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CHAPTER XI
FIGHTING AT BAY
The forces of France also had been fighting to protect their retreat
southward in these August days of 1914. After the passages of the
Sambre were forced, during the great Mons-Charleroi battle, the
Fifth French Army was placed in very perilous straits by the failure
of the Fourth Army, under General Langle, to hold the Belgian river
town of Givet. Hard pressed in the rear by General von Buelow's
army, and on their right by General von Hausen commanding the Saxon
Army and the Prussian Guard, the Fifth Army of France had to retire
with all possible speed, for their path of retreat was threatened
by a large body of Teutons advancing on Rocroi.
On August 23, 1914, holding their indomitable pursuers in check
by desperate rear-guard action, with their two cavalry divisions
under General Sordet galloping furiously along the lines of the
western flank to protect the retiring infantry and guns, the Fifth
Army unexpectedly turned at Guise. At that point considerable
reenforcements in troops and material arrived, making the Fifth
Army the strongest in France. It now defeated and drove over the
Oise the German Guard and Tenth Corps, and then continued its
retirement. But the left wing of the French army was unsuccessful,
and Amiens and the passages of the Somme had to be abandoned to
the invaders.
On Sunday, August 23, 1914, the Fourth Army, operating from the
Meuse, was heavily outnumbered by the Saxon army around the river
town of Dinant.
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