Germans reach Claye

The British chronicle of the war recorded under 5 September 1914 that German troops had reached the small town of Claye, today Claye-Souilly, east of Paris. According to the chronicle, this was only 10 miles (about 16 kilometres) from Paris and the closest point to the capital that the Germans reached during the whole war.

Claye lies on the road from Paris to Meaux, in the belt through which the right wing of General Alexander von Kluck’s First Army passed in the first days of September. It is about 27 kilometres in a straight line from the centre of Paris, and just over 20 from the city limits of the time. The figure of “10 miles” may have referred to the outer ring of the Paris forts, which ran a little under 10 kilometres further on. Sources mention that German units got as far as a bridge on the road to Paris here, and according to unconfirmed accounts individual uhlan patrols ventured even further, towards Villeparisis and Vaujours.

The term “closest point” should therefore be treated with caution. North of Paris German cavalry patrols appeared in the first days of September around Écouen, Gonesse and Luzarches, and in local tradition and on commemorative plaques various places claim to be the limit of the German advance. These, however, were reconnaissance raids, not the advance of the main forces. The main German forces never again came as close to the French capital as in the first week of September 1914.

Soon the area around Claye found itself in the rear of the French Sixth Army, which on 5 September began the fighting on the Ourcq, and its commander, General Maunoury, set up his headquarters at Claye. In 1918 the Germans again approached the Marne, but they halted much further from the capital, although their long-range guns were then shelling the city itself.