How the Schlieffen Plan was Meant to Work

How the Schlieffen Plan was Meant to Work

When war was declared in August 1914, Germany was allied in "The

Triple Alliance" with the Austro - Hungarian Empire and Italy.

Britain, Russia and France were allied as "The Triple Entente."

The alliance between Britain, France and Russia rendered Germany's

geographical position a weakness, with France and Britain on it's

Western Frontier, and Russia in the East. This meant that Germany

would have to split its army into two, in order to fight the war on

both fronts - which was an immense quandary. The Schlieffen plan was

devised by the German Chief of Staff, Count Alfred Von Schlieffen in

1905 as a solution to this dilemma.

Count Von Schlieffen appreciated that due to its vast area, Russia

would take more than six weeks after the declaration of war to

immobilise its troops. On the basis of this, Von Schlieffen deduced

that if the German army defeated France's army within six weeks, they

could move onto the eastern front. The could then defeat the Russian

army, with the entire German army, and prevent splitting the army in

half to deal with a war on both fronts.

To defeat France so quickly, they would need the element of surprise.

Most of the French army was stationed on the border with Germany in

the historically disputed region of Alsace - Lorraine. Von Schlieffen

decided to surprise the enemy by invading France through the newly

formed neutral country of Belgium.

Upon the formation of Belgium, several countries agreed to its

neutrality, meaning that if it were ever invaded, the countries that

backed Belgium would help fight the invaders. However, the Germans did

not believe ...

... middle of paper ...

... of weapons and supplies then affected the

soldiers on the battlefield, and an armistice was called on the 11th

of November.

In conclusion, I agree with the statement saying that these for

factors were of equal importance as to why the stalemate on the

Western Front was finally broken. Parts of a factor lead to a

development of parts of another factor, which eventually lead to

allied victory. The Russian Revolution and submarine warfare began

this chain, and before the armistice, the lack of supplies and failure

of the German offensive ended the chain. However, these four factors

alone were not the overall reason why the stalemate was broken as they

were not enough to completely break the stalemate on the Western Front

alone, counter attack plans from the Allies like the Foch strategy

also helped break stalemate.