French postcard celebrating the Allied victory at the Battle of the Marne with the Kaiser tumbling in the river, Germans (in green) fleeing. The French in blue and red advance and tend to German wounded. The British, France's ally, advance in the distance.

Caption:

Dans un élan magnifique, les armées allemandes on passé deux fois la Marne. Tout va bien. Les troupes sont fraîches. (Agence Wolff)



With magnificent élan, the German armies have crossed the Marne twice. All is well. The troops are fresh. (Wolff Agency)



Signs and text:

On demande couturière pour recoudre les boches

Voulez vous que j’écrive a vos parents?

Poudres sèches pour la guerre future 1873

Sucre pastilles caramelle

Baton provisoire de maréchal



We need a seamstress to mend the Boche

You want me to write to your parents?

Dry powder for future war 1873

Caramel sugar lozenges

Marshal’s provisional baton



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Thursday, September 10, 1914

". . . under extremely violent fire from heavy artillery and machine guns, we advanced a few kilometers — at least three or four — from ten in the morning until six at night. Our losses were severe; my company alone, which was certainly not the worst hit, suffered almost one-third casualties. If my memory is correct, the time did not seem long; indeed, those dreadful hours must have passed fairly quickly. We advanced on an undulating field, at first dotted with clumps of trees, then completely bare. I recall that while crossing a hedge, I sharply questioned a man who had stopped. He answered, 'I've been wounded.' In fact, though he had not actually been hit, he had been stunned by the blast of a shell. He was the first to be hurt. Farther on I noticed the first body, a corporal who did not belong to our regiment. He lay on a slope all rigid with his face down, while around him were scattered some potatoes that had escaped from his camp kettle, which had opened as he fell. Machine gun bullets rustled through the branches like swarms of wasps. The heavy detonations of the shells shook the air, followed by the chorus of bursts that accompanied each explosion. The shrapnel shell, in particular, vibrates gently while tumbling through the air, only to stop abruptly at the end of its fall. How many of those murderous melodies did I hear on that day! I hunched my head between my shoulders, awaiting the silence and perhaps the fatal blow."

Quotation Context

French historian Marc Bloch remembering his platoon's advance on September 10, 1914 in the Battle of the Marne. The previous day he had crossed the Marne heading southwest in what seemed like a resumption of the Allied retreat that had taken his regiment 'from the border of Belgian Luxembourg to the Marne.' He and his men would instead advance northwards from Perthes pursuing the retreating Germans.

Source

Memoirs of War 1914-15 by Marc Bloch, pp. 89, 90, copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 1988

Tags

Bloch, Marc Bloch, Perthes, Battle of the Marne, Marne, 1914, September, 1914-09-10