First Battle of Picardy

First Battle of Picardy
Part of the Race to the Sea, World War I
Franco-German northward flanking moves, 15 September – 8 October 1914
Date 22–26 September 1914 Location Picardy, France Coordinates: 49°30′N 2°50′E / 49.500°N 2.833°E / 49.500; 2.833 Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
France	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Joffre Michel-Joseph Maunoury Noel de Castelnau	Erich von Falkenhayn Alexander von Kluck Rupprecht of Bavaria
Strength
Sixth Army Second Army	1st Army 6th Army
Casualties and losses
unknown	unknown
Picardy Picardy, a historical territory and former administrative region of France, now part of Hauts-de-France region

The First Battle of Picardy (22–26 September 1914) took place during the Race to the Sea (17 September – 19 October) and the First Battle of the Aisne (13 September – 28 September), a Franco-British counter-offensive, which followed the Battle of the Frontiers (7 August–13 September) and the German advance into France during the Great Retreat, which ended at the First Battle of the Marne (5–12 September). The term describes reciprocal attempts by the Franco-British and German armies, to envelop the northern flank of the opposing army, through Picardy, Artois and Flanders.

The first outflanking attempt resulted in an encounter battle in Picardy. The French Sixth Army attacked up the Oise river valley towards Noyon, as the Second Army assembled further north, ready to attempt to advance round the northern flank of the German 1st Army. Both French armies managed to advance successively on a line from Roye to Chaulnes, until the German 6th Army and other reinforcements arrived from Lorraine and halted the French advance. Both sides then attempted another flanking move to the north, which merged into the Battle of Albert (25–29 September).

General Erich von Falkenhayn replaced Colonel-General Helmuth von Moltke the Younger as Chief of the German General Staff on 14 September, when the German front in France was being consolidated in Lorraine and on the Aisne. The open western flank beyond the 1st Army and the danger of attacks from the National redoubt of Belgium, where the Siege of Antwerp had begun on 20 August, created a dilemma in which the German positions had to be maintained, when only offensive operations could lead to decisive victory. Appeals for the reinforcement of the Eastern Front could not be ignored and Falkenhayn cancelled a plan for the 6th Army to break through near Verdun and ordered that it move across France to the right wing of the German armies. The flank of 1st Army was at Compiègne, beyond which there were no German forces until Antwerp. Falkenhayn could reinforce the 1st Army with the 6th Army, send it to Antwerp or divide the army by reinforcing the 1st Army and the Antwerp siege with part of the army, while the rest operated in the area between.