But in the Battle of the Ourcq,
the distances are comparatively small, the actions comparatively simple
and intelligible, while all the circumstances of the particular struggle
are so dramatic, and the stakes at issue so vast, that every incident
is, as it were, writ large, and the memory absorbs them more easily.
An Englishwoman, too, may be glad it was in this conspicuous section of
the battle-field, which will perhaps affect the imagination of posterity
more easily than any other, that it fell to the British Army to play its
part. To General Joffre the glory of the main strategic conception of
the great retreat; to General Gallieni the undying honour of the rapid
perception, the quick decision, which flung General Maunoury, with the
6th Army, on Von Kluck's flank and rear, at the first hint of the German
general's swerve to the southeast; to General Maunoury himself, and his
splendid troops, the credit of the battle proper, across the broad
harvest fields of the Ourcq plateau. But the advance of the British
troops from the south of the Marne, on the heels of Von Kluck, was in
truth all-important to the success of Maunoury on the Ourcq.
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