After the Marne—A Second War of Movement Ensued

A series of running battles were fought in the race to the sea. For a month and [a] half both armies slipped north leaving a path of total destruction called the "Kingdom of Death."

Charles Casimer Krawczyk, Remembrance: As Long As We Live

Fall 1914: French Cavalry on the Move

Clearly the first month of the war was one of movement featuring long marches, corresponding retreats, and brief holding actions. In month two, there was the Battle of the Marne and the retreat to the Aisne, where things started to get bogged down trench-wise, as was also happening over in the Vosges Mountains near the Swiss border. However, there were three areas where the combatants still saw opportunities for mobile warfare and potentially decisive action: Flanders, Lorraine, and in the area just west and north of where the main forces had found themselves bogged down, which would become known as the locale of the "Race to the Sea."

After the September 1914 Battle of the Marne, big sections of the battlefields in France and Flanders seemed to be "locking up," especially along the Aisne River and in the Alsace. None of the commanders, however, could accept the stalemate, so improvised efforts were attempted to seek a decision via a breakthrough or flanking maneuver in the post-Marne Second War of Movement. Alas, these attempts failed and left the combatants doomed to the "Long War" of 1914–18. Nevertheless, a close study of these operations reveals that within them were both the same lost opportunities for victory and the war-shaping events characteristic for the longer struggle that took place in the First War of Movement, when the Schlieffen Plan and Plan XVII were guiding the commanders.

Memorial in Souchez (Artois) Commemorating
Fighting in October 1914

Alas, no one would gain an advantage in the Race to the Sea. One last opportunity to avoid total trench warfare would fail in Flanders on the last day of October 1914. The Western Front was in lockdown. It would not move dramatically until the first Ludendorff Offensive launched on 21 March 1918. The forces in France and Flanders, the men being mobilized, and tens of thousands of schoolboys not yet aware of their military destinies, were condemned to 1,236 days of trench warfare and many failed attempts to break out of it.

Source:  March 2021 St. Mihiel Trip-Wire