man
line, the Army of the Moselle, under Crown Prince Wilhelm.

The position of the Allied armies was based on the resisting power of
Namur. It was expected that Namur would delay the German advance as long
as Liege had done. Then the French line of frontier fortresses--Lille,
with its half-finished defenses; Maubeuge, with strong forts and a large
garrison; and other strongholds--would form a still more useful system
of fortified points for the Allies.

The German staff, however, had other plans. At Liege they had rashly
endeavored to storm a strong fortress by a massed infantry attack, which
had failed disastrously until their new Krupp siege guns had been
brought up. These quickly demolished the defenses. These siege guns,
therefore, which had thus fully demonstrated their value against
fortifications soon brought about the total defeat of the French
offensive, and compelled the Allies to retreat from Belgium and northern
France. The Germans lost no time in investing Namur, and on Saturday, as
noted above, August 22, 1914, the fortress fell into the invaders'
hands.

On the same day, August 22, 1914, the Fifth French Army, under the lead
of General Lanrezac, was enduring the double stress of Von Buelow's army
thundering against its front, and Von Hausen's two army corps pressing
hard upon its right flank and rear, threatening its line of retreat.
Against such terrific odds the French line at Dinant and Givet broke,
exposing the flank and rear of the whole army; and by the evening of
that day, August 22, the passages of the River Sambre, near Charleroi,
had been forced, and the Fifth Army was falling back, contesting every
mile of the ground with desperate rear-guard action. The British,
meanwhile, defending the Mons position, were in grave danger of being
cut off, enveloped, and destroyed.

Sir John French had put his two army corps into battle array. He had
about thirty miles of front to defend, with Mons nearly in the center.

On Sunday afternoon, August 23, 1914, the full weight of the German
onset fell for the first time upon the British.

All that night the British were under the fire of German artillery.

Sir John French realized the danger of his Maubeuge-Jenlain position,
and on Monday evening, August 24, 1914, realizing the importance of
putting a substantial barrier, such as the Somme or the Oise, between
his force and the enemy, gave orders for the retirement to be continued
at five o'clock the nex