Battle of Morhange 1914
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 19 August 1914 – 20 August 1914 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1914 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | World War I | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 48.9047, 6.6342 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Morhange (French: bataille de Morhange; German: Schlacht bei Mörchingen) was one of the first major battles of the First World War during its initial phase (the Battle of the Frontiers). It took place between 19 and 20 August 1914 on a front stretching for nearly 30 kilometers involving the villages of Morhange and Dieuze in the present-day Moselle department, then German territory.
The battle pitted the French 2nd Army, commanded by General Édouard de Castelnau, against the German 6th Army, commanded by Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria. The French 2nd Army comprised three main units: the 20th Army Corps commanded by General Ferdinand Foch, the 15th Army Corps and the 16th Army Corps. After a difficult week of advancing through German Lorraine, resulting in considerable losses among the French ranks, the exhausted soldiers approached the Battle of Morhange. On 19 August, Castelnau gave the order to attack the German army the following day therefore he and his men were forced to retreat to Nancy.
On 20 August, conflicting instructions disrupted the initial plan: while Foch was supposed to remain in place to guard the flank of the rest of the army, he too attacked Morhange.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Morhange (revision 1378716758), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Lorraine 1914 · 13 km
- Battle of Arracourt 1944 · 18 km
- Battle of Grand Couronné 1914 · 28 km
- Battle of Borny–Colombey 1870 · 36 km
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- Battle of Noisseville 1870 · 37 km
Other battles of the World War I
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- Battle of Antivari 1914
- Battle of Arras (1914) 1914
- Battle of Cocos 1914
- Battle of Coronel 1914
- Battle of Dornach (1914) 1914
- Battle of Galicia 1914
- Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914) 1914
- Battle of Kolubara 1914
All 138 battles of the World War I →
Browse more: battles in France · Europe · World War I era battles