Battle Of St. Quentin

The Battle of St. Quentin (also called the First Battle of Guise (French: 1ere Bataillede Guise)) was fought during World War I. On the night of 26 August 1914, the Allies withdrew from Le Cateau to St. Quentin.

With retreat all along the line, the commander-in-chief of the French forces, Joseph Joffre, needed the Fifth Army under Charles Lanrezac to hold off the German advance through counterattacking, despite a four mile separation from the French Fourth Army on the right flank, and the continual retreat of the BEF on the left flank. The movement of Lanrezac's five corps took most of 28 August turning, from facing north to facing west against St. Quentin.

Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre (12 January 1852 - 3 January 1931) was a French general who was Commander-in-Chief of the French Army between 1914 and 1916 during the First World War. He is most known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive First Battle of the Marne in 1914. His popularity led to his nickname Papa Joffre.