What if the French Army had not retreated to Paris in 1914

Wrong forum. But anyway:

The German Army would have moved elsewhere, and the French could have done one out of these things:
a) Retreated to Paris
b) Pushed further toward Germany
c) Attempted to follow them

B is unlikely because it would have left them too badly defended.

In the case of C, France would have stayed to the West while Germany, on the Eastern side of the front, would have moved South first but then gradually made a curve, pushing the French North, giving them no hindrance to reach Paris. The French would probably realise the inevitably of this beforehand, so this is equally unlikely.

Leaves us with A.

My point: The retreat to Paris was rather necessary.
 

Deleted member 1487

What if Joffre had reinforced the Belgian frontier?

Depends how he does it. Likely he just runs straight into the Germans in the field and gets clobbered like in the Ardennes with his 3rd and 4th armies. That leaves the frontier less guarded, allowing the German 6th and 7th armies to break through when reinforced by the Ersatz divisions. Bad news.
 
Top