Great Retreat

Significance

The Great Retreat covered more than 200 km, withdrawing the French Fifth Army and the British Expeditionary Force from Belgium to the River Marne in France following defeats at the Battle of Charleroi and the Battle of Mons. A counter-offensive at the First Battle of Guise failed to arrest the German advance, and the two Allied forces continued south until they crossed to the south side of the Marne. The retreat ended when the First Battle of the Marne, fought from 5 to 12 September, reversed the German momentum and forced German armies back toward the Aisne River. That reversal led directly to the First Battle of the Aisne and then to the Race to the Sea, the sequence of reciprocal flanking attempts that ran from 17 September to 17 October and ultimately fixed the Western Front into the trench lines that defined the war's subsequent years.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (16)