Toward evening the Germans retreated toward the Lesse,
followed by the French. In previous wars the forces engaged were
of sufficient strength to designate Dinant a battle, but with the
vast armies of the present conflict it sinks to the military grade
of a mere affair. However, it is called by the French the Battle
of Dinant.
The troops which entered Alsace on August 7, 1914, to the number
of 18,000 to 20,000, belonged to the army of the frontier.
This first army, which was under the orders of General Dubail,
was intrusted with the mission of making a vigorous attack and
of holding in front of it the greatest possible number of German
forces. The general in command of this army had under his orders,
if the detachment from Alsace be included, five army corps and a
division of cavalry. His orders were to seek battle along the line
Saarburg-Donon, in the Bruche Valley, at the same time possessing
himself of the crests of the Vosges as well as the mountain passes.
These operations were to have as their theaters: (1) the Vosges
Mountains, (2) the plateau of Lorraine to the northwest of Donon,
and (3) the left bank of the Meurthe. This left bank of the Meurthe
is separated from the valley of the Moselle by a bristling slope
of firs, which is traversed by a series of passages, the defiles
of Chipotte, of the Croix Idoux, of the Haut Jacques d'Anozel, of
Vanemont, of Plafond.
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