[10] With retreat all along the line, the commander-in-chief of the French forces, Joseph Joffre, needed the Fifth Army (General Charles Lanrezac) to hold off the German advance with a counter-attack, despite a 4 mi (6.4 km) separation from the French Fourth Army on the right flank and the continual retreat of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the left flank.

[13] Bülow found that the 2nd Army was separated by the Oise, which offered the possibility of enveloping the French attack with counter-attacks from both flanks.

Bülow sent a staff officer to the 1st Army (General Alexander von Kluck), to request support for the attack on 30 August.

[14] The French resumed the offensive on the morning of 30 August but managed only disjointed attacks which were repulsed; German counter-attacks began before noon.

Bülow ordered a pursuit by small infantry parties with field artillery, while the main force paused to rest, due to exhaustion and to concern that the fortress of La Fère obstructed a general advance and would have to be masked while the 1st Army enveloped the French from the west and then attacked on 1 September.