First Battle of the Marne
During the battle there was not any way to move French troops fast enough to the front. But there was a solution. General Gallieni called for every taxi and driver to report for duty. Paris had about 10,000 taxis but because of the war only had about 7,000 drivers. Gallieni's plan was to move the troops by taxi, which at the time was a very new invention. The taxis moved through the night and day to carry soldiers. The drivers received 0.20 francs (₣) per kilometer. But by September 8, the taxis had only brought about 5,000 soldiers from Paris. In a battle with over a million men, 5,000 could not make a great difference. Also, most of the soldiers that came by taxi were held in reserve.