Explore "The Battle of the Marne" by G.H. Perris on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In every part the German war-machine was designed and fitted to deliver such a blow. Its effective force was the second great element of surprise for the Entente.
It is now clear that, taking the field as a whole, France was not overwhelmed by superior numbers. True, as a French official report says, "the military effort of Germany at the outset of the war surpassed all anticipations"; but the element of surprise lay not in numbers, but in fighting quality and organisation. Of the whole mass mobilised in August 1914, one quarter was sent to the East. The remainder provided, in the last week of August, for employment against Belgium and France, an effective force of about 80 infantry divisions -- 45 active, 27 reserve, mixed Ersatz brigades presently grouped in 6 divisions, and 4 Landwehr divisions in course of formation,[3] with about 8 divisions of cavalry, -- about a million and a half of men, for the most part young, highly trained and disciplined, including 115,000 re-engaged non-commissioned officers (double the strength of the French company cadres).