The first great confrontation of the First World War began with the Battle of Lorraine and the Vosges, which affected more directly the Battle of the Marne than German victory on the Eastern Front. This struggle in the Lorraine and the Vosges, however, considered as the secondary military operation of the Western Campaign in German war plan, has been neglected for decades. By applying the command and control models as theoretical framework, this article respectively analyses the performances of French and German armies in this battle. This study emphasizes the effects generated by specific political context on the operational level of this battle, and demonstrates the advantages and limits of two command and control models: the mission command and control and the detailed command and control.