“I walked with the company officers who were planning a fresh advance, map in hand.  They had gained the village in which we were that morning, but at tremendous loss.

“‘Out of my company of 220,’ said one captain, ’there are only 100 left.  It’s the same story everywhere—­the German machine guns.  Their fire simply clears the ground like a razor.  You just can’t understand how anyone gets away alive.  I’ve had men fall at my right hand and my left.  You can’t look anywhere, as you advance, without seeing men dropping.  Of our four officers, two are wounded and one dead.  I am left alone in command.’”

This hand-to-hand fighting for the possession of villages on the west bank of the Marne, this heavy loss to the French troops by the German artillery, and this sudden check at the Ourcq itself, until British heavy batteries were sent, marks the character of what may be called the battle of the Ourcq, the westernmost of the battles of the Marne.  As General von Kluck had divided his forces, in order to carry out the attempt to pierce the left of General d’Esperey’s army, the German forces in the battle of the Ourcq were outnumbered almost three to one.  In spite of these odds against them, the extreme German right held for four days the position it had been given to hold.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XVI

CONTINUATION OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE

Remembering again the general outline of General von Kluck’s plan, that of executing a diagonal movement with 150,000 of his men to attack the easternmost point of the Fifth Army, and possibly to envelop it by a flank movement, the continuation of the Battle of the Marne may be treated with more detail.  This part is called by some the Battle of Coulommiers.

In this battle there was as great a change in morale as in the battle of the Ourcq.  There, the French had been stirred to high endeavor by the realization that the word to advance had at last been given.  This also operated in part on the British in the battle of Coulommiers, but, in addition, there was another very important factor.

The dawn of that Sunday summer morning, September 6, 1914, was one of great exhilaration for the British forces.  The offensive was begun, the time for striking back had come, and every column resounded with marching choruses.  The countryside was lovely, as had been all the countryside through which the retreating armies had passed, gay with the little French homesteads, flower decked and smiling, heavily laden orchards, and rich grain fields, some as yet uncut, some newly stacked.  Women and children, with here and there an old man, ran along the line of march ministering to the wants of their defenders.  There was no need for language, as courtesy and gratitude are universal, and the English were fighting for “La Belle France.”  So the morning wore on.