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Learning of the changed tactical situation on September 3, Gallieni at once urged Joffre to permit an immediate flank attack upon the Germans, which Joffre personally favored but was unwilling to undertake without the active participation of the BEF. The British and French armies were separate commands, and Sir John French, the BEF's commander, was not only on poor terms with Joffre and his other counterparts, but had become increasingly pessimistic in the past weeks of fighting and seemed to prefer a retreat back to Britain altogether. After receiving what he understood as assurances from BEF headquarters that the British would join in a counterattack, though, Joffre on the evening of the 4th issued orders for an attack by his left wing on September 6. The French 5th and 6th Armies, together with the BEF, would attack Kluck's First Army, now astride the Marne river east of Château-Thierry, with the 3rd and 4th Armies engaging in a frontal attack against the German lines farther east.
Learning of the changed tactical situation on September 3, Gallieni at once urged Joffre to permit an immediate flank attack upon the Germans, which Joffre personally favored but was unwilling to undertake without the active participation of the BEF. The British and French armies were separate commands, and Sir John French, the BEF's commander, was not only on poor terms with Joffre and his other counterparts, but had become increasingly pessimistic in the past weeks of fighting and seemed to prefer a retreat back to Britain altogether. After receiving what he understood as assurances from BEF headquarters that the British would join in a counterattack, though, Joffre on the evening of the 4th issued orders for an attack by his left wing on September 6. The French 5th and 6th Armies, together with the BEF, would attack Kluck's First Army, now astride the Marne river east of Château-Thierry, with the 3rd and 4th Armies engaging in a frontal attack against the German lines farther east.
French had not, in fact, committed the BEF to Joffre's counterattack, and in fact that same evening indicated his plans to resume his retreat, back toward Fontainebleau. Joffre was forced to travel to French's headquarters at Melun on the 5th, and made a personal appeal to the British general, emphatically protesting, "''Monsieur le Maréchal'', the honor of England is at stake!" Moved by his words, French reversed himself and promised "we will do all we possibly can." By late afternoon, then, Joffre had achieved the necessary conditions for his planned offensive the following morning.
French had not, in fact, committed the BEF to Joffre's counterattack, and in fact that same evening indicated his plans to resume his retreat, back toward Fontainebleau. Joffre was forced to travel to French's headquarters at Melun on the 5th, and made a personal appeal to the British general, emphatically protesting, "''Monsieur le Maréchal'', the honor of England is at stake!" Moved by his words, French reversed himself and promised "we will do all we possibly can." By late afternoon, then, Joffre had achieved the necessary conditions for his planned offensive the following morning.
By this time, Moltke had realized his initial plan had misfired and that the Allies were preparing a large-scale counterattack. Accordingly, he ordered his (westernmost) First and Second Armies to stand on the defensive, while the Third, Fourth, and Fifth stayed on the offensive further east around Verdun to open the way for envelopment of the French right. The same day these orders were issued (September 5th), though, General Hans von Gronau, commanding the IV Reserve Corps that covered Kluck's western flank, received intelligence of the French 6th Army's advance toward his front as part of Joffre's planned offensive, and responded with an immediate attack of his own along the Ourcq, a minor tributary of the Marne. Gronau's corps successfully held the 6th Army at bay until nightfall, after which it fell back; while Kluck, now alerted of the threat to his flank, began to reorient his army to face this new threat.
==Main Battle==
'''Battle of the Ourcq'''
Though Kluck's right wheel had successfully prevented a flank attack by the 6th Army, he had in the process weakened his main front, facing south near the town of Coulommiers, and opened a significant gap (as wide as thirty miles) with neighboring Second Army (under General Karl von Bülow), which in turn was shifting its troops further east, thinning the lines even more. This sector was among those already earmarked for attack by Joffre, who on September 6 sent the 5th Army and the BEF forward against the lines held by Kluck and Bülow. Though the British, who had a longer distance to cover after their earlier retreat, and made a slower march, were delayed in joining the fight, they had by day's end succeeded in crossing the Marne near Rozoy and pushing Kluck's troops back. The French 5th Army, meanwhile, under General Louis Franchet d'Esperey, brought heavy pressure to bear on Bülow's army around the Grand Morin and Petit Morin rivers (for which it is sometimes called "The Battle of the Two Morins").
While Allied progress was less than hoped (for which d'Esperey blamed the British high command), Bülow had taken alarm at the sharp action on his front, and on September 7th began to withdraw behind the Petit Morin, thus widening the gap with Kluck and clearing the way for a mass Allied advance to and across the Marne. For his part, Kluck and the French 6th Army under Michel-Joseph Maunoury had been trading attacks and counterattacks over the past two days, and as more of the German troops were in battle-ready condition, they more generally held the initiative. For a time on the 7th, Kluck's army in fact threatened a breakthrough, but the French lines held, thanks in part to the arrival of reinforcements from the Paris garrison who were transported to the battlefield by the city's taxis: an event memorialized as the ''taxis de la Marne''. Despite these and other reinforcements, as late as the evening of September 8th Kluck believed he could envelop Maunoury's flank and retrieve the broader situation; however, that same day, d'Esperey's 5th Army had resumed its assaults on Bülow's front, leaving the German formations still at risk of being isolated and destroyed piecemeal.
[[Category:World War I]]
[[Category:World War I]]