On this day a century ago the Battle of the Marne began, a turning point in the early months of the Great War when the German Army was stopped from reaching Paris. Nearly two and a half million men fought in this battle which lasted less than a week and resulted in heavy losses on both sides; one in four of the French soldiers who took part became casualties, for example.

The Marne battlefield consists of wide open fields, small country villages and rolling downland as seen here in the fields beneath the village of Mondemont – where French and German soldiers clashed in the vital right flank of the Marne battlefield in September 1914.