Page:The Great War.djvu/226

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200 The Great War armies along the extended battle line as they stood in the first week of the Battle of the Aisne. Start- ing on the east there was the army of the Crown Prince about the Meuse. In the original plan of the German campaign the army of the Crown Prince was to cross the Meuse at Stenay, turn south as the main German invasion advanced, cut Verdun off from Paris, besiege it, aided by German troops mov- ing west from Metz, take it and thus open a short road from Germany to Northern France, permit- ting the evacuation of Western Belgium and the re- duction of the army of occupation whose regiments were needed on the battle line. This operation failed, because the retreat of von Kluck far to the west compelled the general with- drawal of the German forces all through France. With some difficulty the Crown Prince extricated his army, fell back beyond Verdun to Montfaucon, thus protecting his line of retreat across the Meuse at Stenay toward Luxemburg. Aleantime the Ger- mans coming west from Metz had made repeated attacks south of Verdun. These continued, but were as yet apparently little more than attempts to prevent the French from withdrawing troops to the western field. In the field east of the Argonne and on both sides of the Meuse the operations had momentarily become unimportant. Operating west of the Argonne were the German army corps forming the left wing of the main Ger- man Army in the western field. They had been de-

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