ntwerp. The first phase of
the German advance was thus completed and the way to France was open.

SECOND PHASE

From the Fall of Brussels to von Kluck's Retreat to the Aisne

Immediately following the fall of Namur, which forced the Belgians to
take up the Louvain-Wavre line, the main German Army of the Meuse
started for France, leaving possibly two army corps to drive the
Belgians from Brussels and to protect their flank and their lines of
communication. The German advance first came in contact with the
French and British along a line from Mons to Charleroi, southwest of
Brussels. The British were supposed to have been between two French
armies, but for some reason the army which had been assigned to
position on the British left did not appear. Being outflanked, a
retreat followed, the French being defeated at the same time at
Charleroi. The German Army of the Moselle then attacked along the
Meuse, and, being also successful, was on the flank and rear of the
British and French retreating from Mons and Charleroi.

Thus a great enveloping movement was disclosed which for some days
gave every evidence of being successful. It was defeated, however,
entirely by the British, who, though outflanked and outnumbered three
to one, fought steadily night and day for six days, their small force
holding in complete check all of von Kluck's army corps. Retreat was
of course inevitable, but the retreat was made in good order and with
the morale of the troops unshaken.

In the meantime the German General Staff, which had confidently
expected to crush France before Russia could become a factor to be
reckoned with, saw with alarm Russia pouring her troops into East
Prussia in a drive against Koenigsberg, while in South Poland another
Russian army was preparing a drive against Galicia, operating from the
Ivangorod-Rowno railroad. Germany saw the Austrians being defeated
everywhere; Lemberg, the capital of Galicia, captured; Przemysl
masked, and the Russians fighting their way westward through Galicia
between the Carpathians and the Vistula. But Austria's troubles at
this stage were her own. Germany had all she could do to turn back the
Russian invasion of East Prussia.

To face the peril on her eastern borders Germany detached several army
corps--probably five--from the western front, with them reinforced
her eastern army, and in a few days after their arrival inflicted a
disastrous defeat on the Russians at Tannenburg, driving the