How Did The Schlieffen Plan

The opposing armies were in a deadlock and trenches had become a dominate feature of the war (Page 63, 2nd paragraph). Some trenches were from 5 feet deep to 30 feet deep; they caused a stalemate that was almost impossible to break. If you break into their lines there is another one waiting for you. The trenches were hundreds of miles long, constantly fighting. Also they were filled with rats and frogs. Trenches were always in repair, they were reinforced with sandbags, with sheets of corrugated

The Schlieffen Plan was a German battle plan to fight a two front war devised in 1905 by Alfred von Schlieffen as the Chief of the General Staff for Germany. The plan called for the German army to apply overwhelming force in France to capture the capital of Paris within six weeks before changing focus to Russia. The plan intended to achieve a quick and decisive victory by sweeping a line of armies through neutral Belgium and into France. In actuality, Helmuth von Moltke made significant changes to Schlieffen’s original plan before and during World War I. Ultimately, the plan ended in failure when the German advance halted at the First Battle of the Marne (Limbach, 2014).

In February 1891 Count Alfred von Schlieffen was appointed Chief of the Prussian General Staff, a post which he held until the end of 1905. The most important responsibility of the General Staff was to produce the annual deployment plans, which stipulated how the German army was to be drawn up ready for battle in case of war. The initial pattern of deployment was the basis of the operational plan for the conduct of the war itself. The General Staff routinely tested these war plans in studies and exercises. During most of Schlieffen’s time as Chief of Staff, the essential strategic problem for Germany was indeed the likelihood that the next war would have to be fought against two enemies on widely separated fronts, the French in the west and the Russians in the east. Schlieffen never found a convincing solution to this problem. His suggestion was to deploy much greater forces on one of the fronts in order to defeat that enemy quickly and decisively, and then to use rail mobility to reinforce the other front and win a decisive victory there too. That sounded fine in theory, but when it was tested in exercises it proved hard to achieve. An initial victory on one front could not be fully exploited because of the need to switch forces promptly to the other front. Once that happened, the first enemy

Since the majority of the Great War accounts for a vast network of resources on what the trenches ultimately provided this research will explore within and above trench lines. The failed plans of leaders halted what is known to be the most strategic play in physical versus intellectual attributes of warfare altogether. If it weren’t for the salient of trench warfare throughout the years of 1914-1918, indulged the importance of communication and its

Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived day and night. There were many lines of German trenches on one side and many lines of the trenches on the allied side. In the middle there was no-man’s land, so called because it didn’t belong to either army. Soldiers crossed no- man’s land when they wanted to attack. Soldiers in the trenches did not get much sleep, but when they did it was in the afternoon during daylight and at night for only 1 hour at a time. They were woken up at different times, either to complete one of the daily chores or the go to fight. The system of trenches was employed because a German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn, decided that his troops must at all costs hold onto those parts of France and Belgium that Germany still occupied. Falkenhayn ordered his men to dig trenches that would provide them with protection from the advancing French and British troops. The Allies soon realised that they could not break through this line and they also began to dig trenches.

The Schlieffen Plan was created by Alfred von Schlieffen, and he created it to avoid fighting both France and Russia at the same time. The problem was that France and Russia were on opposite sides of Europe. Which meant they would have to split their army in half. The Schlieffen Plan stated that Germany would defeat France while Russia would be mobilizing itś army. They assumed that Russia would take six weeks to mobilize,and that France was weak and Russia was strong. They didn´t think that GB would be fighting for France because of the treaty signed seventy - five years ago. The Schlieffen Plan had many flaws and assumptions.But instead of taking six weeks Russia took ten days, and started fighting when they weren't ready. Which made

28/8/1914 I’ve been here for a month know and I can barely cope with the size of these trenches I the Frontline trenches are about seven feet deep and six feet wide. and there always crowded but I don’t complain. Everyone here is nice but there’s a lot of problems like the extremely poor weather conditions like heavy rain and wind now there’s huge amounts of high density mud. These conditions negatively affected the strategies that both armies were planning. These muddy conditions meant that advancement was very slow with soldiers sometimes taking over 3 hours to travel 100 metres! we, when 'going over the top', not only face machine gun fire whilst running towards enemy trenches but had to run through this mud, often getting stuck or going

To begin with, trench warfare was a war tactic that baffled many generals since it was not implemented frequently in battles and they were not trained to fight under those circumstances. Although, it was used during the American Civil War and the Russian- Japanese War, trench warfare dramatically grew during the the first World War. In its first month, the French stopped German forces that were pushing through Belgium. The conflict between both sides was expected to be short but turned longer and bloodier as the first trenches were dug during the Battle of Marne on September 15, 1914. Eventually, the Western Front stretched from France through the North Sea Coast of Belgium.

In the spring of 1918 the German army began an offensive to break through allied lines and ultimately end the war. The spring offensive was meant “to push the [British Expeditionary Force] off the continent and then deal with France separately before significant numbers of Americans could arrive in Europe and tip the manpower balance decisively in the Allies favor.” (Zebecki 43) In order to successfully accomplish this task Germany decided that it needed a diversion in the south in order to draw French reserves out of Flanders and weaken the Allies in the north. The original plan of the Germans was that of a limited attack of only 13 miles. The Germans “[were] certain that the French would panic and pull their reserves out of Flanders.” (Zebecki 43) When the Germans advanced 13 miles on May 27th, Pétain ordered 16 division to block

Both sides rushed north in a ‘race to the sea'. If one army got there first it could take control of crucial channel ports and also move to encircle the armies of its rival. Incidentally, neither army moved south as both French and German borders were intact and heavily fortified all the way to the Swiss border. As both sides moved north at an even pace and neither wanted to lose any ground, a line of deeply dug trenches appeared all the way the way through Belgium and Northern France. These trenches were extremely well designed defensive positions and were almost impenetrable by conventional means. The beginning of the war was now over, deadlock had been established and the long bloody middle was about to begin. It would be this trench warfare that would be the key factor behind the failure for either side to advance over the coming years.

A front line trench located about 50 yards to a mile from its enemy counterpart. It was guarded by the tangled lines of barbed wire. That were used as support to the trench line several hundred yards back. Reserve lines were several hundred yards behind that as well. But a well built trench did not run straight for any distance. Because that would invite the danger to them. As well as sweeping fire. Along any long stretch of the line. Instead it was zigzagged about every few yards. As well as there were three different types of trenches. Firing trenches were lined on the side facing the enemy near steps there were also defending soldiers. That would stand to fire their machine guns. As well as throw grenades at the advancing enemy offense coming from communication trenches. Also saps of little depth in positions that extended into no man’s land and afforded spots for observation posts. As well as some grenade throwing and machine gun

To avoid the French fortress system, the Germans had developed a plan to surround Paris in a flanking maneuver to quickly conquer France. The plan was expected to be carried out in only 40 days, however, many important steps were not taken which cost the Germans the vital element of haste. The Schlieffen plan was not foredoomed to failure, yet it it did fail due to three factors: the reduction to the right wing on the Western Front, the choice to avoid the path through Holland, and the poor coordination and regulation of the German armies.

For nearly two years since the first battle of the Marne, the two sides had been engaged in trench warfare along the western front. The front had hardly moved. The French and the British were planning a major offensive

His strategy was meant to ensure a quick victory for Germany, which involved the bulk of the German Army, which was ninety percent, having to march through Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg, then surrounding the French troops in Paris. After the French had been defeated, the French Army would combine with the German Army, and they would defeat Russia. Schlieffen felt that it was more important to take out France first, because it was identified as Germany’s most dangerous opponent. Russia was not as advanced as France in many areas, so Germany made it a secondary

The German Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen between the years 1891 to 1905, created the Schlieffen plan in order to prepare for if they were to ever come upon war with France and Russia. In other words, it was to prepare for mobilization. The purpose of the plan was to help Germany avoid a two front war with Russia and France. But also the successor of Schlieffen was named Helmuth von Moltke, who reduced to the size of the German army and put them at greater chance of being defeated. They were surrounded by empires such as France and Russia and needed to avoid off an attack that could occur from the two at the same time. They decided to go through France first because Russia was a vast land with an enormous army and they had expected Russia