er a treaty guaranteeing its independence and neutrality, was
not permitted to maintain an army. Germany was a signatory party to this
treaty also. The Army of the Rhine cut through the Vosges Mountains and
its route lay between the French cities of Nancy and Toul.

The heroic defense of the Belgian army at Liege against the Army of the
Meuse delayed the operation of Germany's plans and in all probability
saved Paris. It was the first of many similar disappointments and checks
that Germany encountered during the war.

The defense of Liege continued for ten heroic days. Within that interval
the first British Expeditionary Forces were landed in France and
Belgium, the French army was mobilized to full strength. The little
Belgian army falling back northward on Antwerp, Louvain and Brussels,
threatened the German flank and approximately 200,000 German soldiers
were compelled to remain in the conquered section of Belgium to garrison
it effectively.

Liege fortifications were the design of the celebrated strategist
Brialmont. They consisted of twelve isolated fortresses which had been
permitted to become out of repair. No field works of any kind connected
them and they were without provision for defense against encircling
tactics and against modern artillery.

The huge 42-centimeter guns, the first of Germany's terrible surprises,
were brought into action against these forts, and their concrete and
armored steel turrets were cracked as walnuts are cracked between the
jaws of a nut-cracker. The Army of the Meuse then made its way like a
gray-green cloud of poison gas through Belgium. A cavalry screen of
crack Uhlan regiments preceded it, and it made no halt worthy of note
until it confronted the Belgian army on the line running from Louvain to
Namur. The Belgians were forced back before Louvain on August 20th, the
Belgian Government removed the capital from Brussels to Antwerp, and the
German hosts entered evacuated Brussels.

During this advance of the Army of the Meuse, strong French detachments
invaded German soil, pouring into Alsace through the Belfort Gap. Brief
successes attended the bold stroke. Mulhausen was captured and the
Metz-Strassburg Railroad was cut in several places. The French suffered
a defeat almost immediately following this first flush of victory, both
in Alsace and in Lorraine, where a French detachment had engaged with
the Army of the Moselle. The French army thereupon retreated to the
strong lin