French cross the border into Alsace
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Western Front
- Date:
- 7 August 1914
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Battle:
- Battle of Mulhouse
On the morning of 7 August 1914 French troops crossed the border of Alsace, a province that had belonged to Germany since 1871. It was the first French offensive of the First World War and the first moment at which French soldiers set foot on the land lost after the Franco-Prussian War.
Symbolic first steps
The attack was made by the VII Corps of General Louis Bonneau, stationed in the Belfort area. The soldiers enthusiastically tore up German border posts, and reports of the first hours of the offensive caused great rejoicing in France. That same day the French occupied the small town of Thann at the foot of the Vosges, and after a brief skirmish took Altkirch with a bayonet charge.
On the evening of 8 August French units entered Mulhouse, a large industrial centre, where some of the inhabitants welcomed them enthusiastically. The commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, declared in a proclamation to the Alsatians that the French soldiers were coming as the first workers of the great work of revenge.
A short triumph
The joy was short-lived. On 9 August the German Seventh Army counter-attacked, and the French were threatened with encirclement. The very next day Bonneau ordered a retreat towards Belfort. Joffre relieved him of command and formed a special Army of Alsace, which in the second half of August occupied Mulhouse again but soon also had to withdraw.
Significance
The entry into Alsace was above all of symbolic importance. It showed that France was entering the war intent on recovering its lost provinces. At the same time it exposed the weaknesses of the French war plan, which envisaged rapid offensives in the east while the main German forces marched through Belgium. Of the territory taken in August 1914, France held until the end of the war only a small strip of southern Alsace, including Thann.
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Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
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Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 8 August 1914 · Western FrontFrench troops take MulhouseOn 8 August 1914 French troops entered Mulhouse in Alsace. France celebrated, but within two days a German counter-attack forced the French to retreat.
- 25 August 1914 · Western FrontGermans retake Mulhouse for the second timeOn 25 August 1914, after the French withdrawal, German troops occupied Mulhouse for the second time. The city remained in their hands until the end of the war.
- 11 August 1914 · Western FrontGermans retake MulhouseAfter a German counter-attack the French withdrew from Mulhouse, which they had taken only two days earlier. The town was back in German hands.
- 19 August 1914 · Western FrontFrench retake MulhouseOn 19 August 1914 General Paul Pau's Army of Alsace re-entered Mulhouse after heavy fighting. This time the French held the town for a week.