tected by open-air earthworks, but by a circle of armor-plate
concrete forts. To the mighty siege guns handled by General von
Zwehl, these were no trouble, for Von Zwehl had not only the heavy
batteries attached to the Seventh Army Reserve, but he also had a
number of Von Kluck's guns and the majority of General von Buelow's,
neither of whom was expected to need siege guns in the forward
drive where mobility was an essential. In addition to this, General
von Zwehl also had the great siege train that had been prepared
for the reduction of Paris. What chance had Maubeuge against such
a potency?

On September 8, 1914, word reached General von Zwehl that the forward
drive had failed, that the main armies had been beaten back and
that he was to bring up his guns as rapidly as possible to cover
the retreat. As rapidly as he could, to General von Zwehl, meant
but one thing--to get there! He collected 9,000 reserve troops,
which was almost immediately swelled by another 9,000, and with
a total of 18,000 troops he started his siege trains for the town
of Laon, where Field Marshal von Heeringen had taken up his
headquarters. The weather turned bad, rendering the heavy guns
extremely difficult to handle, but there could be no delay, no
explanations, to General von Zwehl. If a gun was to be brought it
was to be brought and that was all about it! Four days and three
nights of almost continuous marching is killing. The German commander
cared nothing for that. The guns must be kept moving. Could he get
them there on time? In the last twenty-four hours of the march,
his 18,000 troops covered 41 miles and they arrived in Laon at six
o'clock in the morning of September 13, 1914, and were in action an
hour later. The problem, therefore, before the English and French at
the Aisne, was not the carrying of the river against a disheartened
and retreating army, but the carrying of the river against a
well-thought-out and forceful plan--a plan, moreover, backed up
by the most powerful artillery that the world has ever seen.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXI

THE BRITISH AT THE AISNE

In the battles of the Marne, the brunt of the fighting had been
borne mainly by the French armies, but the major part of work of
the battle of the Aisne was borne by the British Expeditionary
Force. Sir John French wasted no time. Saturday night, September
12, 1914, was a night of labor for engineers and gunners. The bridge
trains bel