Siege of Maubeuge

Siege of Maubeuge
Part of the Great Retreat on the Western Front in the First World War
Destroyed casemate at Maubeuge
Date 24 August – 7 September 1914 Location The Entrenched Camp of Maubeuge (le camp retranché de Maubeuge) France 50°16′39″N 03°58′24″E / 50.27750°N 3.97333°E / 50.27750; 3.97333 Result German victory
Belligerents
Germany	France
Commanders and leaders
Karl von Bülow Alexander von Kluck Hans von Zwehl	Joseph Joffre Joseph Fournier
Strength
1 reserve infantry division 1 active-army brigade 21 heavy and super-heavy artillery batteries	49,000 men 460 guns 200 machine-guns
Casualties and losses
1,100	49,000 (1,300 killed, 3,000 wounded) 32,692–45,000 captured 377–600 guns (includes machine-guns)
Maubeuge class=notpageimage| Maubeuge, a commune in the Nord department in northern France

The siege of Maubeuge took place from 24 August – 7 September 1914, at the Entrenched Camp of Maubeuge (le camp retranché de Maubeuge) the start of the First World War on the Western Front. The railway from Thionville (Diedenhofen, 1871–1919) to Luxembourg City, Arlon and Namur into Belgium had been cut by the demolition of the rail bridge over the Meuse at Namur in Belgium. During the siege, the German armies in the north could use only the single-track line from Trier to Liège, Brussels, Valenciennes and Cambrai, which could accommodate a maximum of forty trains a day.

At the end of August the garrison made several sorties but the third was a costly failure, after which the French prepared to receive the German attack. The German bombardment began at 1:00 p.m. on 29 August, assisted by agents in the Entrenched Position who passed reports on the fall of shot, greatly increasing the accuracy of the German guns. The forts and infantry shelters (ouvrages) were wrecked by the German and Austrian super-heavy howitzers; German medium artillery proved unexpectedly effective.

Parts of Maubeuge were set on fire, causing an exodus of civilians and deserters to the village of Hautmont to the south-west. From 1 to 7 September, the French were forced out into the open and infantry attacks from the east gradually overran the French defences on both sides of the Sambre, forcing the survivors back level with Maubeuge. Brigadier-General Joseph Fournier, the governor of Maubeuge, surrendered to General Hans von Zwehl on 7 September, effective at noon the next day.

The French suffered 5,000 casualties and up to 49,000 troops went into captivity, along with several hundred guns and machine-guns; German casualties were 1,100–5,000 men. The garrison had withstood bombardment by heavy and super-heavy artillery, air raids and infantry attacks for fifteen days, longer than any other besieged fortress in Belgium or France, leaving the German 2nd Army short of troops as it pursued the Franco-British Armies southwards towards the Marne.