The Schlieffen Plan

The Schlieffen Plan

Alfred von Schlieffen, a German General, who was chief of the Army's General Staff from 1891 to 1906, was the man who came up with a plan to show that Germany could go to war and win on two fronts. Or at least so he thought; his plan, known as "The Schlieffen Plan" was drawn to go to war against France on the west, while at the same time going to war against Russia on the east. His goal being to "defeat France in the time it took for Russia to mobilize their army, and turn back to the Eastern Front before Russia could react" (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan).

Schlieffen was motivated to defend Germany by attacking France and Russia. He hoped to stop France's ability to start war against Germany before Russia had time to mobilize, arguing that if France were defeated then Russia and Belgium would no longer be willing to fight (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWschlieffenP.htm). His plan called for the defeat of France in forty-two days. His intent was not to take over the cities or industries in order to weaken the French war efforts but to capture most of the French army and force them to surrender (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/schlieffen_plan). Schlieffen went through the Netherlands and Belgium (and did not care about the neutrality of these countries) and went along the French coast to the Metz. When the attack was below Paris, the Germans would continue east to hit the French armies that were in Alsace and Lorriane and then destroy them. According to Schlieffen's plan after his expected victory in France, German soldiers would then go to the Russia front and fight. Belgian forces began to flood the land and destroy the key railways so German troops could not get through, causing a delay. In Liege the Belgian forts held the Germans longer than they had thought possible, while the British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) slowed German troops and stopped them at Marne. By the time the German troops were to engage the French, they were exhausted.

Between 1905 and 1914 several events had changed Schlieffen's original plan. The first change was from Russia's defeat in the Japanese War of 1904 to 1905, they had recovered a lot faster than Schlieffen thought possible and had not only expanded their army but had improved it as well. The second change was that France had better military training and had developed an aggressive spirit (Encyclopedia Americano, 360). General Helmuth von Moltke, who was Schlieffen's successor, supported Schlieffen's plan but made changes that ended up weakening the plan and most likely causing its failure. News of the war among the troops was slow in coming. German armies had been stalled in Paris and were driven back in the First Battle of the Marne. Because the French were holding the Germans in the East, the Germans were soon defeated; this was something that Schlieffen thought was not possible. Moltke's first change for the army was to refrain from violating the Dutch neutrality. This caused the two strongest of the five enveloping German armies to be congested and delayed in a Bottleneck at Leige, Belgium (Dupuy, 931). This limited the proposed strategic withdrawal on the left wing armies before the French advance in Alsace-Lorraine.

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