Memoirs Of The Marne Campaign

General Baron von Hausen, after a long and successful career in the Royal Saxon Army, was charged with the most important command of his career as the head of the German Third Army in 1914. The army participated in the Battle of the Frontiers, mainly in the battles of Dinant and Charleroi gained infamy for their responsibility for the destruction of Reims in September 1914. After the Second Army's was forced back after the First Battle of the Marne, Von Hausen saw his own flank exposed and ordered a retreat. Upon the stabilization of the front on the river Aisne, Von Hausen was made a scapegoat for the failure of the Schlieffen Plan and relieved of his command and replaced by General Karl von Einem. Affronted by the stain on his and his Saxon comrades, von Hausen considered it his duty to write his personal testimony concerning the Third Army under his command. Kircheisen comments that 'According to the most authoritative sources, the Battle of the Marne can not be considered as a strategic defeat for the Germans. It should be regarded rather as a battle lost by us on account of tactical reasons'.