{"id":931,"date":"2016-09-03T23:53:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T23:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=931"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:51:05","slug":"first-battle-of-the-marne-in-world-war-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/first-battle-of-the-marne-in-world-war-i\/","title":{"rendered":"First Battle of the Marne in World War I: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The First Battle of the\u00a0Marne\u00a0occurred from September 6th to the 12th in 1914 and was one the first major conflicts of\u00a0World War I<\/a>.\u00a0 In particular, the First Battle of the\u00a0Marne\u00a0was important to the early fighting on the\u00a0Western Front<\/a>, which was the line of fighting that occurred along the eastern half of France and parts of Belgium.\u00a0 The First Battle of the Marne took place near the\u00a0Marne River, just east of the French capital of Paris.\u00a0 It was the result of a German advance into French territory following the\u00a0Battle of the Frontiers<\/a>.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WHAT LED TO THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE IN WORLD WAR I?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u200bAt the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914,\u00a0France\u00a0and\u00a0Germany\u00a0launched competing plans of attack.\u00a0 For instance, Germany launched the\u00a0Schlieffen Plan<\/a>, while France launched Plan XVII.\u00a0 The French battle plan (Plan XVII) was created in the two years before the start of World War I, in the event that a war between France and Germany might occur.\u00a0 In general, the plan focused on mobilizing French forces as quickly as possible to defend specific strongholds, while simultaneously invading German territory.\u00a0 The plan was enacted on August 7th in 1914 by French General Joseph Joffre and directly led to the events of the Battle of the Frontiers<\/a>.\u00a0 Unfortunately, for France<\/a> the plan of attack and the Battle of the Frontiers was a failure and allowed Germany to advance further towards Paris.\u00a0 As part of the Schlieffen Plan, Germany\u2019s strategy was to capture Paris as quickly as possible in order to force France to surrender.\u00a0 As such, capturing Paris was a key goal for the Germany<\/a>, while protecting it was important for France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Schlieffen
Schlieffen Plan – Map (Created by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u200bFollowing the failure during the Battle of the Frontiers, France regrouped its forces and organized them in order to stop the German advance.  More specifically, the French carried out the \u2018Great Retreat\u2019 following the Battle of the Mons, which was the final conflict of the Battle of the Frontiers.  The French forces fell back in order to protect Pairs.  They were joined by reservist troops as a means of reinforcing the French defenses.  In fact, the First Battle of the Marne saw six French Armies joined by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) launch a counterattack against the German armies at the Marne River, just 30 miles from Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"World
Map of World War I in Europe. (Created by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE IN WORLD WAR I?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Famously, about 6,000 French troops were transported to the front-line of the Marne by approximately 600 Paris taxicabs.  While the impact of the taxicabs has been debated in history, it no doubt lifted the morale of the country in a time of war.  During the battle, French commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, cunningly shifted the Allied forces from differing flanks in order to overwhelm the German divisions.  For example, during the battle, the French had 64 divisions and the British had 6 divisions, while the Germans had only 51 divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gave the French and British a clear advantage in the battle and proved to be too much for the German forces to overcome.\u00a0 In fact, the First Battle of the\u00a0Marne\u00a0was a victory for the French and British<\/a> forces and led to the end of the German plan of attack \u2013 Schlieffen Plan.\u00a0 For instance, the German Army was forced into a full retreat from September 9th until the 13th and supposedly caused the German General Helmuth von Moltke to report to Kaiser Wilhelm II<\/a>: “Your Majesty, we have lost the war.”\u00a0 This failure of the Schlieffen Plan makes the First Battle of the\u00a0Marne\u00a0one of the most significant battles of World War I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"First
German soldiers at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME OF THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE IN WORLD WAR I?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the First Battle of the\u00a0Marne\u00a0stopped the German advance into Paris and led to the events of the \u2018Race to the Sea<\/a>\u2019 and years of trench warfare.\u00a0 For instance, after the First Battle of the Marne the Allied nations<\/a> and the German Army both pushed north in an attempt to outflank each other.\u00a0 This became known as the \u2018Race to the Sea\u2019, and ultimately established the line of trenches that became characteristic of the Western Front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is the First Battle of the Marne a significant battle of World War I due to its outcome, but it is also remembered for the terrible losses that each side suffered.  For instance, it is estimated that the French and the Germans each experienced 250,000 casualties at the First Battle of the Marne.  France also suffered over 80,000 deaths in the battle, while Germany suffered over 67,000.  As stated above, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) also participated in the battle, and historians estimate that they experienced 13,000 casualties and 1,700 deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"First
French infantrymen bayonet charge. (1914) (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Battle of the Marne in World War I was one of the first major conflicts of the First World War. It was fought between French and German forces along the Marne River in France in September of 1914.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":14,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[15,20],"class_list":["post-931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-war-i","tag-history","tag-world-war-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10299,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions\/10299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}