August 24th, 1914

- As reports come in overnight of yesterday's fighting, the scope of the crisis becomes apparent to Joffre.  He realizes that his armies have not suffered a temporary check, but rather a comprehensive defeat.  While the armies in Lorraine remain gripped in combat with the Germans, to the northwest the French are in retreat - indeed, this phase of the fighting comes to be known as the 'Great Retreat'.  Most precipitous has been the retreat of 5th Army after the Battle of Charleroi, and Joffre belatedly comes to the realization that Lanrezac was right and that the major German push is coming through Belgium.  Plan XVII having failed, it is discarded, and Joffre must adapt to the changing strategic situation.  He recognizes that his armies in the north will have to withdraw for a period before the Germans can be halted again.  As he states in a message sent to the War Minister at 935am:

One must face facts . . . Our army corps . . . have not shown on the battlefield those offensive qualities for which we had hoped . . . We are therefore compelled to resort to the defensive, using our fortresses and great topographical obstacles to enable us to yield as little ground as possible.  Our object must be to last out, trying to wear the enemy down, and to resume the offensive when the time comes.

In addition to adapting to the changed circumstances, the reasons for the defeat must be understood.  For Joffre, unable to find fault in himself, believes that the blame must fall on others, who have failed to do their duty.  He begins a process of purging the French army of any officer deemed to have failed in some way or another.

There is also a growing realization that the tactics of the Battle of the Frontiers must be revised.  Reports from officers on the fighting emphasize the importance of preliminary artillery bombardment, and that infantry should never be sent forward on their own, as elan cannot survive concentrated rifle, machine-gun, and artillery bombardment.

The retreat of the French armies is no mere matter of walking - there are a constant series of rearguard actions, small sharp clashes that spring up as the French try to keep the pursuing Germans from overrunning them.  In particular, river crossings become vital - even a delay of a few hours forced on the Germans can be vital for the French to stay one step ahead.

Finally, In the space between the BEF and the sea, an ad-hoc force under General Albert d'Amade is formed, consisting of General André Sordet's Cavalry Corps, exhausted from its operations in Belgium, three territorial divisions, and the garrison of Lille, which was evacuated today and declared an open city.  This was little more than a token force, to watch over the far western flank and keep German cavalry away from the redeploying French armies.

- At midnight this morning, news reaches BEF headquarters that General Lanrezac has ordered the retreat of the French 5th Army.  This retreat necessitates the retreat of the BEF as well - to remain at Mons would guarantee its envelopment and destruction.  Thus, despite successfully holding off the Germans yesterday, orders go out in the first hours after midnight for both corps to retreat.  I Corps, which had not fought, receives its orders quickly and begins the march south.  There is a delay in getting the orders to II Corps, however, with the result that its retreat has not yet begun at daybreak.  They thus have to retreat under fire, and in the ensuing confusion one battalion never gets its orders, is surrounded, and almost entirely wiped out before a few hundred can escape southwards.  As they move south, II Corps is joined by 4th Division and 19th Brigade, newly-arrived from Britain.

The news also shatters what little remains of his confidence in his French allies generally, and Lanrezac personally.  He feels that the BEF was fighting, at Lanrezac's request, to defend his flank, and then Lanrezac never informed him of his intention to retreat, leaving the BEF in a dangerous, isolated position.  The last instructions from Kitchener, which he had interpreted as emphasizing the preservation of the BEF first and foremost, rise in his mind.  Believing that the French are both defeated and abandoning his own army, Field Marshal French begins to consider ways out of the fighting.

- Since the fall of Dinant yesterday to elements of the 3rd German Army, it has been the scene of violence and bloodshed, not of soldiers, but of the civilian population.  General Hausen, commander of 3rd Army, is convinced he has seen Belgian civilians firing on his soldiers, and his soldiers are eager to teach the Belgian population a lesson.  Most of those buildings remaining after the fighting in the town are torched, and between 640 and 676 civilians are executed, the youngest only three weeks of age.

- Prince Rupprecht's 6th Army, in concert with 7th Army, and reinforced with additional artillery, launches a major attack in Lorraine, the one portion of the front where the French armies are not in retreat.  Their objective is the Trouée de Charmes, a key valley between the French fortifications at Toul and Epinal.  Seizure of this objective will allow the Germans to envelop Toul and Nancy to the north.  In the course of the day's fighting German units cross the Mortagne, the last river barrier before the gap at Charmes.  Elsewhere, General Foch's XX Corps stands its ground before Nancy.  The result is that the German success towards Charmes has exposed their flank to a counterattack from the north.  Aerial reconnaissance undertaken today reveals the deployment of the German forces, allowing General Castlenau of the French 6th Army to prepare a counterattack.

- XX Corps, for the past several days the only corps of the German 8th Army facing the Russian 2nd Army, has been executing a fighting withdrawal in the face of superior forces.  Today, Hindenburg and Ludendorff order it to stand and fight, with the intention of fixing 2nd Army in place until the other corps of 8th Army can arrive to defeat it.  Notably, the orders demonstrate that Hindenburg and Ludendorff were not yet thinking of fighting an envelopment battle - if they had, their orders would have been for XX Corps to continue to withdraw, enticing the Russians to advance into a trap.

As such, a fierce fight develops between the German XX Corps and the Russian XV Corps.  The German corps is fighting on home ground - its peacetime headquarters is only a few miles away in the village of Allenstein, and at one point in the day's fighting the corps' chief of staff finds himself directing artillery fire onto his own house.  The Russian attack, meanwhile, suffers from a lack of co-ordination.  Despite outnumbering the Germans, the corps to either side of XV Corps do not attempt to turn the flanks of the German XX Corps, allowing it to fight a frontal battle today.

Meanwhile, the glacial advance of the Russian 1st Army towards Königsberg, combined with radio intercepts of Samsonov's orders for 2nd Army, confirm Ludendorff's belief that 8th Army can be sent in its 
entirety to fight the Russian 2nd Army.  Having rested on the 23rd, XVII and I Reserve Corps are ordered south, taking their place on the eastern flank of XX Corps.

- Finally yielding to the obvious, Potiorek admits defeat and orders the remaining Austro-Hungarian forces in Serbian territory to retreat behind the Drina and Sava rivers.  5th Army has suffered the most - of 80 000 who crossed the Drina, 600 officers and 23 000 men have been lost.  Potioriek's invasion of Serbia has been a complete debacle - delays allowed the Serbs to defeat 5th and 6th Armies separately, while 2nd Army was unable to make an impact prior to its departure for Galicia.  Thus Conrad's order at the end of July for 2nd Army to be deployed against Serbia has been a complete waste of time.  Moreover, because of its use at the now-abandoned Sabac bridgehead, IV Corps of 2nd Army only today begins its transfer to Galicia.  The limited use of 2nd Army by Potiorek has accomplished nothing other than a further delay in its redeployment to face the Russians.

August 23rd, 1914

- The French 5th Army fights a desperate battle for survival, as crises mount by the hour.  The roads were choked with Belgian refugees, making rapid redeployment of units impossible.  At noon news arrived that the Belgians were evacuating Namur, which was to fall to the Germans later in the day.  The German 2nd Army launches a series of ferocious attacks which push elements of 5th Army southwards, while during the day the full force of the German 3rd Army is felt, as it seizes river crossings on the Meuse and directly threatens 5th Army's right flank.  Bits of news arriving by telegram of action elsewhere on the frontiers suggest the Germans are gaining all along the line, leaving him without any support.  He sees his worst nightmares coming true before his eyes - 5th Army trapped and annihilated between the two German armies, leaving France completely exposed to the German invasion of the north.  Lanrezac feels that the survival of 5th Army is essential to the survival of France itself.  At 930pm, Lanrezac informs Joffre that he has given the order to retreat.

As bad as the days events have been for 5th Army, they could have gone much worse.  General Bülow of the German 2nd Army had instructed General Hausen of 3rd Army to attack directly westwards across the Meuse, in support of his own push from the north.  Hausen complied with Bülow's order, instead of with a directive from OHL to move southwest towards Givet.  Had 3rd Army attempted OHL's manoeuvre instead, they would have been able to advance into the French 5th Army's rear, cutting its line of retreat and forcing its destruction.  By attacking frontally, Lanrezac's army is able to escape.

- When the commanders of the 3rd and 4th Armies report this morning on the devastating results of the prior day's fighting, Joffre at first cannot believe it.  So much has been invested in Plan XVII, in the notion that French infantry with sufficient elan can sweep all before them, that he can hardly comprehend that the attacks have failed.  Joffre orders both armies to resume the offensive.  As both armies struggle to resume the attack, German counter-attacks worsen the situation.  Just after noon, V Corps of 3rd Army is driven back eight miles, and to avoid envelopment the rest of 3rd Army retires the same distance.  To the north, the battered Colonial Corps of 4th Army withdraws from Neufchâteau at 5am, uncovering the flank of XII Corps which is also forced to retreat.  By the end of the day, all but two corps of 3rd and 4th armies have been driven back to the line from which they had started their offensive.

- The only decent news for the French comes from Lorraine where, despite its mauling, the French 2nd Army has managed to extricate itself and form a strong defensive line west of the Meurthe River, its northern flank anchored at Nancy and its southern linked to 1st Army.

- This evening, as the terrible news from along the front accumulates, Joffre struggles to understand the magnitude of what has transpired.  In a telegram to the War Minister, he suggests that he has been only 'momentarily checked' and that the offensive will be resumed.  The reality is that the French army has been defeated.  All of its pre-war planning and training, its emphasis on morale and infantry assaults, its unyielding faith in elan and the offensive, has been for nought.  In four days fighting, from Rupprecht's counterattack on the 20th to Lanrezac's order to retreat this evening, Plan XVII has disastrously miscarried.  Over those four days, the French army has suffered more than 140 000 casualties, and is now in retreat.

- As the French army endures a series of defeats, the British Expeditionary Force sees its first fighting of the campaign.  Acceding to Lanrezac's request, the BEF holds the line of the Mons Canal.  They are significantly outnumbered - the German 1st Army bearing down on them has four corps and three cavalry divisions, to the BEF's two corps.  Further, Smith-Dorrien's II Corps, on the left of the line, bears the brunt of the fighting, while Haig's I Corps on the right is not attacked at all.  Balancing the numbers are the quality of the British soldiers.  While the BEF is pitifully small compared to the armies of the Continental powers, it is also the only army composed of long-service regulars, instead of conscripts.  These are men who have made soldiering their profession - they train constantly, with a particular emphasis on rapid and accurate rifle fire.  Further, experience in the Boer War taught the British army the crucial importance of entrenchment and rifle accuracy.  Together this means the BEF is able to punch above its weight despite being heavily outnumbered.

The battle opens at 9am when German artillery begin firing on the British entrenchments south of the canal, followed shortly by infantry attacks.  Kluck's orders to maintain contact with 2nd Army to the east means he is unable to stretch his army westward to find and turn the BEF's flank.  As a result, 1st Army spends the day throwing itself at the British in frontal attacks.  Further, the attacks come in piecemail - 1st Army is still in marching formation, strung out along the Belgian road network, and is unable to concentrate when they stumble across the British.  Two corps of 1st Army never even engage the enemy today.  The German infantry who do enter the battle find themselves under intense rifle fire of such accuracy and frequency that some regiments report being halted by machine-gun fire instead.  By afternoon sections of the British line are being painfully forced back from the canal line, but the BEF is able to execute an orderly withdrawal to a second line of prepared entrenchments.  The Germans, for their part, are too exhausted to give chase.

German infantry advance towards Mons in the dense formations that made
them such easy targets for the British regulars, Aug. 23rd, 1914.

As evening falls, the soldiers of the BEF take satisfaction in having blunted a major German attack.  Though the British have suffered 1600 casualties, German casualties have been approximately 5000.  Further, a day has been lost for 1st Army, which has the furthest to travel.  Sir John French and his staff plan for a second day of fighting at Mons, continuing to cover the left flank of the French army.

- At 4am, the train carrying Ludendorff stops at Hanover station, where Hindenburg boards.  It is the first time the two men have met.  On the train Ludendorff explains the orders he has already issued, and Hindenburg approves, setting the pattern of the relationship between the two men.  Later today they arrive at 8th Army headquarters in East Prussia.  Meanwhile, I Corps completes its entrainment, an operation that has required precise coordination between five different railway stations.  The corps now begins its movement to the south to face the Russian 2nd Army.

- Russian operations in East Prussia reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the strategic situation.  Zhilinskii at North-West Front, as well as both Rennenkampf (1st Army) and Samsonov (2nd Army) believe that the Germans have been beaten, and are withdrawing behind the Vistula River.  Thus Zhilinskii's top priority is to hurry the advance of 2nd Army, so it can cut off the German 8th Army before it can extract itself from East Prussia.  To achieve this, one corps of 2nd Army is left in Poland to cover the western flank, and a second corps is detailed to the Masurian Lakes to cover the eastern flank.  This reduces the strength of 2nd Army to three corps as its advance continues.

Meanwhile, Rennenkampf is in no hurry to advance westwards.  Indeed, he fears that a rapid advance to allow 1st Army to catch up to the Germans would result in another German defeat that hastens their withdrawal from East Prussia before 2nd Army can close the trap.  Thus, though 1st Army begins to move today, its progress is extremely slow, and its cavalry is completely unable to discern that the German 8th Army is no longer in front of them - indeed, there is only a single German cavalry division left.  Moreover, Rennenkampf directs 1st Army northwestward towards the major German fortress of Königsberg in order to lay siege and potentially trap a portion of the German 8th Army he believes may have retreated there.  This movement draws 1st Army even further away from 2nd Army, leaving the latter increasingly exposed.

- The first major encounter on the Galician frontier begins today when the Russian 4th Army, advancing south, runs into the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, moving north, in the Battle of Kraśnik.  In the pitched battle near the San River just inside Russian territory, it is the Austro-Hungarians who draw first blood.  Russian cavalry had completely failed to find the approaching enemy, and the corps of 4th Army were strung out and unable to provide mutual assistance.  One Russian corps is badly mauled, one of its divisions losing half its strength.  The Russians, however, do not view the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army as part of an invasion of Russian Poland, but rather the northern flank of the expected Austro-Hungarian concentration around Lemberg.  Pre-war expectations thus sow confusion among the Russian command structure.  In particular, there is no awareness that a second Austro-Hungarian army - 4th - is also advancing north on 1st Army's eastern flank.

- Their ultimatum having expired, Japan declares war on Germany. Japan feels no special attachment to the cause of the Entente - their war aims are limited to the Pacific, and indeed would have been equally pleased if Germany had acceded to Japanese demands peacefully.  As it is, Japan begins preparations for a campaign against Tsingtao.

August 22nd, 1914

- Almost since the start of the war, General Charles Lanrezac has been warning Joffre that the Germans are making a major push through Belgium.  Other than minor adjustments, Joffre has dismissed Lanrezac's fears.  Today, Lanrezac and his 5th Army discover just how right he was.

Belatedly recognizing the importance of the German bridgeheads over the Sambre River, Lanrezac orders a major counterattack by two of his corps.  The attack is a dismal failure.  Advancing against German infantry that spent the night digging in, the French soldiers are mowed down by machine-gun and rifle fire.  By the afternoon, German counterattacks were forcing the two corps back, and by nightfall 5th Army has been completely driven from the Sambre.  To make matters worse, 5th Army had lost contact with 4th Army on its right, while three French cavalry divisions on his left had broken and retreated.  Lanrezac was now faced with the possibility of both his flanks being turned.  Finally, losses had been terrible - some French regiments had lost almost 50% of their strength, while the Germans had seized the initiative.  Lanrezac now found himself fighting precisely the desperate defensive battle that he had long feared he would have to.

The Battles of Charleroi and Mons, Aug. 21st to 24th, 1914

-  To the west of the French 5th Army, the British Expeditionary Force has continued to march northwards.  During the day, British cavalry ahead of the main columns encounter for the first time German cavalry, and the realization of imminent battle dawns.  Late in the evening, a request arrives from a beleaguered Lanranzac requesting the BEF to attack the flank of the German force attacking him from the north.  This is not practical, but Field Marshal Sir John French agrees to hold the line of the Mons Canal for twenty-four hours.  By midnight the BEF is entrenching on the south side of the canal, expecting battle in the morning.  Despite aerial reconnaissance indicating otherwise, the British believe that there are only one or two German corps before them, giving the BEF superiority and a sense of confidence.

British soldiers of the 18th Hussars with Belgian civilians, Aug. 22nd, 1914

If they had known what was advancing towards them, the BEF might not have had such confidence.  The German 1st Army, the most powerful of the armies arrayed against France, and the one with the most vital role in the Schlieffen Plan, was bearing down upon them.  The one saving grace for the BEF was that the Germans had absolutely no idea where the British were.  German cavalry had utterly failed to find anything - one German regiment, when just three miles north of Mons and the BEF, was told by a cavalry commander there were no enemy forces within eighty miles.  OHL, for its part, was not even sure the BEF was on the Continent at all.  Rumours abounded of where the BEF might have landed, from Antwerp to Calais to ports further afield.  Thus the first encounters with British cavalry on the 22nd come as a complete surprise to General von Kluck of the German 1st Army.  His first instinct is to move southwestward, in an effort to move around the western flank of whatever force had appeared before him.  Bülow, who has been given a supervisory role over the two armies adjacent to his own, instead orders Kluck to cover his own westward flank as he continues the fight.  1st Army thus moves south on the 22nd, which will carry it directly to Mons.  The most important army in the Schlieffen Plan was about to fight its first major battle.

- After yesterday's scattered encounters, the French 3rd and 4th armies today find themselves in pitched battles with the German 4th and 5th armies in the Ardennes.  Along the entire front the French infantry throw themselves at the German defenders, with terrible results.  IV and V Corps of 3rd Army attack entrenched positions in a heavy fog that prevents artillery fire, and are repulsed, with one division in each corps fleeing under German artillery fire.  VI Corps, the last belonging to 3rd Army, does better, but by the end of the day is yielding ground to the enemy.  4th Army to the north is faring no better.  Its rightmost corps - II - encounters heavy German resistance and makes no forward progress.  On its left the Colonial Corps suffers the worst of any French unit involved in the day's battles.  Composed of long-service regulars who had served in colonial wars in Africa and Asia, the corps' experience proves its undoing.  Able to advance under heavy fire without breaking, as was frequently the case with conscripts, the Colonial Corps is able to advance farther than its adjacent units, and finds itself in a mass of Germans.  Battalion after battalion launch bayonet attacks, broken up by concentrated machine-gun fire.  By the end of the day, the Colonial Corps has lost 11 000 of its strength of 15 000, the highest casualties of any French unit fighting in the Battle of the Frontiers, and twelve kilometre gaps existed on either side.  To the north the remaining corps of 4th Army are suffering varying fates.  Of crucial importance was the plight of XVII Corps, whose 33rd Division had been attacked in its rear, lost all its artillery, and fled the battlefield, forcing the rest of the corps to pull back.

Though the Germans have suffered heavily as well, the fighting is disastrous for the French.  The main attack of Plan XVII had been launched, and failed to dislodge the German defenders.  Prospects for the next day's fighting were dim, but Joffre remained supremely confident.  He informs the War Minister this evening that the French armies are well-positioned to strike at the Germans, and all that remains is for the officers to execute their orders.  This foreshadows Joffre's future explanations for the failures of August 1914 - it was due to the weakness of subordinates, not any mistakes either on his part or in Plan XVII.

- The French disasters continue to the south in Lorraine.  After the crushing defeat inflicted on 2nd Army on the 20th, it again comes under devastating attack by the German 6th Army.  At midmorning, 2nd Army's right is crushed and forced into a precipitate retreat.  Again 2nd Army's link to 1st Army in the south is severed, and again 1st Army has to retire to reestablish the front line.  2nd Army is now pulling back to the fortifications around Nancy, hoping to use them to anchor a defensive line.

The attack by the German 6th Army of today is the product of another deviation from the Schlieffen Plan.  Under pressure from Prince Rupprecht, Moltke has agreed to expand 6th Army's counterattack into a full offensive.  After the relatively quick fall of Liège, it is hoped that the French forts around Nancy and Epinal will prove equally susceptible to attack.  Beyond that, the possibility of enveloping the entire French army via breakthroughs on the left as well as the right has proven too seductive to Moltke.  6th and 7th armies are thus committed to an invasion of France itself, instead of leaving their forces available for redeployment to the right.  One of the most important decisions Moltke would make, placing in a day of victories the seeds of defeat.

- The Russian 2nd Army under General Alexander Samsonov today completes its crossing of the Russo-German frontier, but it is already in trouble.  Its concentration zone during mobilization was fifty kilometres from the border, which means that the exhausted Russian columns have been marching ten to twelve hours each day for a week.  Further, the supply situation was collapsing - there were no railways reaching to the border along the route of 2nd Army, and it was already being forced to live off the land.  Finally, the communication situation is disastrous.  2nd Army's corps lacked sufficient telephone wire to connect themselves to their own divisions, while Samsonov was effectively disconnected from his superior, General I. G. Zhilinskii of North-West Front - telegrams from the latter could only reach the former by car from Warsaw, rendering null Zhilinskii's ability to co-ordinate the actions of the two armies invading East Prussia.

- The summons from OHL reaches Ludendorff at Namur at 9am, and within fifteen minutes he departs for Coblenz, where he arrives at 6pm.  He is briefed on the situation in East Prussia, and meets with Moltke and the Kaiser.  His first orders are to confirm Hoffman's plan of transferring I Corps by rail to face the Russian 2nd Army, while XVII and I Reserve Corps are to rest tomorrow, to allow them to be better capable of joining the rest of 8th Army in battle.  At 9pm, Ludendorff departs Colbenz on a special train for East Prussia.  Meanwhile, OHL has also decided on the new commander for 8th Army - General Paul von Hindenburg.  A veteran of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, he had retired in 1911, but on August 3rd had informed Moltke of his willingness to take a field command if one was available.  OHL decides that Hindenburg is the ideal man for the job - from a long line of Prussian Junkers, Hindenburg's career had demonstrated a solidity and imperturbability that would match perfectly with Ludendorff's imagination and excitedness.  It was Ludendorff who could develop brilliant operations, while Hindenburg would ensure their execution through moments of crisis that might rattle Ludondorff.  Moltke and the Kaiser approve of Hindenburg's appointment, and he receives a telegram at his home in Hanover at 3pm informing him of his appointment.  He is instructed to board Ludendorff's train as it passes through Hanover the next morning as it travels east.

- As the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Russian Poland begins, the Russian army is preparing its own invasion of Galicia.  Four armies are deployed against Austria-Hungary - 4th, 5th, 3rd, and 8th (the latter commanded by General Alexei Brusilov) - stretching from the northwest to the southeast.  The pre-war plans, assuming that the Austro-Hungarians deploy their forces close to the border, calls for 3rd and 8th armies to advance westward and engage the enemy in a defensive battle near Lemberg (modern Lvov).  Once the Austro-Hungarian army is fixed by this attack, 4th and 5th armies are to attack south behind the enemy forces and rout them.  The pre-war plans are nullified almost the instant war is declared.  Grand Duke Nicholas, appointed commander of the Russian army, responds to pleas from France by ordering the advance of 4th Army prematurely.  Conversely, the advance of 3rd Army westward is painstakingly slow - its commander believes that the Austro-Hungarians have deployed near the border, when in fact they have deployed far to the rear.  It is only on the 21st that 3rd Army has crossed the border, and progress remains glacial.  Thus the pre-war plan is being in practice reversed - it is the attack south of 4th and 5th armies that will hit the enemy first, a situation complicated by the Austro-Hungarian deployment in the rear and Conrad's decision to invade Russian Poland.  Thus the first Russian invasion of Galicia is heading directly towards the Austro-Hungarian invasion heading in the opposite direction.

Initial plans of Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies in Galicia, Aug. 1914.

- The advance of the Gold Coast Regiment northwards from Lome to Kamina in German Togoland encounters German resistance along the Chra River.  Entrenched on the northern bank, the Germans pour fire on the advancing Imperial troops, who suffer 17% casualties.  Despite the victory, the outnumbered Germans withdraw northwards this evening.