in its flight. He had been set to reduce Maubeuge and he had
done so with speed and with thoroughness. Maubeuge was not protected by
open-air earthworks, but by a circle of armor-plate concrete forts. To
the mighty siege guns handled by General von Zwehl, these were no
trouble, for Von Zwehl had not only the heavy batteries attached to the
Seventh Army Reserve, but he also had a number of Von Kluck's guns and
the majority of General von Buelow's, neither of whom was expected to
need siege guns in the forward drive where mobility was an essential. In
addition to this, General von Zwehl also had the great siege train that
had been prepared for the reduction of Paris. What chance had Maubeuge
against such a potency?

On September 8, 1914, word reached General von Zwehl that the forward
drive had failed, that the main armies had been beaten back and that he
was to bring up his guns as rapidly as possible to cover the retreat. As
rapidly as he could, to General von Zwehl, meant but one thing--to get
there! He collected 9,000 reserve troops, which was almost immediately
swelled by another 9,000, and with a total of 18,000 troops he started
his siege trains for the town of Laon, where Field Marshal von Heeringen
had taken up his headquarters. The weather turned bad, rendering the
heavy guns extremely difficult to handle, but there could be no delay,
no explanations, to General von Zwehl. If a gun was to be brought it was
to be brought and that was all about it! Four days and three nights of
almost continuous marching is killing. The German commander cared
nothing for that. The guns must be kept moving. Could he get them there
on time? In the last twenty-four hours of the march, his 18,000 troops
covered 41 miles and they arrived in Laon at six o'clock in the morning
of September 13, 1914, and were in action an hour later. The problem,
therefore, before the English and French at the Aisne, was not the
carrying of the river against a disheartened and retreating army, but
the carrying of the river against a well-thought-out and forceful
plan--a plan, moreover, backed up by the most powerful artillery that
the world has ever seen.

CHAPTER XXI

THE BRITISH AT THE AISNE

In the battles of the Marne, the brunt of the fighting had been borne
mainly by the French armies, but the major part of work of the battle of
the Aisne was borne by the British Expeditionary Force. Sir John French
wasted no time. Saturday night, Septe