about the BEF, which he thought could be held off by two German cavalry corps, and thought that German First Army was about to turn Maunoury's left flank, and was dumbfounded to be ordered to retreat. On the evening of 9 September, with the Germans withdrawing and the BEF crossing the Marne, Joffre was not yet willing to announce victory and instead sent the War Minister a message praising Maunoury's Sixth Army for defending Paris. Later that night he issued Instruction Particuliere No. 20 ordering a general advance. Sixth Army “resting its right on the Ourcq” was to try to envelop the Germans from the west. Eugene Bridoux's V Cavalry Corps was set to play a key role. The BEF and Franchet d’Esperey’s Fifth Army were to push north from the Marne. Abandoning the plan to envelop the Germans from the west, Joffre now ordered all the French armies, including Sixth, to advance northeast. On 13 September Maunoury informed Joffre that Sixth Army, “which has not had a day of rest in about fifteen days, very much needs 24 hours rest”. Franchet and Foch (commander of the new Ninth Army) were saying similar things as the German line solidified north of the Aisne, although the French armies, along with the BEF, continued to attack until 18 September. Later War Early in 1915 Sixth Army was holding the front from Soissons to north of Compiegne, with Second Army on its left and Sarrail’s Fifth Army on its right. All these armies fired diversionary barrages before the offensives in the Argonne, Lorraine and the Vosges. Sixth Army also launched a diversionary offensive north of Soissons and the Aisne, into solid defensive ground where the Germans had halted their retreat in September 1914, commanded by Joffre's former staff officer Henri Berthelot. By 14 January German counterattacks had pushed the French back behind their initial start lines, capturing almost as many French prisoners (5,200) as the Germans suffered casualties (5,529 German casualties, as opposed to 12,411 French killed, wounded and missing, 40% of the effective French troops employed). This debacle, so close to Paris, sparked the first political criticism of the Army. War Minister Millerand rebuked Joffre, who rebuked Maunoury, who in turn passed the blame on to Berthelot, and there was an angry debate in the French Parliament, just reconvened (12 January) after its return from Bordeaux. Maunoury himself was severely wounded by