For one thing, they are too tired to
hurry; and anyhow, what is the use of running when a shell may
burst any minute anywhere in the square mile you happen to be on?
"I walked with the company officers who were planning a fresh advance,
map in hand. They had gained the village in which we were that
morning, but at tremendous loss.
"'Out of my company of 220,' said one captain, 'there are only
100 left. It's the same story everywhere--the German machine guns.
Their fire simply clears the ground like a razor. You just can't
understand how anyone gets away alive. I've had men fall at my
right hand and my left. You can't look anywhere, as you advance,
without seeing men dropping. Of our four officers, two are wounded
and one dead. I am left alone in command.'"
This hand-to-hand fighting for the possession of villages on the
west bank of the Marne, this heavy loss to the French troops by
the German artillery, and this sudden check at the Ourcq itself,
until British heavy batteries were sent, marks the character of
what may be called the battle of the Ourcq, the westernmost of
the battles of the Marne. As General von Kluck had divided his
forces, in order to carry out the attempt to pierce the left of
General d'Esperey's army, the German forces in the battle of the
Ourcq were outnumbered almost three to one. In spite of these odds
against them, the extreme German right held for four days the position
it had been given to hold.
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