The French Army in the First World War

Mock's deficiencies as a commander began to show. He knew there were enemy troops to the north and east of his position. Nobody but napoleon had imagined such rapid, dramatic manoeuvres with hundreds of thousands of men. Mock sent a detachment of roughly five thousand men to the northeast. It's unclear what he was hoping to achieve with this movement. Perhaps he sensed that he was losing the initiative and felt he had to do something.