I remember asking many of the officers attached to the forces
which, after the Battle of Charleroi, retreated under a broiling sun,
along roads burning with heat, through a suffocating dust, how they
felt at this disheartening time. All of them answered, "We did not
know where we were going or what we were doing, but we did know one
thing--that we would beat them!" One writer, Pierre Laserre, described
this retreat in the words, "Their bodies were retreating, but not
their souls!" This is proven by the arrival on the fifth of September
of Joffre's immortal order, "The hour has come to hold our positions
at any cost, and to fight rather than retreat.... No longer must we
look at the enemy over our shoulders; the time has come to employ all
our efforts in attacking and defeating him."... That evening, when
they heard their leader's appeal, the hearts of the men bounded in
response. The next morning, at dawn, their bodies leaped up and hurled
themselves on the enemy. Therein lay the miracle of the Marne!
Finally, at the very hour when the fighting spirit of the French Army
had never been higher, the fighting spirit of the German Army had
never been lower. It was low because the physical strength of the
Germans was low, worn out, and broken by the shameful orgies, the
disgraceful drinking which had reduced these men to the level of
swine.
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