The enemy fell back; at Marsal he even left behind
enormous quantities of ammunition.
As a matter of fact, he fell back on positions that had been carefully
fortified in advance and whence his artillery could bombard at an
almost perfectly accurate range. August 20, 1914, made a violent
counterattack on the canal of Salines and Morhange in the Lake
district. The immediate vicinity of Metz furnished the German army
with a vast quantity of heavy artillery, which played a decisive
role in the Battle of Morhange. The French retreated, and during
this rear-guard movement the frontier city of Luneville was for
some days occupied by the Germans.
Thus the First and Second Armies failed in their offensive and saw
themselves obliged to retreat, but their retreat was accomplished
under excellent circumstances, and the troops, after a couple of
days of rest, found themselves in a condition again to take the
offensive. The First Army gave energetic support to the Second
Army, which was violently attacked by the Germans in the second
week of August. The German attack, which was first arrayed against
Nancy, turned more and more to the east.
The battle, at first waged in the Mortagne basin, was gradually
extended to the deep woods on the left bank of the Meurthe and on
to Chipotte, Nompatelize, etc. The battles that have been named
the Battle of Mortagne, the Battle of the Meurthe, the Battle of
the Vosges, all waged by the First Army, were extremely violent
in the last week of August and the first two weeks of September.
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