FRANCE: Good Grey General

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On August 25, 1914, seven German Armies totaling 1,700,000 men were spread over a jagged 300-mile front from the Swiss frontier to the outskirts of Paris. In 20 days they had advanced like a vast hinge whose outer point traveled 180 miles, smashed through Belgium, through Mons and down the Oise, occupied 14,000 square miles of France, Belgium and Luxembourg. The French plan of an offensive through the German centre had been abandoned. At Paris, in the headquarters of General Joffre, commanding the French forces, the shock had bereft most...