Race to the Sea

The Race to the Sea is the term commonly used for a series of battles and maneuvers that unfolded on the Western Front in World War I, from mid-September to mid-October 1914. It directly followed the First Battle of the Marne, in which the British and French armies checked the invasion of France by the armies of Imperial Germany. Over the following month, each side attempted to gain or re-gain the initiative by maneuvering northwards in order to turn the other's flank in that direction and force a retreat. None of these flank attacks resulted in a decisive victory, however; instead, each side extended its fortified lines farther and farther, making such a maneuver progressively more difficult to achieve, as the stretch of open ground between those lines and the North Sea steadily diminished. The entrenchments were finally extended to the North Sea coast around October 19, bringing the "race" to an end.

Though the term "Race to the Sea" is something of a misnomer, as the combatants were not actually striving to be the first to reach the coast, this phase of the fighting was still significant, as it marked the last attempt to quickly win the war in the West through rapid movements and decisive battles. Following the termination of the race, the front line was so extensive that only frontal assaults against fortified positions were still a tactical option. This marked the beginning of the famous trench warfare that would characterize the Western Front until 1918.

Background

With the outbreak of hostilities at the beginning of August, 1914, most of the combatants planned on a quick, decisive victory. The German military, under the overall command of General Helmuth von Moltke, mobilized in adherence to the Schlieffen Plan formed some years previously, by which the bulk of their armies would invade France via neutral Belgium, capturing Paris and encircling the French armies within six weeks; France's capacity to carry on the war would immediately be destroyed. For their part, the French armed forces planned on an eastward offensive into Alsace-Lorraine, recapturing the German-occupied province and gaining a strong natural position from which to defeat the Germans in battle.

As the fighting on the Western Front unfolded, though, both of these plans miscarried. The French armies, under the overall command of General Joseph Joffre, did indeed attack eastward into Alsace-Lorraine, but were held in check by the German Sixth and Seventh Armies around Metz and Nancy, while being outflanked further north by the German offensive. At the same time, the Schlieffen Plan gradually went awry during August and early September, as the unexpectedly stiff resistance of the Belgian army, and the early arrival of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French, endangered its progress. By late August, Joffre had realized his forces were in a strategically dangerous position, and shifted most of them to a new front northeast of Paris in order to meet the German flanking maneuver head-on. Indeed, this realignment of forces provided the Franco-British alliance an opportunity to carry out their own flank attack on the Germans, and on September 4 Joffre decided to go over to the offensive against the First Army of Alexander von Kluck, holding the Germans' right flank along the Marne River.

The result of this decision was the First Battle of the Marne, which opened on September 6 and carried on for the next several days, featuring bitter but often inconclusive fighting along the Marne and its tributaries, on a front of more than 80 miles. By September 9, though the Allies were in danger of having their left (western) flank broken once again, they had made some progress in the center against the German Second and Third Armies, but not enough to achieve a total breakthrough. That same day, however, one of Moltke's staffers, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hentsch, visited the front lines, and authorized General Karl von Bülow, commander of Second Army, to retreat after Bülow had reported his formations were in danger of being broken. This at once compelled the First and Third Armies, on either flank, to withdraw as well.

Moltke himself visited the front on September 10 and reached the same decision as Hentsch, issuing orders the following day for a general withdrawal (including the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Armies, positioned farther east) from the Marne River to the Aisne, some 25 miles to the north. "The lines so reached," his orders read, "will be fortified and defended." Suffering a nervous breakdown on account of the Schlieffen Plan's failure--he is supposed to have informed Kaiser Wilhelm II, "Your Majesty, we have lost the war!"--Moltke was relieved of command on September 14 and replaced as Chief of the General Staff, and therefore as German military commander, by General Erich von Falkenhayn.

Prelude: First Battle of the Aisne

On September 10, the day after the Germans began their retreat, the French and British armies advanced northward, though at first not very aggressively, covering only about 12 miles a day; the march of the BEF was particularly slow. Joffre ordered flanking attempts by the French 5th and 6th Armies on his left, in order to roll up the German right; but the Germans had already gained too great a head start, and by the 14th, most of their units had reached the far bank of the Aisne and begun entrenching. The north bank of the Aisne is significantly higher in elevation, overlooking the country to the south through which the Allied armies were marching, and most bridges over the river had already been destroyed or heavily damaged, making it difficult even to get into position for a frontal assault on the German lines.

British and French troops began crossing the Aisne on September 13 to the north and northeast of Soissons and attacked German positions the nest day along one of the strongest portions of their new defensive line, a steep ridge known as the Chemin des Dames. Though the French 4th, 5th, and 9th Armies made slight progress to the east, they were unable to dislodge the Germans, and the BEF troops in particular suffered very heavy casualties. Inferior British artillery and a lack of proper entrenching equipment only aggravated the difficult position of the attackers.

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."