Mitchell Loughlin’s Reviews > The Guns of August > Status Update

Everyone was sick of sir John French but the English lacked leaders to replace him. Due to this he was babied when he needed a tighter leash

Meanwhile Germany had to pull troops of the eastern line to deal with Russia who was making steady progress towards Berlin

Joffre while making progress was still in a poor situation. They had a lack of men and needed to shift reserve troops around to ensure full front lines. This led to disgruntled officers who needed to change tactics quickly.

Keitchener, the British minister of war goes to France

Sir John French was a coward. He retired his men to safety while they were ready to fight. Claiming untruths that made his position seem reasonable but everyone from the French to his own government did not believe.
This was happening as French troops actually had the Germans on the back foot. Who knows what the results of cooperation would have been but surely it would have been decisive

Gallini put in charge of the defense of Paris is trying his best while nobody seems to be able to provide him with me. He pulls women,children, and elderly out of the sub area and puts them to work digging trenches and wolf pits. They blow up bridges, block the sewers and add more and more defense to the Paris front

The English line “lacks cohesion” retreated. They went as far as to leave behind ammo to quicken there pace. The German line found the dump and knew the reality. The French line also retreated but was ordered to counter attack much to the chagrin of the field commanders. The Germans now with a overwhelming advantage continued to press the attack and got to choose between dismantling the English or striking Paris

As a result they began looking for scape goats and started hastily replacing there best officers.
Meanwhile the British army noting the French retreat were left vulnerable on the right. They began their own retreat that the French were not expecting. On the way they encountered German troops and the whole line started to fall apart

The French army needs to retreat and demobilize. They are running low on healthy men. The army
Was not built to retreat with the French mentality of attack first they had very little defensive training or preparation. As the front moved closer to France the governors began to feel panicked as they had no defensive plan. The scrambled to come
Up with something asking Jeoffry for men he couldn’t spare

During the war trading with Germany all but ceased while they lent goods and money to the allies on credit that had vast economical advantages post war


Woodrow Wilson was the president at the time and he was outraged by German tactics during the war

Due to the idea that the war would last only 40 days they assumed England would not have time to enter the war and therefore it would be unadvisable to draw down your land troops to support the sea which would have no purpose. On top of this the Kaiser viewed the fleet as his “darlings” and didn’t want to risk them being damaged.

All this culminated into Germany have little to no naval impact on the war

Because of this they moved there many fleet north of Germany where it would be out of the way and able to attack the rear of any blockades. The entire army was on edge waiting for something to happen.

The Kaiser had read a book about the superiority of marine control during war and had demanded the German navy be brought up to equal that of the English. They came pretty close