A unique aspect of The First Battle of Marne was that was the first time in history large numbers of motor transport was used warfare. Up to this point armies walked, rode horses, or rode on trains to get where they needed to go. In World War One it was hard to get soldiers anywhere very quickly if there were not railroads going where the soldiers needed to go. The French army fighting at The First Battle of Marne desperately needed reinforcements that were stationed in Paris and there were not enough rail lines heading in the right direction to move the troops fast enough. The French army had some tucks but not enough to move large numbers of solders.
In what would become a French legend. The French army commandeered all the taxicabs in Paris and over the course the battle 600 Parisian taxicabs would ferry 6,000 soldiers to the battle. More important than the number of troops was that the fact that it freed up room on the trains for heavy equipment and the sight of the taxis boosted the French army's morale who saw them as a sign that that civilian population stood by them. The story of the "Taxis of the Marne" would have a impact on the French psyche for the remainder of the war, as symbol of national unity.
At sea history was also made on this day. Not far off the eastern coast of Scotland a the German submarine SM U-21 fired a single torpedo at the British scout cruiser the HMS Pathfinder. The ship was hit and sunk in only a few minutes. This was the first time in naval history a warship had been sunk by a motorized torpedo fired by a submarine. At the start of World War One submarines were considered experimental and navies across the globe were unsure if they were viable naval vessels. By the end of the war hundreds of submarines would be built by many nations, but primarily by Germany, and over 5000 ships would be sunk by submarines.
No comments:
Post a Comment