Was the Schlieffen Plan Foredoomed to Failure?

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

To a large extent the failure of the Schlieffen plan was the most significant reason for

Although critical for the German war plan, the Schlieffen-Moltke plan was kept a secret to the public, and even staff members of the German Imperial Army. Moltke kept the Schlieffen Plan a secret throughout his service in the army. Even close staff members, such as General Gerog Graf von Waldersee, admitted they had never actually seen the blueprints for the plan. (Ehlert, 90, PPed). A reason that Moltke wished to keep the Schlieffen-Moltke plan a secret was for the reason of altering it if needed without objection from his staff members. Other commander’s opinions may have helped find a better strategy, as well as counter-arguments to flawed areas of the plan. Surprisingly, Moltke did not tell Schlieffen about the changes he had made to his plan. However, Schlieffen found out about his changes and questioned Moltke’s leadership out of spite. (Ehlert, 97, pped).

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

Germany sought to conduct a massive counter-offense to seize control of the Allied Forces’ main hub of Antwerp. The German Army intended to split

The crucial problem for the German was their lack of fuel and the whole 'adventure' depended on their initial thrust capturing the allied supplies. Without a supply of fuel they where sitting ducks but only if they ever ran out. Hitler's last attack had to work or he would be defeated. The plan was to march 85 miles from Southern Belgium to Luxembourg and attack the allies by surprise. The Germans would attack during the Christmas season in the Ardennes Forest, an area where there were only a few allied solders. The invasion was designed to split the American and British armies in half. However it did not succeed the allied lines bent but never split like the Germans hoped.

Schlieffen retired in 1906 and was replaced swiftly by Helmuth von Moltke whom was considered a more vigilant and audacious leader, preceding to his amendments of the original plan, “dooming the plan before it was ever launched” (L.C.F. Turner). Moltke disregarded the original plan of luring the French into Germany through Alsace-Lorraine, and instead diverted a portion of men from the upper right hook into Paris and to the defence of Alsace-Lorraine. Furthermore, Moltke made the decision to not travel through Holland and make use of their rail system. As a result, the German Army became bottlenecked and their “fighting power was practically numbed by physical exhaustion” due to their “supplies [failing] to keep pace” (Liddel-Hart). In turn, French strategy was heavily preoccupied with breaking German borders through Alsace-Lorraine, thus neglecting defence along the Belgian border, allowing Germany to penetrate these borders and advance closer towards Paris.

The original plan called for all of Hitler’s reserves, plus the 6th and 5th Panzer and the 7th Armies. Chosen to command these troops were Josef Dietrich, Hasso Von Manteuffel, and Erich Brandenberger. The 6th PZ was assigned priority for supplies, and given the most direct lane to Antwerp. The 5th PZ was to contribute in the attack as well. The 7th was to shield the left against attack from Montgomery’s Army Group. More than 200,000 troops were assigned to make this miracle happen. The plan would rely on frictions between the Allied commanders, as well as a thick overcast to neutralize the Allied airpower. Rapid progress must be achieved, before the US had time to reinforce 1st Army.

The Schlieffen Plan was created by Alfred Von Schlieffen. Schlieffen was a German Army Chief of Staff, who was given instructions to create a battle plan or strategy that would be able to bypass the French borders in order to acquire more land. Its main aim was to destroy France if a war ever took place. If they achieved, Britain and Russia wouldn’t be interested in carrying on fighting with Germany. This plan included taking most of the German army through Belgium and around the Franco- German Border and to attack Paris from behind and forcing France to surrender. Britain told Germany that if they invaded Belgium, Britain would go to war. This whole plan relied upon rapid movement, so when Germany thought Britain would allow them to march

Alfred von Schlieffen, Chief of the Imperial German General Staff, created The Schlieffen Plan for war against France and Russia. It was designed to avoid a two front war. Seven eighths of german troops were sent to surround the strong french defenses by going through Belgium and the Netherlands while a third were ready at Germany and France’s border to attack. After the success of the attack on France, they planned to send the rest of the troops to Russia. Germany had no plan for dealing with Russia once the troops got there.

The Schlieffen Plan was the German’s plan for war against France and Russia. It was created by Alfred von Schlieffen who was the German Chief of Staff in 1903 on the request of Kaiser Wilhelm II and it was later revised in 1905. The reason it was made was because Germany’s unification came later than other European states. So the Kaiser sought out Schlieffen and directed him to devise a plan that would allow Germany to gain power and assert itself as a dominant state. Since France and Russia were in an alliance Germany was not able to just attack one country. They would be forced to fight both countries in a two front war. Schlieffen concluded that it would take Russia six weeks to mobilize while France and Germany could both be prepared for battle within fifteen days.

World War I was one of the bloodiest and hardest fought wars ever, with new technology and fighting techniques paired with new massive national armies and a conflict involving countries from all over the world, resulted in over 38 million civilian and military casualties. Germany was a major player in this conflict, and had two countries on the enemy side on its eastern and western borders. Russia to the east and France to the west, Russia of course being the bigger threat. Germany did not want to end up fighting a two front war of attrition that they would probably lose, so they decided to make a plan to prevent that. This plan was called “The Schlieffen Plan.” It stated that

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

Germany’s plan of war against France and Russia was called the Schlieffen plan. German chief of staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, created this plan in 1903 as requested by Kaiser Wilhelm II. The plan was attack France, leave troops in Paris, and then quickly attack Russia. This plan needed to be executed fast or else it would not work. Germany was in a two front war, which meant the army was halved for the two different sides. Germany was trying to take out Russia and France first because they are allied powers and they could attack Germany at the same time from different sides.