ABSTRACT
Although many of the recoveries discussed so far have involved improvisations that were truly inspired – Bob Pearson’s sideslipping and Al Haynes’s use of the throttles, to name but two – they were just part of a number of other contributing factors. But in these cases discussed here the inspired improvisations were the defining features, the ones by which the episodes are best remembered. In the summer of 1914, Joseph-Simon Gallieni was a 65-year-old professional soldier, educated at the Saint-Cyr military academy. Between 6 and 8 September, Manoury’s 6th Army was hard-pressed by von Kluck who was close to a breakthrough. The battle started on 5 September when General Manoury’s 6th Army accidentally stumbled onto the leading elements of von Kluck’s First Army. Without the taxis and the 6,000 soldiers they brought from Paris, it is unlikely that Manoury’s 6th Army could have held its ground. Paris was never threatened again throughout the First World War. Gallieni had saved Paris.
