Chief of the Imperial German General Staff Helmuth von Moltke suffered a nervous breakdown upon hearing German forces were retreating from the Marne.
He informed Kaiser Wilhelm; "Your Majesty, we have lost the war!".
He was quite correct. The German gamble had failed.
He was 66 years of age, not that old by World War Two German standards, but old by the standards of the Great War. His health was already poor. Barbara Tuchman characterized him as a self doubting introvert. He wouldn't outlast the war, dying in 1916.
German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg laid out Germany's war aims, a little late in the day, in the Septemberprogramm.
The war aims were:
- France should cede some northern territory to Germany.
- France should pay a war indemnity high enough to prevent French rearmament for the two decades.
- France would partially disarm by demolishing its northern forts.
- Belgium should become a vassal state of Germany
- Luxembourg should be annexed to Germany
- Buffer states would be created in territory carved out of the western Russian Empire/
- Germany would create a Mitteleuropa economic association
- The German empire would be expanded in Africa.
- The Netherlands should be brought into a closer relationship to Germany
They didn't' get that.
Belgian troops gained ground at Aarschot.
Australia took Nauru, German New Guinea.
Hilaire Belloc with y Land and Water to write articles on the war.
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