Once before, in the earlier days of the war, the French had reached Metz
and Strasbourg, but had been hurled back by overwhelming numbers of the
enemy and forced to retreat well into France. Then the German line in
Alsace and Lorraine had been weakened to hurl denser masses of Germans
upon the British and Belgians in the north.
The French had not been slow to take advantage of this weakening of the
southern army of the Kaiser, and, immediately bringing great pressure to
bear, had cleared French territory of the invader in the south.
But the French commander did not stop with this. Alsace and Lorraine,
French soil until after the Franco-Prussian war, when it had been awarded
to Prussia as the spoils of war, must be recaptured. The French pressed
on and the Germans gave way before them.
Meantime, in the Soissons region the French also had been making
progress; but the Kaiser, evidently becoming alarmed by the great
pressure being exercised by the French in Alsace-Lorraine--in order to
relieve the pressure--immediately made a show of strength near Soissons,
seeking thereby to cause the French to withdraw troops from
Alsace-Lorraine to reenforce the army of the Soissons to stem the new
German advance there.
Pages:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28