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The Daily Telegraph
WAR BOOKS

THE BATTLE OF THE RIVERS




The Daily Telegraph
WAR BOOKS

Cloth 1/- net each

Post free 1/3 each


+HOW THE WAR BEGAN.+ By W. L. COURTNEY, LL.D., and J. M. KENNEDY.

+THE FLEETS AT WAR.+ By ARCHIBALD HURD.

+THE CAMPAIGN OF SEDAN.+ By GEORGE HOOPER.

+THE CAMPAIGN ROUND LIÈGE.+ By J. M. KENNEDY.

+IN THE FIRING LINE.+ Battle Stories told by British Soldiers at the
Front. By A. ST. JOHN ADCOCK.

+GREAT BATTLES OF THE WORLD.+ By STEPHEN CRANE, Author of "The Red Badge
of Courage."

+BRITISH REGIMENTS AT THE FRONT.+ The glorious story of their Battle
Honours.

+THE RED CROSS IN WAR.+ By M. F. BILLINGTON.

+FORTY YEARS AFTER.+ The Story of the Franco-German War. By H. C. BAILEY.
With an introduction by W. L. COURTNEY, LL.D.

+A SCRAP OF PAPER.+ The Inner History of German Diplomacy. By E. J.
DILLON.

+HOW THE NATIONS WAGED WAR.+ A companion volume to "How the War Began,"
telling how the world faced Armageddon and how the British Army answered
the call to arms. By J. M. KENNEDY.

+AIR-CRAFT IN WAR+. By ERIC STUART BRUCE.

+HACKING THROUGH BELGIUM.+ By EDMUND DANE.

+FAMOUS FIGHTS OF INDIAN NATIVE REGIMENTS.+ By REGINALD HODDER.

+THE RETREAT TO PARIS.+ By ROGER INGPEN.

+THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE.+ By MARR MURRAY.

+THE SUBMARINE IN WAR.+ By C. W. DOMVILLE FIFE.

+MOTOR TRANSPORTS IN WAR.+ By HORACE WYATT.

+THE SLAV NATIONS.+

+FROM HELIGOLAND TO KEELING ISLAND.+ By ARCHIBALD HURD.

+WITH THE FRENCH EASTERN ARMY.+ By W. E. GREY.

+WITH THE ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORP.+ By E. C. VIVIAN.

+WITH THE SCOTTISH REGIMENTS AT THE FRONT.+ By E. C. VIVIAN.

+THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIAN POLAND.+ By P. C. STANDING.

+THE BATTLE OF THE RIVERS.+ By EDMUND DANE.

HODDER AND STOUGHTON




THE BATTLE OF THE RIVERS

BY
EDMUND DANE

HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
MCMXIV




PREFATORY NOTE


On a scale before unknown in Western Europe, and save for the coincident
operations in the Eastern theatre of war, unexampled in history, the
succession of events named the "Battle of the Rivers" presents
illustrations of strategy and tactics of absorbing interest. Apart even
from the spectacular aspects of this lurid and grandiose drama, full as
it is of strange and daring episodes, the problems it affords in the
science of war must appeal to every intelligent mind.

An endeavour is here made to state these problems in outline. In the
light they throw, events and episodes, which might otherwise appear
confused, will be found to fit into a clear sequence of causes and
consequences. The events and episodes themselves gain in grandeur as
their import and relationship are unfolded.

Since the story of the retreat from Mons has been told in another volume
of this series, it is only in the following pages dealt with so far as
its military bearings elucidate succeeding phases of the campaign.




The Battle of the Rivers




CHAPTER I

THE GERMAN PLANS


"About September 3," wrote Field Marshal Sir John French in his despatch
dated a fortnight later,[1] "the enemy appears to have changed his
plans, and to have determined to stop his advance south direct upon
Paris, for on September 4 air reconnaissances showed that his main
columns were moving in a south-easterly direction generally, east of a
line drawn through Nanteuil and Lizy on the Ourcq."

In that passage the British commander summarises an event which changed
the whole military aspect of the Great War and changed it not only in
the Western, but in the Eastern theatre of hostilities.

What were the German plans and why were they changed?

In part the plans were military, and in part political. These two
aspects, however, are so interwoven that it is necessary, in the