etter a larger army. Others wanted to move thedivisions and land them in Antwerp and work with the Belgians, but Prime MinisterWinston Churchill vetoed that idea. Eventually they reached a compromise to send thecavalry and for infantry divisions to Rouen, France. Reluctantly, the BEF agreed tofallow the pre-war plans arranged and guard the left flank. Yet, General Kitchenerdetermined to protect his BEF army by not acting in the offensive maneuvers ordered bythe French. The 15th day after the war had begun, the French army moved to theoffensive on the right flank. The German army defended their position with barbed wire,deep trenches and gun emplacements. All throughout the first four days of this attack, theGermans slowly withdrew. Without the French realizing it, the German army hadgathered a large number of troops on the French left flank. The Belgians were tiring andthe BEF was moving too slowly and could not yet get into position, on the 28th, a retreatof the Belgian army was ordered by the King. When they realized what had happened,the Germans quickly moved in and massacred Aerschot and Dinant. The next day, vonKluck’s army occupied Belgium. Between August 20 and August 24, there were four great battles going on at thewestern front. Near Lorraine, the fighting stopped the trenches, barbed wire and gunsstopped their attack short. North of Loraine, at Ardennes, the French tried to fightthrough the Germans, because they the generals were sure that was Germany’s weakestfront. But, once again on the 22nd, the French were proven wrong. Even further north atCharleroi the French come up with a right way to attack the Germans. They believed thatthe Germans only had about 17-18 divisions to the west of the Meuse against which theycould field twenty-one divisions, including the BEF. In reality, the Germans had 30divisions with eight standing by. During the battle General Lanrezac was forced to pullback in order ...
