Skip to content

After the Second Marne

Raemaekers, Louis, 1919, Chromolithograph
After the Second Marne
After the Second Marne
After the Second Marne
Share
Category
Library Item
Item no
33482
Title
After the Second Marne
Description
"In his dispatch of 18th July 1918, Mr. Philip Gibbs indulged in a remarkable prophetic utterance. Writing of the impending battle, he said of the German High Command that the problem of the Marne was vital to them. ' They are playing all but their last cards as far as offensive action and initiative may carry them. They must do whatever they do within the next two months or so, and after that they will be for ever on the defensive because their reserve power cannot maintain the same level as ours with the American legions behind us. The fate of the world will be decided before the leaves turn brown on this year's trees, and perhaps before the harvest is gathered in. I believe it will be decided in our favour.' Mr. Gibbs' words found rapid fulfilment. A few weeks later he wrote: ' The swift and far-reaching success of Marshal Foch's counter-offensive across the Marne led quickly to the possibility of a British advance north and south of Amiens. The problem of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria had been solved for him.The plight of the German Crown Prince, who had lost enormous numbers of men and guns, caused Ludendorff to call for many of the twenty-nine divisions who had been in Rupprecht's reserve, waiting to assault us, and one by one they were hurried down to that seething cauldron between the Asine and the Marne. Against our front there were no longer such great odds in man-power, and in the battles that opened on 8th August the enemy was hard-pressed to support and relieve fighting troops."
Artist / maker
Date
1919
Size
32.5 x 26.4 cm
Location
Art and Design Library
Copyright
Louis Raemaekaers' drawings are reproduced by kind permission of the Louis Raemaekers Foundation.