Battle of the Frontiers
 1914 Frontiers - reserve
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The Battle of the Frontiers began with the French attack in Alsace and Lorraine, followed by the German counterattack, the French offensive in the Ardennes, the French attack on Charleroi on the Sambre, the British attack at Mons in Belgium, but ended with the Great Retreat to the Marne.
Aug. 8, 1914 - French 1st Army attacked in Alsace and took Mulhouse for 8 hours, then forced to withdraw to Belfort.
Aug. 14 - French 1st and 2nd armies attacked Alsace and Lorraine, and new Army of Alsace under Gen. Pau on French right again took Mulhouse by Aug. 19, but "sponginess" of the front ended with stiff German artillery fire Aug. 20. Castelnau's 2nd Army was stopped at Morhange heights, fell back to Nancy by Aug. 23. Bubail's 1st Army had advanced to Saarburg but German counterattack retook Saarburg.
Aug. 15 - The German right wing continued to advance through Belgium, took Dinant on the Meuse, and Lanzerac's 5th Army fell back south of the Sambre.
Aug. 18 - Kluck's 1st Army resumed its swing through Belgium, but did not know where the BEF had landed or could be found. John French and his BEF had assembled at Maubrege and began to line up behind the Mons Canal to form the left flank of Lanrezac's force, but did not know that Kluck's army was advancing directly at them.
Aug. 21 - Battle of the Ardennes began with French offensive by 4th and 5th Armies, but hilly terrain favored the forty 105mm and sixteen 150mm high-angle heavy howitzers in each German corps of Albrecht's 4th Army, and the French retreated Aug. 24. Foch's son Germain was killed in the offensive.
Aug. 23 - Battle of Mons began when Kluck's divisions blundered into the British II Corps of 36,000 men behind the Mons Canal between Mons and Conde on the French border. Accurate British rifle fire stopped the German advance, but Lanzerac was retreating on the British right, and John French ordered a British retreat Aug. 24.
Aug. 25 - Joffre ordered a general retreat, moved Army of Alsace to Maunoury's newly-formed 6th Army at Amiens. Moltke took 2 corps from Kluck to send to eastern front.
Aug. 26 - Battle of Le Cateau began at dawn with an attack by the German cavalry corps of Marwitz against the British II Corps of Smith-Dorien, on a line from Esnes to Le Cateau, behind the Warnelle Ravineand by German III and IV Corps in the afternoon, forcing the British to withdraw 10 miles to the south. British suffered 7812 casualties out of the corps of 55,000 and two battalions surrendered. German intelligence was poor and Kluck lost contact with the British, allowing them to escape as they had done after Mons.
Aug. 26 - The Battle of the Frontiers ended as the Allied armies retreated.
Links:
- map from USMA
- Battle of the Frontiers - Lorraine and Ardennes and Mons from World War One - The War To End All War
- Battle of the Frontiers from Western Front Association
- Chapter 3, Battle of Mons, Military Operations France and Belgium 1914, by Gen. James E. Edmonds, 1933
- Great War In a Different Light
Sources:
- Keegan, John. The First World War. New York : A. Knopf, 1999.
- Strachan, Hew. The First World War: To Arms. Vol 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
- Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. New York, Macmillan, 1962.