Page:The Great War.djvu/198

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176 The Great War narrowest of margins, It appeared, had completely failed. As von Kluck advanced, the armies of von Buelow, von Hausen, the Grand Duke Albrecht, and the Crown Prince had kept pace, while the AUied armies facing them had given way, not because of the pres- sure of the armies in front of them, but because the withdrawal of the Anglo-French on their left exposed their flank. Now the left stood on Paris, the right on the barrier fortresses, the centre south of the Marne River on a slightly curving line passing through Montmlrall, Sezanne, La Fere Champen- olse. Camp de Mallly, Vitry-le-Francois, to Revigny on the Ornain, just north of Bar-le-Duc. North of this point Verdun and the barrier fortresses above Toul were now half surrounded by the Crown Prince's army coming west by Stenay, and had been left to their own resources. Between Vitry and Paris the railway distance Is 127 miles; the front of the Allies was rather shorter. On this line they had concentrated an army subse- quently estimated at i , 1 00,000. In addition the gar- rison at Paris counted 500,000. Against this the Germans did not have above 900,000. To succeed it was necessary to throw their full weight upon one point. They selected the centre and in the next few days the whole drive was between Sezanne and Vitry, centring at Camp de Mailly, happily for the French the field on which for years their artillery had been tested and their artillerists practised. Nowhere else

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