ABSTRACT

This chapter shows how difficult result is to obtain information about a battle. The different accounts of the origins of the battle of the Marne give the authors another very typical example of the fact. The method of silence was rather overdone by the French General Staff at the beginning of the campaign, for its telegrams contained only the most unimportant news, and suppressed every word about a great battle like Charleroi. The battle of the Marne had put a stop to the German invasion and had given us a little good fortune, the Government still showed the same indifferent psychology with regard to the censorship of the Press. The silence which was imposed upon the Press appears to have been due in part to the really quite comprehensible fear of the influence which public opinion might have exerted upon the development of military operations.