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I just finished reading Holger Herwig's "THE MARNE, 1914:THE OPENING OF WORLD WAR I AND THE BATTLE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD". It was QUITE good, I recommend it to anyone with an interest in WWI. It also brought up a number of incidents that we would call, "What If's", here is one of them.
pp 261/262
"Gustave de Cornulier-Luciniere's 5th CD, with 1500 sabers, ten guns, and 357 troops riding bicycles, was sent on that mission, the only one of it's kind in the war. For two daring days, 5th Cavalry rode around the forest of Viller-Cotterets behind German lines. At 6 p.m. on 8 Sept. under a "dark red, cloudy sky", it attacked a German airfield near Troesnes. At that very moment, a cavalcade of cars arrived with First Army's Staff. Kluck, Kuhl and their aides "seized rifles, carbines and revolvers" flung themselves on the ground and formed a broad firing line. The situation was cleared by the arrival of Arnold von Bauer's 17th ID, which "violently" dispatched the French riders, reducing 5th CD to half it's original strength.

So, if the 5th CD encounter or ambush the German 1st Army's staff convoy, they capture or kill them, along with capturing all the documents being carried. Alternatively, if they kill them at the airfield, or if von Bauer's 17th ID is late getting there, 1st Army's staff are again, captured or killed. In all these scenarios, the German 1st Army is without it's senior leadership, and it's plans are now known. How does this affect the Battle of the Marne?
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