the field artillery journal - Fort Sill - U.S. Army

THE FIELD ARTILLERY JOURNAL
unstinted praise of his opponent and the unbiased and
strictly professional manner in which he discusses the
events, makes this article of more than ordinary value not
only from an artillery view point but also from the point of
view of the other services.
On August 20, 1914, the great battle in Lorraine had begun,
extending over an area from Metz to the heart of the Vosges
Mountains. Many hundreds of thousands of combatants fought
on both sides with dogged bitterness; we Germans to clear our
land of our uninvited guests, who after all remained only four
days on German soil; the French, in order to realize completely
the redemption of Alsace and Lorraine. With the greatest
confidence in victory, the French had entered, on August 17th,
the city of Saarburg, without having to strike a blow, orders
from Army Headquarters having directed the evacuation of the
city, so that in the general battle with the whole Sixth Army,
now fully concentrated, the enemy might be the more
decisively defeated and expelled. Those were indeed sad days
for us. Without being able to ascribe any reasons therefore,
after our first victorious advance which took us almost to the
River Meurthe, we found ourselves ordered to withdraw in an
orderly retreat to the River Saar.
From the 14th of August on our cavalry had maintained
constant contact with the enemy who, in endless columns and
over a broad front, was advancing from the south and west.
During their sojourn in Saarburg, French officers in triumphant
glee had proclaimed to the populace: "In three days we will be
in Strassburg, in two weeks in Berlin." It happened, however,
quite otherwise. As an example of the overconfidence of a
portion of the enemy, the following little occurrence is
interesting. On the day of the battle there was found in the
pockets of a dead French sergeant a letter addressed to his
fiancée, in which he also expressed himself, as did the officers,
to the effect that in three days they would be in Strassburg and
in a couple of weeks in Berlin. The shoes worn by the sergeant
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