job of attacking the exposed right flank of the German First Army . Joffre personally visited Field Marshal French and secured French's agreement to participate in the attack. The attack was set to begin on the morning of 6 September. However, General Alexander Von Kluck , the commander of the German First Army detected the approach of the Allied forces on 5 September and, too late, began to wheel his Army to face the west. In the morning of 5 September, battle commenced when the advancing French Sixth Army came into contact with cavalry patrols from Gen. Hans H. K. Gronau's IV Reserve Corps on the right flank of the German First Army near the Ourcq River. Seizing the initiative in the early afternoon, Gronau's two divisions attacked with light artillery and infantry into the gathering Sixth Army and pushed it back into a defensive posture before the planned allied assault for the following day, but the threat to the French offensive by Kluck's wheeled First Army in this preliminary Battle of the Ourcq was later reduced both by the arrival of the taxicab reinforcements from Paris and orders for Kluck to retreat to the Aisne River, delivered by Moltke's staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hentsch. Major General Sir Edward Spears, Liaison 1914, Cassell & Co., 1930.Dupuy (1970), p. 938Dupuy (1977), p. 151-152 BATTLE Von Kluck, in turning to meet the French preparations for attack on his right flank, opened up a 50 km (30 mile) wide gap in the German lines between his First Army and the in pouring through the gap between the two German armies, the right wing of the Fifth Army simultaneously attacking the German Second Army. Nevertheless, the German forces were close to achieving a breakthrough against Maunoury 's beleaguered Sixth Army between 6 September and 8 September , and the Sixth Army was only saved on 7 September by the aid of 6,000 French reserve infantry troops ferried from Paris in some 600 taxi cabs. The following night, on 8 September, the aggressive French commander General Franchet D'Esperey and his Fifth Army launched a surprise attack against the German Second Army, serving to further widen the gap between the German First and Second Armies. D'Espery was a recent appointment, Joffre having given him command of the Fifth Army in place of the dismissed General Charles Lanrezac , who was deemed too cautious and lacking in 'offensive spirit'. By 9 September , it looked as though the German First and Second Armies would be totally encircled and destroyed. General von Moltke suffered a nervous breakdown upon hearing of the danger. His subordinates took over and ordered a general retreat to the Aisne River to regroup. The Germans were pursued by the French and British, although the pace of the Allied advance was slow - a mere 19 km (12 miles) a day. The German armies ceased their retreat after 65 km (40 miles), at a point north of the Aisne River, where they dug in, preparing trenches that were to last for several years. The German retreat between 9 September and 13 September marked the abandonment of the Schlieffen Plan. Moltke is said to have reported to the Kaiser : "Your Majesty, we have lost the war." In the aftermath of the battle, both sides dug in and four years of stalemate ensued. AFTERMATH The war became a stalemate when the Allies won the Battle of the Marne. It was the second major clash on the Western Front (after the Battle Of The Frontiers ) and one of the most important single events of the war. The German retreat left in ruins the Schlieffen Plan and German hopes of a quick victory in the west. Its army was left to fight a long war on two fronts. The Battle of Marne was also one of the first major battles in which reconnaissance planes played a decisive role, by discovering weak points in the German lines and allowing the allies to take advantage of them. {Link without Title} The First Battle of the Marne is best remembered for the approximately six hundred Parisian . Over two million men fought in the First Battle of the Marne, of whom more than 500,000 were killed or wounded. SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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