Siege of Maubeuge

Part of the Great Retreat on the Western Front (World War I)

German soldiers outside Maubeuge, September 1914.

Date	24 August – 7 September 1914
Location	Maubeuge, France 50°16′39″N 03°58′24″E / 50.27750°N 3.97333°E / 50.27750; 3.97333Coordinates: 50°16′39″N 03°58′24″E / 50.27750°N 3.97333°E / 50.27750; 3.97333
Result	German victory

Belligerents

German Empire

France

Commanders and leaders

Hans von Zwehl

Karl von Bülow

Alexander von Kluck

Joseph Anthelme Fournier

Joseph Joffre

Strength

1 reserve infantry division
1 active-army brigade
21 heavy and super-heavy batteries

45,000 men
435 guns

Casualties and losses

1,100

5,000 dead/wounded
40,000 (POW)
377 guns captured

The Siege of Maubeuge took place from 24 August – 7 September 1914, at the start of World War I on the Western Front. The garrison of the fortress surrendered to the Germans after bombardment by heavy and super-heavy artillery, attacks by aircraft and ground troops.

After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 the French built more fortresses on the German border and extended the frontier fortifications northwards by building new ones at Hirson, Maubeuge, Lille and Dunkirk.

On 7 August General Fournier, commander of the fortified region of Maubeuge, warned that a German offensive over the Meuse River by six corps was likely. General Joseph Joffre sacked Fournier for defeatism and replaced him with General Desaleux but changed his mind, after sending General Paul Pau to review the situation at Maubeuge, who recommended that Fournier be reinstated. At a British Council of War on 12 August, Field Marshal Lord Kitchener predicted a German offensive through Belgium but sent the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to Maubeuge as planned, instead of concentrating further back at Amiens. Kitchener ordered General John French not to consider himself under the command of the French Army but subordinated British strategy to the French for the sake of the alliance. The BEF landed in France from 14–17 August and took post on the left flank of the French Fifth Army from Maubeuge to Le Cateau by 20 August. Next day dawn broke misty and no air reconnaissance was possible until the afternoon. The BEF began to advance northwards from Maubeuge towards Mons, despite aircraft reconnaissance reports that a column of German troops "stretched through Louvain as far as the eye could see".

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