Major 1914 Operations—Lorraine Sector
In the fall of 1914, a 40-mile gap, nearly void of attackers or defenders, opened there for a short period of time that no one seemed to have anticipated. In the following scramble, the gap would be closed, but the stabilized section of the front would create a lasting threat for both sides. American sources call the St. Mihiel Sector and most other parties refer to it as the Woëvre Plain. For the Allies, the final line formed a threatening salient into their defenses; for Germany, it was a back door to the Rhine and the heart of the Fatherland. In her classic history The Guns of August Barbara Tuchman described how while the world's attention was drawn to the actions around Paris, one of the critical moments of the war was transpiring 100 miles to the war.
OHL had convinced itself that a forcing of the Charmes Gap between Toul and Epinal was feasible and would obtain, in Tappen’s words, “encirclement of the enemy armies in grand style and in the event of success, an end to the war.” In consequence, the left wing under Rupprecht was retained in its full strength of twenty-six divisions, about equal to the diminished numbers of the three armies of the right wing. This was not the proportion Schlieffen had in mind when he muttered as he died, “Only make the right wing strong.”
On August 24, having massed 400 guns with additions brought from the arsenal at Metz, Rupprecht launched a series of murderous attacks. The French, now turning all their skills to the defense, had dug themselves in and prepared a variety of improvised and ingenious shelters against shellfire. Rupprecht’s attacks failed to dislodge Foch’s XXth Corps in front of Nancy but farther south succeeded in flinging a salient across the Mortagne, the last river before the gap at Charmes. At once the French saw the opportunity for a flank attack, this time with artillery preparation. Field guns were brought up during the night. On the morning of the 25th Castelnau’s order, “En avant! partout! à fond!” launched his troops on the offensive. The XXth Corps bounded down from the crest of the Grand Couronné and retook three towns and ten miles of territory. On the right Dubail’s Army gained an equal advance in a day of furious combat.
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| Key Commanders in the 1914 Lorraine Battles Noel Castelnau and Crown Price Rupprecht of Bavaria |
. . . For three days of bloody and relentless combat the battle for the Trouée de Charmes and the Grand Couronné continued, reaching a pitch on August 27. Joffre on that day, surrounded by gloom and dismay elsewhere and hard put to find anything to praise, saluted the “courage and tenacity” of the First and Second Armies who, since the opening battles in Lorraine, had fought for two weeks without respite and with “stubborn and unbreakable confidence in victory.” They fought with every ounce of strength to hold the door closed against the enemy’s battering ram, knowing that if he broke through here the war would be over. They knew nothing of Cannae but they knew Sedan and encirclement.
By early September the German attack fizzled out. The line in the lower Lorraine that had been established would remain fixed for the remainder of the war. In the northern Lorraine a troublesome bulge remained in the line that American sources refer to as the St. Mihiel Salient. It would remain as a threat to the Verdun position until September 1918.
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