Editing First Battle of the Marne (section)

===The Great Retreat===
{{Main|Great Retreat}}
{{see also|Battle of the Frontiers|Battle of Mons|Battle of Dinant|Battle of Charleroi|Battle of St. Quentin (1914)|Battle of the Ardennes|Battle of Halen|Battle of Le Cateau}}
The Germans and the French had different strategies for what they anticipated would be a short war. France's top priority was to recover Alsace-Lorraine, lost to Germany in the [[Franco-Prussian war]] of 1870. Germany's priority was to defeat France quickly, so that it could turn its attention to the Russians. Both armies at the beginning of the war believed that offence would prevail over defence. The French military philosophy has been characterized as the "cult of the offensive," a belief that ''elan'' (spirit) and ''cran'' (guts) were the essential elements of military victory.  The "most terrible August in the history of the world" proved them wrong as artillery and machine guns triumphed over ''elan'' and ''cran''. A French lieutenant named [[Charles de Gaulle]] said 'that all the courage in the world cannot prevail against gunfire."{{sfn|Meyer|2007|pages=142, 162–163}}

August 1914 saw bloody battles, nearly all of which the Germans won, the conquest of most of Belgium by Germany, and the rapid advance of the German armies into France. North and west of Paris, the French and British armies retreated before the German onslaught. East of Paris, the French army launched several offensives into Alsace-Lorraine which failed. France's military [[Plan XVII]] anticipated that Germany would concentrate most of its forces in eastern France in Alsace-Lorraine and Joffre clung to that belief, although the commander of the 5th French army, [[Charles Lanrezac]], repeatedly warned him that the Germans were attacking Belgium in numbers exceeding those of his own and the BEF. Retired general [[Joseph Gallieni]] also warned Joffre that the German's main effort was in the northwest, not the east.{{sfn|Herwig|2009|pages=133–140}}

On 24 August, Joffre finally acknowledged that his northwestern (left) flank was at risk. He abandoned the aggressive Plan XVII and instead proclaimed that the French armies were "forced to take defensive action...to wear down the enemy's strength and resume the offense in due course." The [[Great Retreat]] began in which the French 3rd, 4th, and 5th armies and the BEF on the French left began a {{cvt|300|km|mile}} retreat, mostly walking rather than fighting. The French were followed by the German 1st (Kluck), 2nd (Bülow), and 3rd (Hausen) armies. Hundreds of thousands of German, French, and British soldiers marched southeast in summer heat, wearing woollen uniforms and carrying {{cvt|60|lb|kg}} packs, the Germans motivated by the belief that they would soon capture Paris and end the war. German commanders exulted in their victories, but Chief of General Staff Moltke was worried. The Germans were capturing few prisoners and arms, an indication that the French and British were retreating in good order, not in panic.{{sfn|Meyer|2007|pages=163–165, 194}}

During the retreat, Joffre bolstered his defences. He created two new armies. The 6th was to defend Paris with Gallieni as the Military Governor and [[Michel-Joseph Maunoury]] as the commander of the 6th army. Gallieni demanded not only garrison troops but also a mobile force to confront the advancing Germans.{{sfn|Meyer|2007|pages=163–164}} The 9th army headed by [[Ferdinand Foch]] was stationed between the third and fourth French armies.{{sfn|Strachan|2001|page=248}} Utilizing the extensive French railway system, Joffre transferred men from the two eastern armies (the 1st and 2nd) to the Marne and integrated semi-trained French reserves into his defence.{{sfn|Herwig|2009|pages=207–210}}

Meanwhile, the attacking Germans had outrun their logistics and attrition among its soldiers was high. Kluck's first army had advanced {{cvt|140|km|mile}} beyond the railhead which supplied it. Sixty per cent of its motor transport had broken down as had fodder wagons carrying hay for horses. Its men had marched {{cvt|500|km|mile}} since leaving Germany one month earlier, fought several battles, and suffered 20,000 men killed, wounded, and ill. The soldiers were "like living scarecrows."{{sfn|Herwig|2009|pp=219–220}}         
With every mile marched southward, the Germans were more isolated from the sources of their supplies while the French were closer to theirs.{{sfn|Keegan|1998|page=101}}

Demands for more soldiers on other fronts in the war (and possible over-confidence) resulted in Moltke reducing the number of German attackers in France by 200,000 or more men in August. He transferred two corps to the eastern front to fight the Russians and assigned another two to besiege [[Antwerp]] and [[Maubeuge]].{{sfn|Herwig|2009|page=240}}{{sfn|Meyer|2007|page=165. Meyer conflicts with Herwig on the number of corps transferred.}} The German 1st and 2nd armies on 1 August had 580,000 soldiers; at the Battle of the Marne they had 372,000. By the eve of the battle, the allied forces between Paris and Verdun numbered 980,000 French and 100,000 British soldiers while the Germans numbered 750,000. The Germans had an advantage in artillery with 3,300 to 3,000 guns.{{sfn|Herwig|2009|pages=219, 244}}