that army and the Sixth. I was then to advance against the enemy in my
front and join in the general offensive movement.

These combined movements practically commenced on Sunday, Sept. 6, at
sunrise; and on that day it may be said that a great battle opened on a
front extending from Ermenonville, which was just in front of the left
flank of the Sixth French Army, through Lizy on the Marne, Mauperthuis,
which was about the British centre, Courtecon, which was on the left of
the Fifth French Army, to Esternay and Charleville, the left of the
Ninth Army under Gen. Foch, and so along the front of the Ninth, Fourth
and Third French Armies to a point north of the fortress of Verdun.

[Illustration: Map 5.--Sept. 8. Battle of the Marne.
The great advance to the Petit Morin and the Marne, where important
captures were made by the British.]

This battle, in so far as the Sixth French Army, the British Army, the
Fifth French Army, and the Ninth French Army were concerned, may be said
to have concluded on the evening of Sept. 10, by which time the Germans
had been driven back to the line Soissons-Rheims, with a loss of
thousands of prisoners, many guns, and enormous masses of transport.

About Sept. 3 the enemy appears to have changed his plans and to have
determined to stop his advance south direct upon Paris, for on Sept. 4
air reconnoissances showed that his main columns were moving in a
southeasterly direction generally east of a line drawn through Nanteuil
and Lizy on the Ourcq.

On Sept. 5 several of these columns were observed to have crossed the
Marne, while German troops, which were observed moving southeast up the