Marne, Battle of the

Marne, Battle of the, name of two battles of World War I: the first halted the German advance into north-eastern France, and the second tipped the balance of power in favour of the Allied forces. The battles took place near the River Marne in north-east France.

(September 6-9, 1914), a decisive battle that halted the German advance near the Marne, less than 48 km (30 mi) from Paris. The German forces had been meeting with little resistance in their march on Paris. Then, supposedly because of an error in decoding an order, they wheeled to the south-east. Joseph Simon Gallieni, the military governor of Paris, persuaded the French commander in chief, Joseph Joffre, to attack the flank thus exposed. Under Joffre's orders troops were rushed from Paris to the front by all available means, including 600 taxicabs, and the Allied attack began on September 6. By September 9 the German armies had retreated, and the threat to Paris was ended.

(July 15-August 4, 1918), the action that marked the turning point of the war. The Germans, according to the plan of General Erich Ludendorff, attacked to the east and west of Reims. West of the city they succeeded in crossing the Marne but made little subsequent progress. On July 18 the Allied commander General Ferdinand Foch counter-attacked with forces that included several American divisions. One of the centres of fiercest combat was at Château-Thierry, where the American troops won their first decisive victory. The German armies were forced back across the Marne. Foch's counter-attack destroyed Ludendorff's plan for a massive attack in Flanders and shifted the initiative to the Allies.