Germans occupy Noyon

The British chronology of the war on which our calendar is based records under 26 August 1914 the German capture of Noyon, a town in the Oise department, about 100 kilometres north of Paris. This date, however, is doubtful. French sources, including publications of the French Ministry of Defence, state that the Germans entered Noyon only on 30 August. On 26 August the vanguards of the German First Army were still fighting at Le Cateau, several dozen kilometres further north.

Noyon is an old episcopal town with a Gothic cathedral. In 768 Charlemagne was crowned here, and in 1509 John Calvin was born here. In the last days of August 1914 units of the British Expeditionary Force retreating south passed through the town, with the Germans close behind them.

In mid-September, after the Battle of the Marne, the French tried to recapture Noyon and fought heavily for it on 15–18 September, but without success. The front stabilised not far from the town, and Noyon remained under occupation for more than two and a half years. The Germans left it only in March 1917, when they withdrew to the previously prepared Hindenburg Line. In March 1918, during the great Spring Offensive, they took the town again, and it was finally liberated at the end of August 1918.