The movie depicts the events from July until September of 1914 which led to the defeat of the German troops at the Marne. While Sebastian Haffner explains and comments on operations and decisions on the basis of situation maps, key scenes are depicted by actors. A main focus is thereby placed by Haffner onto the controversial mission of lieutenant-colonel Richard Hentsch who is said to have, during a war patrol to the various army high commands, contributed to the abortion of the operations significantly.
Otto Kurth
Friedrich Gröndahl
Alexander Hegarth
Hans Daniel
Hans Paetsch
Hans Häckermann
Dieter Wagner
Ernst Fritz Fürbringer
Heinz Weiss
Herbert Steinmetz
Siegfried Wischnewski
Hans Wyprächtiger
Karl Michael Vogler
Charles Brauer
Hubert Suschka
Hannes Messemer
Edgar Maschmann
Joachim Rake
Ferdy Mayne
Wolf von Gersum
Wolfgang Engels
Sebastian Haffner