If I am right in my dates the
defenses of Maubeuge caved in under the batterings of the German Jack
Johnsons on September sixth and the citadel surrendered September
seventh. On the following day, the eighth, Von Zwehl got word that a
sudden forward thrust of the Allies threatened the German center at
Laon. Without waiting for orders he started to the relief. He had
available only nine thousand troops, all reserves. As many more shortly
re-enforced him. He marched this small army--small, that is, as armies
go these Titan times--for four days and three nights. In the last
twenty-four hours of marching the eighteen thousand covered more than
forty English miles--in the rain. They came on this same plateau, the
one which we now faced, at six o'clock of the morning of September
thirteenth, and within an hour were engaged against double or triple
their number. Von Zwehl held off the enemy until a strengthening force
reached him, and then for three days, with his face to the river and his
back to the hill, he fought.
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