This victory was the
fall of Maubeuge. It is going too far to say--as several military
writers have done--that General von Zwehl saved Germany, and that
unless he had arrived as opportunely as he did the "German retreat
to the Aisne valley would have been changed into a disastrous and
overwhelming rout." But it is not going too far to say that the
successful holding of the Aisne line was due to the victor of Maubeuge.
General von Zwehl was one of the iron-jawed battle-scarred warriors
of 1870, a man with a will as metallic as his own siege guns, and
a man who could no more be deflected from his purpose than a shell
could be diverted in its flight. He had been set to reduce Maubeuge
and he had done so with speed and with thoroughness. Maubeuge was
not protected by open-air earthworks, but by a circle of armor-plate
concrete forts. To the mighty siege guns handled by General von
Zwehl, these were no trouble, for Von Zwehl had not only the heavy
batteries attached to the Seventh Army Reserve, but he also had a
number of Von Kluck's guns and the majority of General von Buelow's,
neither of whom was expected to need siege guns in the forward
drive where mobility was an essential. In addition to this, General
von Zwehl also had the great siege train that had been prepared
for the reduction of Paris. What chance had Maubeuge against such
a potency?
On September 8, 1914, word reached General von Zwehl that the forward
drive had failed, that the main armies had been beaten back and
that he was to bring up his guns as rapidly as possible to cover
the retreat.
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