The Battle of Mulhouse or Mülhausen, also called the Battle of Alsace , which began on August 7, 1914, was the opening attack of World War I by the French army against Germany. The battle was part of a French attempt to recover the province of Alsace, which France ceded to the newly formed German Empire following France's defeat by Prussia and other independent German states in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The French occupied Mulhouse on 8 August and were then forced out by German counter-attacks on 10 August. The French retired to Belfort, where General Bonneau the VII Corps commander and the 8th Cavalry division commander were sacked. Events further north led to the German XIV and XV corps being moved away from Belfort and a second French offensive by the French VII Corps, reinforced and renamed the Army of Alsace under General Paul Pau, began on 14 August.