Summary

Chapter 13: Sambre et Meuse

The offensive fighting began on the fifteenth day of the war. The French opened the offensive into German-occupied Lorraine. The far right wing renewed the offensive in Alsace. Other French units marched on other occupied towns. At both Sarrebourg and Morhange the Germans were hunkered down behind barbed wire and in trenches. It would take an attack of heavy artillery to dislodge them. The French Army had no heavy artillery – proudly traveled light. The Germans held the Lorraine front with a mission to hold the French troops there in order to keep them away from the main front opposite the German right wing. They would tempt the enemy with a tactical victory but inflict him with a strategic defeat.

For the first four days, the Germans fought only rearguard action against the French. The French entered the territory that...