Mission Command in the First Battle of the Marne
The First Battle of the Marne was the first major battle of World War I. Fought in September of 1914, the battle marked the end of the German advance toward Paris and the beginning of trench warfare. The battle exhibited a number of firsts in the history of warfare, motorized movement of troops and interception of radio communications. It indicated that the war would not be a quick victory for Germany (Klein, 2014). Joseph Joffre, the French Commander in Chief, exhibited ingenuity and leadership to yield a significant victory while the Helmuth von Moltke the younger, the German chief of staff, demonstrated a failure of mission command resulting in defeat.
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).
The advent of World War I saw the swift movement of German forces through Europe into France.
The first battle of World War 1, better known as The Battle of the Marne, included many significant battles. This is one battle in particular worth spotlighting when thinking about the United States Army and its allies. The Battle of the Marne holds such importance to U.S. history and the world. For the very first time in history, the use of radio intercepts and automotive transport of troops in wartime commenced during this battle. The Battle of the Marne took place September 6, 1914 through September 12, 1914 some 30 miles from Paris. During this time, the offensive strategy by the French Army and the British Expeditionary forces resembles what we do in modern day warfare. The use of trench and flanking offensive strategies utilized
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
The Battle of the Marne, Plan 17 and the Race to the Sea and the defensiveness of
In 1916, the battle of the Somme began, intending to end the war for the allies. It pitted an unexperienced British army, against a professional German one. It was also, however significant in many ways. Two of the main areas where the battle of the Somme was significant were in its military value, and the reactions it caused, on the home front.
When Germany declared war on Russia in 1914, they also had their own military plan, which called for a two front war with France and Russia. It was called The Schlieffen Plan and was developed by General Alfred von Schlieffen in 1903 but was revised in December of 1905. At this time, he was chief of the German General Staff, and Europe was separated into the Triple Alliance, which consisted of Germany, Austria, and Italy, on one side and the Triple Entente, which consisted of Great Britain, France, and Russia, on the other. Schlieffen was sought out by the Kaiser in order to construct an arrangement that would allow Germany to
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
The Battle of The Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the largest battle fought by the U.S. Army and started December 19, 1944 and was the last major offensive the axis army launched(C-1). More than 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks launched off to reverse the ebb in Hitler's fortune(A-1). The death toll was insanely high and every step you took there was a body sure enough within 10 feet of you. But the attack was a surprise to the allies with several ignored warnings that the Germans were going to strike. But some of the generals distrusted the plan and did not think that it could work, advising Hitler not to attack now and to wait, but Hitler, Hitler didn't care about what anyone thought, he thought one thing and that was victory as soon as possible. So the Germans advanced with an attempt to split the allied armies in the northwest by
In specific, I will be talking about the Battle of Somme the 1st July, 1916 as it is not as discussed as happier moments during the war such as the takeover at Vimy Ridge and that memorial. A quick overview for the battle of Somme would be that it was fought with the British forces under the command of their General Haig and dragged on for 141 days. By the end, casualties totaled 1.2 million on both sides after the British advanced 11km. It is still known to be the greatest single disaster in 500+ years of history for Newfoundland and Labrador, and it is now a memorial day for them. Soon later, the French attacked Somme and achieved advances greater than what he British did, with fewer divisions and close to 2000 casualties.
The Germans, wasting valuable time and causing large numbers of troops to be left behind to counter continuing Belgian resistance, could not quickly seize strong Belgian forts or crush the Belgian army. As half the German army was caught up in Belgium, France put its plan into action. French attacks got nowhere, however, and French were in fact pushed back across their own border and deep into France very quickly. By pushing the French attackers back into France the Germans were, in fact, forcing the French army out of the trap into which Schlieffen had intended them to fall. The German troops who had fought through Belgium were exhausted and short of supplies. Their numbers had been reduced by Belgian resistance, a battle with the BEF and part of their force being diverted to the fast developing Eastern front. When this was combined with the French troops who were being rushed to defend Paris, the German army no longer possessed the resources to successfully capture Paris. General Moltke, therefore, ordered the German first and second armies to swing East of Paris in an attempt to catch the retreating French army between the Germans swing back from the West and those who had repelled the French invaders in the East. General Joffre had, however, prepared the French for this kind of move and thanks to aerial reconnaissance he knew exactly where the German armies were. The culmination of this huge change of events
After the military disaster in Dunkirk, the Allies desperately needed to free Europe from Nazi Germany. The French were not the only Allies in need as Stalin’s Soviet Russia was doing their best to defend against Hitler’s lightning fast blitzkrieg. The British, American and Canadian forces needed to get on the ground in France in order to push back the Germans. An Allied invasion would create a two front war similar to the one that led to Germany’s defeat during World War I. Allied forces would need to cross the English Channel from Great Britain to the northern coast of France and make an amphibious landing. Amphibious landings on the coast depended on factors to be just right. Supreme Allied Commander, United States Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Allied Ground Forces Commander, British General Bernard Montgomery, were in charge of the planning of this massive invasion codenamed Operation Overlord.
The Schlieffen Plan was designed to give Germany dominance. The plan was for German armies to travel through Belgium to France, and defeat France. Then further moving on to Russia to defeat them before they had fully mobilised. Unfortunately, Germany could not reach Russia in time, as RUssia started to mobilise too quickly.
The Battle of The Somme on July 1, 1916 - November 18, 1916 was a decisive battle primarily because the Germans were distracted on the Battle of Somme, which the French took advantage of and Germans failed to take over Paris. Also, if Paris was taken over by the Germans, the result would end in taking over France. With millions and millions of brave soldiers sacrificing their lives, the battle of The Somme was decisive for the future generation and also The French people since Germans failed to take over France and also they did not capture a lot of land (Trueman). This was one of the bloodiest battles ever and a battle like this caught a lot of eyes and also the Germans had to split their army from the battle in Verdun. The Germans had to pay attention in both battles, they could not send all their soldiers to one battle as they would lose the other one. With a million people dead or wounded, this was like a breaking news to all Generals. The death of soldiers made this battle one of the deadliest battles ever. The first day of the war was described this way by British
The Battle of the Somme occurred during July 1 to November 18, 1916. The British and their allies, the French, wanted to claim the Germans territory on the Western Front. Before, this war transpired in December of 1915 the British had their allied commanders to plan and analyze how they were going to achieve the idea of bombarding the Germans province, which, was the River Somme. Then, the British and French came up with their conclusion on how to attack this region later that year in 1916. The German military intimated the French at Verdun which lead to the British obtaining the major role in the offensive. Furthermore, the Germans were aware that the British and the Germans we're gonna eventually go to war. Prior, to the war the British and
The Second Battle of the Marne took place on July 15, 1918. It was the last German offensive during WWI. The German Chief of Staff was confident that the war could be won by an attack in Flanders. The attack was a failure when the Allies, the French and the American, entered the battle. The Allies arrived with tanks, eliminating a huge portion of Germans. The German defeat was the beginning of the relentless Allied advance, which led to the Armistice with Germany.
The Schlieffen Plan was devised by Count Alfred von Schlieffen, the Chief of the General Staff in the German army in 1905. There were a number of different aspects to the Schlieffen Plan, and all were aimed at defeating France as quickly as possible, preferably in under 6 weeks. The Germans believed this was possible because they had defeated France in Alsace and Lorraine in the 1871. The main aim of the Schlieffen Plan was to knock out and capture France and then attack Russia in order to avoid fighting a war on two fronts at the same time.