French retake Mulhouse
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Western Front
- Date:
- 19 August 1914
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Battle:
- Battle of Mulhouse
On 19 August 1914 French troops entered Mulhouse in Alsace for the second time. Only nine days earlier they had been forced to abandon the town after a German counter-attack. Now they returned in much greater strength.
The Army of Alsace
After the first setback the Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Joffre, removed General Bonneau from command and created a special Army of Alsace. Its commander was General Paul Pau, an experienced officer who had lost an arm in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The Army of Alsace, reinforced with reserve divisions and Alpine chasseurs among others, went on the offensive on 14 August, at the same time as the great offensive in Lorraine.
This time the French advanced more cautiously and in greater strength. On 19 August heavy street fighting broke out in the suburbs of Mulhouse, in the district of Dornach. The French captured the district and entered the town, taking many prisoners and capturing guns.
A brief triumph
The recapture of Mulhouse was one of the few French successes of August 1914. Once again, however, the joy was short-lived. The very next day the offensive at Morhange and Sarrebourg in Lorraine collapsed, and a few days later the French were defeated in the Ardennes and at Charleroi. The German armies marching through Belgium threatened northern France.
Joffre needed every available force to defend the country. Around 25 August the French left Mulhouse, and the Germans entered the town again. The Army of Alsace was disbanded and its units were transferred to other sectors of the front.
Significance
The second capture of Mulhouse showed that the French could fight effectively in Alsace when they had adequate forces. The fate of the war, however, was being decided elsewhere, in the north. Until the end of the war France held only a small part of southern Alsace, and Mulhouse remained in German hands until November 1918.
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A voice from the front
“The glow of the sunset and the wind from the sea also reach us this evening from our enemies' side, from the East, from the Rhine. A gentle evening when one could still believe — at a pinch, the calculus of probabilities simply giving way to luck — that there would be no dead in the war.”
Translated · Original (fr)
Les reflets du couchant, le vent de la mer nous viennent aussi ce soir de chez nos ennemis, de l’Est, du Rhin. Douce soirée où l’on pouvait encore croire — à la rigueur, le calcul des probabilités cédant simplement à la chance — qu’il n’y aurait pas de morts pendant la guerre.
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Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 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.
- 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.
- 7 August 1914 · Western FrontFrench cross the border into AlsaceOn 7 August 1914 the French VII Corps crossed the border into German Alsace. The troops took Altkirch and Thann and the next day entered Mulhouse.