Paths of Glory

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(§ "La Marseillaise")

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War began between Germany
and France on August 3rd 1914.

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Five weeks later
the German army had smashed its way

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to within 18 miles of Paris.

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There, the battered French rallied
their forces at the Marne river

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and, in a series of unexpected
counterattacks, drove the Germans back.

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The front was stabilised,
then shortly afterwards

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developed into a continuous
line of heavily fortified trenches,

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zigzagging their way 500 miles from
the English Channel to the Swiss frontier.

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By 1916, after two grisly years
of trench warfare,

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the battle lines had changed very little.

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Successful attacks were
measured in hundreds of yards,