As early as the 19th of August, the French troops had already crossed Alsace and continued their offensive in Lorraine.

By this time, the fortress of Liège had been lost, and a steady stream of German troops was attacking the French hinterland through Belgium, with as many as 500 train cars passing through the Rhine every day, and a train passing through the Cologne railway bridge every ten minutes.

The French intelligence department made a serious mistake in judging the German troop allocation, and the French commander-in-chief, Xia Fei, received information that the German army had 68 divisions, but in fact the German army had 78 infantry divisions, 10 cavalry divisions, plus 16 infantry brigades that had just been formed.

These infantry brigades are made up of soldiers who have been discharged within two years, and they do not need long training to be sent into battle, and many more troops are still in training camps.

On the 21st, the French army organized a new offensive, and Xia Fei judged that the Germans would concentrate their main forces on the left and right flanks, and the defensive forces in the central Ardennes were empty, so he invested 14 divisions to attack the Ardennes Heights.

What Xia Fei never expected was that the German defenders in the Ardennes were also 14 divisions, and they were well-trained and well-equipped elite divisions.

The Germans built strong fortifications on the Ardennes Heights, armed with a large number of artillery and heavy machine guns, and the unprepared French suffered heavy casualties, losing 27,000 men in one day on the 22nd, and a division of colonial troops was used for the attack on Rossinhoor, and within forty minutes, a third of the 14,000 troops were killed.

The French attack in the center affected both the attack on the right flank and the defense on the left flank.

The Fifth Army, which was supposed to attack on the right flank, was transferred to the center, but did not participate in the battle, and the commander of the German left flank at this time had been replaced by Crown Prince Ruprecht of Bavaria, who keenly noticed that the French offensive was weakening, so he organized the German Fifth Army and the Sixth Army to launch a counterattack, not only driving the French troops out of Alsace and Lorraine, but also attacking Nancy in France.

In charge of defending Nancy was Ferdinand Foch, commander of the French Twentieth Army, who was ordered to withstand the German attack and keep Nancy in his hands.

In order to conquer Nancy, Ruprecht asked Moltke Jr. for more troops.

Moltke the Younger agreed to Ruprecht's request to transfer to Ruprecht part of the troops on the right flank that were used to make a detour to Paris.

It is difficult to evaluate the role of Ruprecht, his counterattack was indeed to drive the French troops out of Alsace and Lorraine, but he asked for more troops, which also affected the offensive of the German right flank, the battlefield situation at this time was very delicate, the German army was making good progress on the right flank, the left flank was on the defensive, the offensive on the right flank of the French army had failed, the left flank was losing and retreating, if Moltke Jr. could resolutely implement the "Schlieffen Plan", then it was really hard to say whether Paris could hold it.

After withdrawing from Alsace and Lorraine, the French returned to their fortified fortresses, and Rupprecht tried to emulate the tactics of the capture of the fortress of Liège, transferring the "Slender Emma" and "Grand Berta" to Nancy to attack Ferdinand Foch's line with all his might.

However, Ruprecht underestimated the abilities of Ferdinand Foch, who was not Ludendorff either, and Foch was significantly stronger than Lymain, who defended the fortress of Liège, and despite the huge cost, Ferdinand Foch held Nancy.

In the first month of the war, the French lost 260,000 men and 75,000 killed, the Germans lost only 18,000, Foch's son-in-law and only son were killed in this month, and a young French captain, Charles de Gaulle, was also wounded in the battle, and he wrote in his diary: I knew at that moment that in this world, courage can never defeat artillery fire.

The casualties of the French troops returning to the fortifications began to decrease, and Xia Fei was able to draw more troops to strengthen the defense of the left flank, and the right flank of the German army was further weakened.

After the fortress of Liège was conquered, Belgium did not surrender, Moltke Jr. transferred two corps from the right flank to besiege Antwerp, and one corps to attack Mauporg in France, Austria-Hungary did not say that most of its forces were used to defend against Russia as Schlieffen envisioned, but launched an attack on Serbia, but Austria-Hungary was defeated in Serbia, so Moltke Jr. transferred three corps and a cavalry division to reinforce East Prussia, these troops were drawn from the right flank, and the right flank was reduced from seventeen to twelve corps, The total number of troops was reduced by 275,000 men, a third compared to the right flank of Schlieffen's plan.

While the Germans were making good progress, the hidden danger of insufficient troops was not obvious, and as the war progressed, the German casualties were increasing, and more troops were needed to defend the cities, and this problem would become more and more obvious over time.

At this time, the commander of the right flank of the German army was the commander of the First Army, Alexander Crook, who was energetic, resolute and decisive, and if Moltke Jr. could catch up with Alexander Crook by half in his ability, Germany would be able to end the war in September.

On August 13, the First Army captured the fortress of Liege.

On August 20, Alexander Crook conquered Brussels.

On 22 August, the forward units of the First Army encountered the British Expeditionary Force at Mons.

At this time, Alexander Crook's opponent was the French Fifth Army, and the commander of the unit was Charles Langlezak, who was also a clever but untimely person, his situation was the same as Alexander Crook, capable but limited by stupid superiors, Xia Fei's performance at the beginning of the world war was as tragic as Moltke's, the French army miscalculated the strength of France and Germany, and Xia Fei, who was eager for revenge, put more troops into the attack on Alsace and Lorraine, resulting in insufficient strength on the left flank and empty defense, In the face of Alexander Crook's attack, Charles Langlezak commanded the Fifth Army to fight and retreat, preserving the strength of the troops to the greatest extent.

On the night of the 21st, the 1st Regiment of the British Expeditionary Force moved into Mons to protect Charles Langlezak's flank, and on the 23rd Alexander Crook launched an attack on Mons.

The battle was very intense, and Lee Enfield, who had a faster rate of fire, excelled in the battle, and the British army during the Second Boer War found that the Boer guerrillas had better marksmanship than their own, so they intensified their training in this area.

The attacking Germans suffered heavy losses, with the British losing 1,600 and the Germans 5,000 on this day.

Also on this day, Japan declared war on Germany.

On the night of the 23rd, Haig, who had been appointed commander of the Second Army, joined up with the First Army, and the two armies built defensive positions at Mons overnight.

During the night, Haig and the commander of the First Army, Smith Dohring, learned that the French had retreated, and the British withdrew from Mons overnight.

Frenzi was very angry about this, believing that there was no need for the French army to retreat, and from then on Frenzi was full of contempt for the French generals, believing that they were all cowards who were afraid of war.

Under the rapid attack of the German army, it was almost impossible to easily get out of the battle, so in order to allow most of the expeditionary force to withdraw from the battle, Smith Dorin organized a force to fight fiercely with the Germans at Le Cato.

As a result, in order to save this force, Smith Doring had to commit more troops, and the battle ended until dark, and the British army ended up losing 8,000 soldiers, equivalent to one-tenth of the expeditionary force.

Such a huge casualty completely contradicted Kitchener's reminder to Frenzi before the expeditionary force set off, and Frenzi did not like Smith Dorling because of it.

Smith Dorin also did not like Haig, believing that Haig's forces were late to both Mons and Lecato, and that they were quick to retreat all the way to the Marne

In short, in the first month of the world war, both the Entente and the Central Powers exposed many problems, the coordination between the German army and Austria-Hungary was serious, the problems within the German army were equally serious, the Anglo-French alliance was not much better, the British expeditionary force suffered heavy losses, although the London newspapers advertised the British battles at Mons and Lecato as great victories, but this did not change the fact that the expeditionary forces were losing and retreating, and the British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called the whole August "the most terrible August ever." ”。

From the 23rd to the 28th, London sent daily telegrams to Pretoria, urging southern Africa to send more troops to fight in France.

"Don't believe the propaganda in the newspapers, there is no such thing as a big victory at all, the troops have suffered heavy losses on the front, the coalition army has lost at least 200,000 men this month, and if we send our troops to France now, we will become a victim of the German offensive front." Roque firmly disagreed, the war in Southwest Africa was not over, and Roque did not have any spare troops to send to France before that.

"Locke, the War Department gives you the autonomy you want, the troops sent to France in Southern Africa do not have to accept the deployment of the French Command, nor are they subject to the dispatch of the Expeditionary Force Command, they only accept the coordination of the War Department, and the War Department will not treat the troops of Southern Africa as expendables at will." Ade still tried his best to get a more favorable way for the southern African army to enter the war.

"There will be more troops going to France before November." Roque carefully measured progress in Southwest Africa, giving an approximate point in time.

Unlike the Anglo-French forces in France, the southern African offensive against southwest Africa went well, and the Walvis Bay Railway finally played its due role, and after the outbreak of the war, the troops assembled in Bechuana launched an attack along the railway, and the German army had not even had time to destroy the railway, and the southern African army had already captured Windhoek.

Up to now, the southern African army had not encountered organized resistance in South-West Africa, and the South-West African offensive on Walvis Bay had ended, with only a few sporadic battles taking place in the capture of Windhoek, and the losses of the Southern African army were less than 100 men, and the losses of the Germans were likewise less than 100.

"November? No, it is uncertain whether Paris will be able to hold on to it then. Ade was pessimistic about the French situation, and the Allies desperately needed a great victory to boost morale.

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