CHAPTER VI

CAMPAIGNS IN ALSACE AND LORRAINE

The French staff apparently had designed a campaign in Upper Alsace
and the Vosges, but the throwing of a brigade from Belfort across
the frontier on the extreme right of their line on August 6 would
seem to have been undertaken chiefly with a view of rousing patriotic
enthusiasm. French aeroplane scouts had brought in the intelligence
that only small bodies of German troops occupied the left bank
of the Rhine. Therefore the opportunity was presented to invade
the upper part of the lost province of Alsace--a dramatic blow
calculated to arouse the French patriotic spirit. Since the Germans
had expended hardly any effort in its defense, leaving, as it were
an open door, it may have been part of the strategic idea of their
General Staff to draw a French army into that region, with the
design of inflicting a crushing defeat. Thus French resistance
in the southern Vosges would have been weakened, the capture of
Belfort, unsupported by its field army, a probability, and a drive
beyond into France by the German forces concentrated at Neubreisach
made triumphant. Doubtless the French General Staff fully grasped
the German intention, but considered a nibble at the alluring German
bait of some value for its sentimental effect upon the French and
Alsatians. Otherwise the invasion of Upper Alsace with a brigade
was doomed at the outset to win no military advantage.

On August 7, 1914, the French dispersed a German outpost intrenched
before Altkirch. Some cavalry skirmishing followed, which resulted
in the French gaining possession of the city. As was to be expected,