![]() ![]() He was concerned in particular with a gap which had opened between his Second and Third armies as a result of the latter’s having already turned south, from southwest, to help the Fourth Army, its neighbour on the other flank. The request came at a moment when Moltke was becoming perturbed over the way the French were slipping away from his grasp. Before acceding, Kluck deferred to Moltke. Lanrezac’s attack, on August 29, was stopped before Bülow needed this aid, but he asked Kluck to wheel in nevertheless, in order to cut off Lanrezac’s retreat. ![]() For, in order to ease the pressure on the British, Joffre had ordered Lanrezac to halt and strike back against the pursuing Germans, and Bülow, shaken by the threat, called on Kluck for aid. Kluck had hardly swung out to the southwest before he was induced to swing in again. This dislocated Joffre’s design for an early return to the offensive and compelled the Sixth Army to fall back hurriedly toward the shelter of the Paris defenses. Moreover, it carried him into the Amiens-Péronne area, where the first elements of the newly formed French Sixth Army were just detraining after their “switch” from Alsace. If the direction of Kluck’s advance was partly due to a misconception of the line of retreat taken by the British, it was also in accordance with his original role of executing a wide circling sweep. When, on August 26, the British left wing fell back southward badly mauled from Le Cateau, Kluck turned southwestward again. The new pessimism of Moltke and the renewed optimism of his army commanders together produced a fresh change of plan, which contained the seeds of disaster. However, the comparatively small number of prisoners raised doubts in Moltke’s mind and led him to a more sober estimate of the situation. The first, highly coloured reports from the army commands in the Battles of the Frontiers had given the German Supreme Command the impression of a decisive victory. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. He decided to swing back his centre and left, with Verdun as the pivot, while drawing troops from the right and forming a fresh Sixth Army on his left to enable the retiring armies to return to the offensive. Joffre formed a new plan out of the wreckage. The German attack would have then fallen on the French left flank and rear, virtually assuring the destruction of the French army and the fall of Paris. The Schlieffen Plan called for a massive flank attack on the French defenses, but Plan XVII would have carried the bulk of the French army beyond those defenses and left it open to envelopment. Plan XVII had vastly underestimated the size of German invasion forces, and its execution would have dramatically enhanced the effectiveness of the German Schlieffen Plan. Joseph-Jacques-Césaire Joffre at last recognized the folly of pressing ahead with Plan XVII, the planned French offensive into Alsace and Lorraine. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!įrench commander in chief Gen.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians. #DAY OF DEFEAT SOURCE TRENCH CIRCLE MAP HOW TO#
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