The battle was part of a French attempt to recover the province of Alsace, which France had ceded to the new empire following its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871.

Joffre ordered the offensive to continue but by 23 August, preparations were halted as news of the French defeats in Lorraine and the Ardennes arrived.

Amid the disruption of the new rearmament plan, the disorganised and poorly trained Belgian soldiers would benefit from a central position to delay contact with an invader.

Belgian plans became an unsatisfactory compromise, in which the field army concentrated behind the Gete river with two divisions forward at Liège and Namur.

German planning was determined by numerical inferiority, the speed of mobilisation and concentration and the effect of the vast increase of the power of modern weapons.

Frontal attacks were expected to be costly and protracted, leading to limited success, particularly after the French and Russians modernised their fortifications on the frontiers with Germany.

Alfred von Schlieffen Chief of the Imperial German General Staff (Oberste Heeresleitung, OHL) from 1891–1906, devised a plan to evade the French frontier fortifications with an offensive on the northern flank, which would have a local numerical superiority and obtain rapidly a decisive victory.

On 3 August, the Belgian government refused German demands and Britain guaranteed military support to Belgium if Germany invaded.

Moltke added forces to the left wing after concluding that a possible French offensive into Alsace and Lorraine, particularly from Belfort, had become a certainty.

[11] An attack into Alsace would begin the redemption of the lost provinces and demonstrate to Russia that the French army was fighting the common enemy.

Bonneau reported a large concentration of German troops in the area and recommended delay but Joffre over-ruled him and ordered the attack to commence.

1 on 8 August, in which the operation by VII Corps was to pin down the German forces opposite and to attract reserves away from the main offensive further north.

[12] A few border skirmishes took place after the declaration of war and German reconnaissance patrols found that the French had a chain of frontier posts, supported by larger fortified positions further back.

[13] The French advanced from Belfort to Mulhouse and Colmar 35 km (22 mi) to the north-east but were hampered by the breakdown of the supply service and delays.

The French seized the border town of Altkirch 15 km (9.3 mi) south of Mulhouse with a bayonet charge for a loss of 100 men killed.

[13] The First Army commander, General Auguste Dubail, preferred to dig in and wait for mobilisation to finish but Joffre ordered the advance to continue.

In the early morning of 9 August, parts of the XIV and XV Corps of the German 7th Army arrived from Strasbourg and counter-attacked at Cernay.

As night fell, inexperienced German troops at the suburb of Rixheim, east of Mulhouse, fired wildly, wasting huge amounts of ammunition and occasionally shooting at each other, one regiment suffering 42 men killed, 163 wounded and 223 missing.

[19] The Landwehr fought a delaying action as the French advanced from Belfort with two divisions on the right passing through Dannemarie at the head of the valley of the Ill river.

)[20] After being overrun, the Germans withdrew hastily through the Hardt forest to avoid being cut off and crossed the Rhine pursued by the French, retreating to Ensisheim, 20 km (12 mi) to the north.

On 23 August, preparations were suspended as news arrived of the French defeats in Lorraine and Belgium and next day, the VII Corps was ordered to move to the Somme.

[27] In 2009, Holger Herwig wrote that on 10 August, the German Infantry Regiment 112 suffered 42 men killed, 163 wounded and 223 missing during the counter-attack on Mulhouse.