Ten Days of War 79 the Germans had transferred their forces else- where. To the third German Army, that of the Rhine, there thus far seemed to have been assigned a wholly minor role. Apparently impressed by this the French from Belfort and Epinal early began an offen- sive campaign, at first little more than a raid, into up- per Alsace, and captured Altkirch and Muelhausen, but not Colmar. While the force from Belfort was moving north between the Rhine and the Vosges another from Epinal attempted, apparently with success, to force the passes of the Vosges leading from France into Alsatian territory about and above Muelhausen. But by August 10 despatches began to indicate that the French raid had been checked and repulsed. To sum up briefly, then, the Belgian resistance at Liege during the first ten days of the war gave the French time in which to seize the Meuse barrier, to occupy Namur solidly, permitted the British to land troops on the Continent. Instead of begin- ning their battle in Northern France, the Germans seemed bound to have to struggle to obtain a foot- hold in Belgium beyond Liege, which did, in fact, hold out for several more days, not all the forts succumbing until the next week. All this presumptive advantage was sacrificed by the French to enable them to undertake their cele- brated and disastrous counter-offensive just break- ing out in Alsace-Lorraine. Although the first