Excerpt from The Second Phase of the Great War And the German leaders too knew that September 1914 was not like September 1870. Berlin indeed kept the anni versary of Sedan by parading the trophies of Victory - long trains of captured artillery - through its streets. The German armies had marched into the heart of France and added to their record of success, the names of stricken fields and captured fortresses, but so far they had won no decisive victory. During the retreat from the frontier, every attempt to cut Off and destroy the Allied armies piecemeal had failed, and until the armies were broken up and crushed, an attack on Paris was out of the question. A Victory in a great pitched battle, and a victory that would thoroughly Shatter the fighting force of the Allies was a necessary prelude to any Operations against Paris. After such a Victory the fate of the French capital would be sealed. It was no more capable of a prolonged resistance than Liege or Namur had been. As long as the Allied armies kept the field it could play a useful part. When they withdrew across the Marne, Paris protected the left flank of their long array, and the right rested on the eastern barrier of entrenched camps and fortresses on the verdun-toul line. But if the Allies were driven south wards, the Whole situation would be Changed. The German Staff, therefore, prepared for a great battle on a front of over a hundred miles. The prelude to it was an advance across the Marne. There is no doubt that they counted on an easy victory. For nearly a fortnight they had been steadily advancing, following up the retreat of their opponents, who had been unable to make a stand against them anywhere for more than a few hours at a time. In the pursuit they had gathered up thousands of prisoners, and scores of abandoned cannon, and on every battlefield the retreating Allies had had to leave their wounded in the hands of the invaders. There can be no doubt that the impression all this created in the minds of the German leaders was that their opponents were very badly beaten, and hardly capable of a serious resistance to a combined stroke of the German armies. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.