ike a razor. You just can't understand how
anyone gets away alive. I've had men fall at my right hand and my left.
You can't look anywhere, as you advance, without seeing men dropping. Of
our four officers, two are wounded and one dead. I am left alone in
command.'"

This hand-to-hand fighting for the possession of villages on the west
bank of the Marne, this heavy loss to the French troops by the German
artillery, and this sudden check at the Ourcq itself, until British
heavy batteries were sent, marks the character of what may be called the
battle of the Ourcq, the westernmost of the battles of the Marne. As
General von Kluck had divided his forces, in order to carry out the
attempt to pierce the left of General d'Esperey's army, the German
forces in the battle of the Ourcq were outnumbered almost three to one.
In spite of these odds against them, the extreme German right held for
four days the position it had been given to hold.

CHAPTER XVI

CONTINUATION OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE

Remembering again the general outline of General von Kluck's plan, that
of executing a diagonal movement with 150,000 of his men to attack the
easternmost point of the Fifth Army, and possibly to envelop it by a
flank movement, the continuation of the Battle of the Marne may be
treated with more detail. This part is called by some the Battle of
Coulommiers.

In this battle there was as great a change in morale as in the battle of
the Ourcq. There, the French had been stirred to high endeavor by the
realization that the word to advance had at last been given. This also
operated in part on the British in the battle of Coulommiers, but, in
addition, there was another very important factor.

The dawn of that Sunday summer morning, September 6, 1914, was one of
great exhilaration for the British forces. The offensive was begun, the
time for striking back had come, and every column resounded with
marching choruses. The countryside was lovely, as had been all the
countryside through which the retreating armies had passed, gay with the
little French homesteads, flower decked and smiling, heavily laden
orchards, and rich grain fields, some as yet uncut, some newly stacked.
Women and children, with here and there an old man, ran along the line
of march ministering to the wants of their defenders. There was no need
for language, as courtesy and gratitude are universal, and the English
were fighting for "La Belle France." So the mornin