In this essay I will explain what Schlieffen plan was and why it did not work step by step.It began when Germany declare war on Russia and France. However their allies Britain and Belgium stepped in to help while Austro-Hungary was alliance to Germany.
The Schlieffen plan had been created by Alfred Von Schlieffen but he had died before world war one started. The plan was meant to be foolproof. First of all, Germany planned to defeat France quickly by marching through Belgium before Russia could get involved. It was intended to avoid a war on two fronts. Germany believed that Russia would take six weeks to mobilize their troops. Germany would hold the French on the frontier with their weak forces and follow this by holding up Russian advance in the East with a small German army. Unfortunately, the Schlieffen plan had failed, I shall explain why the plan failed as follows.
Firstly, I will be writing about how Belgium put up resistance against Germany. The first plan is to defeat Belgium on 4th of August 1914 failed because the Belgian forces were unexpectedly able to hold up the German advance in a short period of time. It took them only 3 days to delay invasion. At this point, Germany had miscalculated the strength of Belgium forces. Even though germany used their “Big Bertha” artillery to destroy belgian forts in Liege, Namur and Antwerp, however, Belgium was still able to fight back which created a continuing threat to German supply lines in the north. The Belgians had sabotaged at a lightning speed on which the success of the Schlieffen plan was being rested.
Next I will talk about how the british army was more effective than Germany had expected. Germany though that Britain would not intervene to help the Belgium...
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...ronts, as planned. In my opinion, I think the changes made by the German generals were the worst tactics which contributed to the final failure of the Schlieffen plan. If the German generals had sued their initial plan, the French army would not have been able to retreat back to Paris, then the whole German forces would have been able to fight against the Russian front rather than having to sent part of their troops to fight against the Russian front rather than having to sent part of their troops to fight against British, Belgium and French as well,thus weakening their own ability to have victory.
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criticized for this, he stood by his decision stating that he knew the Russians would force the army into the cold harsh, Russian winter, such as the case of Napoleon. Even though Schlieffen came up with this wonderful and well thought out plan, his successor, General von Moltke, changed the plans entirely.
Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen was a German field marshal who served as the Chief of the Imperial German General Staff from 1891 to 1906. He is known for the Schlieffen Plan, a strategic plan designed to defeat Russia and France, which involved fighting both fronts at the same time.
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Falkenhayn took part in the starting of the Battle of Verdun. He sent a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II stating that the answer to victory was not in Russia. Falkenhayn came up with a plan to attack France. By attacking France, it could benefit his army by possibly moving up in status. He intended to continuously attack the men on the opposite side to wear them down. This plan was used because Falkenhayn wanted the French to give up. Though Erich believed this would work, the rank of the French still remained higher than the r...
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be unstoppable. Earlier that year, the King of Belgium had called to the Allies for aid in protecting his country. Britain and France had complied, both sending large forces to defend Belgium from German capture. Their forces pressed forward to stop the German a...
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This essay thus includes the architects of the Iron Chancellor to isolate France before this war, his strategy to bring southern German states into war through French provocation, his superior planning during the invasion of French territory and his army’s advanced use of modern technology.