Germany's army stood 30 miles from Paris, on the verge of winning the war in weeks. Then a 50-kilometer gap opened between two armies — and France sent soldiers to the front in 600 commandeered taxi cabs.
By early September 1914, the German army had swept through Belgium and northeastern France in six weeks, advancing so rapidly that soldiers' boots were worn through. The German 1st Army reached the Marne River just 30 miles northeast of Paris. French government officials evacuated the capital. Victory seemed days away.
Then the German advance fractured. General von Kluck turned his 1st Army northwest to confront a French force threatening his flank — but this opened a 50-kilometer gap between his army and the German 2nd Army to his left. French and British commanders spotted the gap and ordered an immediate counterattack into it.
Paris's military governor, General Gallieni, commandeered around 600 Parisian taxis to rush reinforcements to the front. The 'Taxis of the Marne' became one of WWI's iconic images — though historians note they carried fewer than 6,000 men and were militarily marginal. The symbolism mattered more than the numbers.
Over seven days, September 5–12, roughly two million soldiers fought across a 150-mile front. The Germans, unable to seal the gap or sustain their overstretched supply lines, began retreating northward to the Aisne River. The retreat ended any prospect of the quick French defeat that German strategy required.
Both sides then raced north trying to outflank each other — the 'Race to the Sea' — until the front solidified from the English Channel to Switzerland. The war that German planners had expected to last six weeks would last four years. Historian Holger Herwig called the Marne 'the most important land battle of the twentieth century.'
Total casualties from the First Marne: approximately 250,000 French, 13,000 British, and 300,000 German. The battle saved France — and condemned both sides to the trenches.