Wwi : Stalemate On The Western Front Essay

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 Schlieffen plan had failed by November 1914. It didn’t entirely go to plan.. What the Germans presumed wasn’t right. Firstly they presumed that it would only take 6 weeks to get through Belgium and that it wouldn’t take long at all, but in the end it took than expected. The Belgians resisted a lot and put up a strong fight. German troops got held up in Belgium and never got round to invading Paris. In addition to this, Russia mobilised quicker than presumed! So

The Schlieffen Plan is commonly – though misleadingy – identified with the German western offensive at the start of the First World War in August 1914, which began as a campaign of rapid movement but ended in deadlock and trench warfare. The plan is generally seen as a desperate gamble almost certain to fail, and its recklessness is counted as part of Germany’s war guilt – the plan held out the false promise of a quick victory, and so it underpinned the “short war illusion” that led Germany into a long war of attrition, ending with her defeat and collapse in 1918. This analysis confuses two quite different moments in history. The Schlieffen Plan was not designed to meet the strategic challenge Germany faced in 1914,

The main theatre of fighting in World War One was on the Western Front. The

to go and as they like the British only really have a Navy as they

In regards to war, Gandhi once commented, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.” In other words, violence masks its potential impairment by seeming innocuous at first; however, the true damage, often permanent, can be seen chronically. The idea reflected by Gandhi’s quote can be proven through an examination of World War I and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Although soldiers and governments in both worlds initially saw honor and security of their countries as valid reasons for going to war, what ultimately came of that conflict were both immediate consequences, such as loss of innocence and development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (often referred to as PTSD) among young soldiers, as well as permanent, long-term consequences, like the hatred the war had spurred in Germans which ultimately ensued to Hitler’s rise to power.

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

All Quiet on the Western Front could definitely be considered an anti-war novel. The changes the characters in the novel subjected themselves to throughout the book allow the reader to view the negative effects soldiers went through during, as well as after the war. Anti-war means that you are against the war and leaning more towards the idea of peace. This novel showed the dissatisfaction and disappointment in each character once they begun to truly understand war and battle from first-hand experience. All Quiet on the Western Front had an anti-war theme in every aspect of the book starting with the eagerness of the characters at the beginning of the war and their transformation 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

A Stalemate on the Western Front A stalemate formed on the Western Front due to four main reasons, one

When talking about the Great War, the warfare happening on the Western Front gained overwhelmingly more attention than that on the Eastern Front. Ignorance about the Eastern Front might result from the Central Powers’ victory there or the absence of Russia from participating in the establishment of the world order in the postwar era. Nevertheless, the Eastern Front needed to be remembered not only because the Eastern Front made the same contribution to the overall Great War as its counterpart, but also it revealed a significant historical event, the collapse of the Russian Empire and the process leading to such event. As Imperial Apocalypse: the Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire expressed, the Great War was a war of European

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

In today’s digital age, development of new technology and weapons are at an alarming rate, hence arises the need to stay ahead of advancements in order to properly defend the nation, as well as coalition forces and allies. In this period of warfare, the number one threat comes in the form of air breathing and ballistic missiles. During World War II, this threat was present, but was not thought to be prevalent.

Source A is somewhat useful for a historian studying the strategies and tactics used to break the stalemate on the Western Front. The source is a secondary source, as it is a history book written by British historian J M Bourne in 1989. The source recounts General Haig’s strategies and tactics, saying what the British General believed in and touching on the effectiveness of such military beliefs. While, the source is a historically book, the author’s personal bias shines through in his praise of Haig. His praise of Haig does not match with the historical evidence of what occurred at the Somme nor the general historical consensus. Therefore, Bourne’s source is useful in regards to describing the strategies and tactics that Heig believed in and

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.