Through one of these apparently unguarded openings a strong
body of uhlan patrols advanced, riding southward until they reached
Nogent, south of Paris, and seemingly with the whole rich country
of central France laid wide open to a sharp and sudden attack.
Among the many strange features of this series of the battles of
the Marne this must certainly be reckoned as one. Though possessing
an unequaled military organization, though priding itself on its
cavalry scouts, though aided by aerial scouts, and though well
supplied with spies, yet the Allied armies, with the age-old device
of a forest, were able to cloak their movements from this perfectly
organized and powerful invading army. Much of the credit of this
may be assigned to the French and English aircraft, which kept
German scouting aircraft at a distance. But the Allied generals
were astounded at the result of their maneuver, which, as they
admitted afterward, was merely a military precautionary measure
against the discovery of artillery sites, and a device to keep
the enemy in general ignorance.
On Saturday, September 5, 1914, at the extreme north of the line
of the two armies facing each other across the Ourcq, an artillery
duel began. The offensive was taken by the French, and though in
itself it was not more striking than any of the artillery clashes
that had marked the previous month's fighting, it was significant,
for it marked the beginning of the battles of the Marne.
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