The campaign of the Marne, 1914 - Mr. Sewell Tyng

A masterly account of the First World War in the West."-John Keegan

"A distinguished piece of historical writing."-Journal of Modern History

"Admirable... clear and interesting."-Foreign Affairs

"Direct and clear... it lays bare a most complicated course of events so that even the layman can follow."-New Republic

With
diplomacy unraveling during the summer of 1914, Germany swept into
Belgium during the first week of August in an audacious attempt to catch
France and England off guard. First contemplated after the
Franco-Prussian War, the Schlieffen Plan was designed to keep Germany
from fighting on two fronts. With a quick and decisive victory over
France and its allies to the west, Germany could then confront Russia to
the east. Despite the surprise of Germany's initial advance, the plan
ultimately failed because it required much more mobile troops than were
available at the time - something that would have to await the
mechanized blitzkrieg of World War II-allowing France and British
Expeditionary Forces to establish a tenacious defense. What followed was
a stalemate along the Marne River and the beginning of four long years
of destructive trench warfare that would only be lifted by a joint
French, British, and American offensive across this same river plain in
1918. In The Campaign of the Marne, the entire genesis of the
Schlieffen Plan, its modification, implementation, and the complex
series of grueling battles that followed is laid out with the intent to
make the entire episode comprehensible to the general reader. Hailed as
one of the 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century by eminent
military historian John Keegan, this is the first time the book has been
available since its original publication in 1935.