ABSTRACT
The fighting on the Loire began spontaneously, before any guiding strategy had been shaped by either side. As the German armies advanced on Paris, the cavalry on their extreme left wing, reconnoitring and requisitioning far to the south of the main body, entered the region of the Forest of Orleans, a belt of scrub and woodland north of the Loire where the first organised troops of the provincial armies were beginning to assemble. The German forces took up their position on 8th November round the village of Coulmiers, about twelve miles north-west of Orleans along the main road to Le Mans. It was a moderately good position for defence. From Loigny the French with their chassepots should have been able to beat off the Germans as they themselves had been beaten off from Goury; but they could not. They were weary, ill-officered, demoralised; ever larger groups were sidling off to the rear, and whole regiments were streaming back towards Orleans.
