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Although the "First Battle of the Aisne," as a distinct military operation, would continue until late September, the failure on September 14 marked the end of its most significant phase, as well as that of the Allied "pursuit" from the Marne. On the 14th, Sir John French ordered his troops to start entrenching as the Germans had already done, freezing the Aisne front more or less in place until 1918 and marking the first appearance of the famous "[[trench warfare]]". With the lines likewise stabilizing further east, Joffre looked northwest to the comparatively open country between Compiègne, where the Aisne emptied into the Oise, and the North Sea for a new opportunity for a flanking maneuver, and ordered his 6th Army to cross to the west bank of the Oise on September 17 and march northeast to turn the German right. Simultaneously, at German headquarters, General von Falkenhayn had ordered his own Sixth Army west from Alsace-Lorraine to extend his right and, if possible, envelop the Allied left. These orders are generally considered to inaugurate the "Race to the Sea."
Although the "First Battle of the Aisne," as a distinct military operation, would continue until late September, the failure on September 14 marked the end of its most significant phase, as well as that of the Allied "pursuit" from the Marne. On the 14th, Sir John French ordered his troops to start entrenching as the Germans had already done, freezing the Aisne front more or less in place until 1918 and marking the first appearance of the famous "[[trench warfare]]". With the lines likewise stabilizing further east, Joffre looked northwest to the comparatively open country between Compiègne, where the Aisne emptied into the Oise, and the North Sea for a new opportunity for a flanking maneuver, and ordered his 6th Army to cross to the west bank of the Oise on September 17 and march northeast to turn the German right. Simultaneously, at German headquarters, General von Falkenhayn had ordered his own Sixth Army west from Alsace-Lorraine to extend his right and, if possible, envelop the Allied left. These orders are generally considered to inaugurate the "Race to the Sea."
==Phase I: Compiègne to Arras==
===Battle of Picardy===
The French 6th Army began advancing northeastward along the Oise from Compiègne on the 17th, towards the city of Noyon. It was stopped well short of that point, though, by the German First Army under von Kluck, which had just been reinforced by reserve units from Belgium. Though supporting attacks north of Soissons gained some ground, by nightfall on September 18 the advance had ground down, and the 6th Army was forced to entrench along a line extending from Soissons northwest through Carlepont to a point just south of Noyon. At this date, both Joffre and Falkenhayn were still scrambling to obtain reinforcements from quiet sectors of the front; Joffre broke up the 2nd Army in Alsace-Lorraine and brought many of its units west, combining them with other units south of Amiens to create a new 2nd Army under General Noël de Castelnau. Thus reconstituted, the 2nd was ordered to attack eastward, from a point north-northwest of the halted 6th, in a new effort to turn the German right.
Castelnau began his advance on September 22, crossing the Avre river between Lassigny to the south and Roye to the north. However, with German fortifications along the Aisne solidifying, Falkenhayn was able to detach a corps to extend Kluck's flank northward and block Castelnau's path; thus, once again the French attack was halted, though the northernmost units of the 2nd Army were able to establish a bridgehead on the east bank of the Somme (into which the Avre fed) at Péronne.
With the Sixth Army now on hand, Falkenhayn decided to launch his own planned flank attack against the Allied left. Assaults near Roye on September 24 and Noyon on the 25th drove the French armies back towards the Avre and Compiègne, while part of the Sixth Army crossed north of the Somme and pushed the 2nd out of Péronne. With both sides now adopting a policy of entrenching against frontal attacks, though, Falkenhayn's offensive had as much trouble making progress as Joffre's before it, and already by the 26th it was sputtering to a halt. Intense fighting on the Picardy front would continue into early October, but with Castelnau's and Kluck's armies both exhausted, and fresh units continuing to arrive from the east, the center of action would now shift north of the Somme.
===Battle of Albert===
By September 26, a significant portion of the German Sixth Army (mostly troops from [[Bavaria]]; the army commander was Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht) was in position north of the Somme, just east of the town of Albert, with the intent of attacking westward to reach the [[English Channel]] coast and roll up the Allied left. Damage to French railways slowed the German preparations, though, and in the meantime Joffre had begun assembling a provisional sub-army force under General Louis de Maud'huy to meet the threat and yet again attempt a flanking maneuver of its own.
Attacks by German cavalry on the 25th and 26th drove back the handful of French units around Albert, to clear the path for Rupprecht's advance. Maud'huy brought down two corps from the vicinity of Arras, however, and the 27th and 28th saw intense fighting immediately east and northeast of Albert, with a cavalry battle farther north near Arras preventing a German breakthrough in that sector. Much of the combat was uncoordinated and involving relatively small units, due to the frantic attempts on each side to piece a solid line together. By nightfall on September 29, the result was once more a stalemate and the extension of the line northward to Arras. Maud'huy's provisional force was at this time formalized as the French Tenth Army.
==References==
==References==