memoir · by a contemporary

Paris reborn

Herbert Adams Gibbons (1880–1934), 1916

Named on the page for First Battle of the Marne.

machine-read Machine-read (OCR) from a scanned book at the Internet Archive: expect misread words and names. The scan itself is at the library.

draft Matched to the battle automatically; not yet reviewed.

Passages that name the battle; the whole book is at Internet Archive.

5–12 September 1914

First Battle of the Marne

AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
The battle of the Marne was over. The Germans were in full retreat. Paris was saved !

PARIS REBORN
We went to Kepler's in the Place de Clichy for dinner. The salons were filled. The victory of the Marne was being boisterously celebrated by the unfit who, not having had to suffer, were oblivious of suf- fering. All joy is born of pain. Why is it that those who experience the joy are not always those who have experienced the pain?

A CITY SUFFERING
No matter what the Germans may succeed in do- ing on the Aisne, they are, and will be, in spite of any temporary successes, upon the defensive from now on in France. The legend of the invincibility of the Germans was destroyed in the battle of the Marne. Having once seen the Imperial Eagles in retreat, the French soldiers know that the trick is possible, and are confident that they can repeat it.

PARIS REBORN
anguish and sorrow more poignant than any that has yet been felt during this unhappy war. For it is now known that the battle of the Marne was won only at stupendous sacrifice of life, and we realize that every kilometer gained along the Aisne means a hecatomb of the youth of France. The modern engines of war, while they have not been able to stop the assaults of armies one upon the other, have proved themselves far more destructive than any- thing that has yet been seen in the history of the world.

Public domain. Text from Internet Archive.