e cinematograph or on the
comparatively rare occasions of close fighting at short range that
men rush about dramatically. For one thing, they are too tired to
hurry; and anyhow, what is the use of running when a shell may
burst any minute anywhere in the square mile you happen to be on?

"I walked with the company officers who were planning a fresh advance,
map in hand. They had gained the village in which we were that
morning, but at tremendous loss.

"'Out of my company of 220,' said one captain, 'there are only
100 left. It's the same story everywhere--the German machine guns.
Their fire simply clears the ground like a razor. You just can't
understand how anyone gets away alive. I've had men fall at my
right hand and my left. You can't look anywhere, as you advance,
without seeing men dropping. Of our four officers, two are wounded
and one dead. I am left alone in command.'"

This hand-to-hand fighting for the possession of villages on the
west bank of the Marne, this heavy loss to the French troops by
the German artillery, and this sudden check at the Ourcq itself,
until British heavy batteries were sent, marks the character of
what may be called the battle of the Ourcq, the westernmost of
the battles of the Marne. As General von Kluck had divided his
forces, in order to carry out the attempt to pierce the left of
General d'Esperey's army, the German forces in the battle of the
Ourcq were outnumbered almost three to one. In spite of these odds
against them, the extreme German right held for four days the position
it had been given to hold.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XVI

CONTINUATION OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE

Remembering again the general outline of General von Kluck's plan,
that of executing a diagonal movement with 150,000 of his men to
attack the easternmost point of the Fifth Army, and possibly to
envelop it by a flank movement, the continuation of the Battle
of the Marne may be treated with more detail. This part is called
by some the Battle of Coulommiers.

In this battle there was as great a change in morale as in the
battle of the Ourcq. There, the French had been stirred to high
endeavor by the realization that the word to advance had at last
been given. This also operated in part on the British in the battle
of Coulommiers, but, in addition, there was another very important
factor.

The dawn of that Sunday summer morning, September 6, 1914, was
one of great exhilar