The Unsuccessful Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen plan was created by Alfred von Schlieffen after many months of planning it, and he officially named it after himself. During the war times, Russia had promised The Schlieffen plan to Serbia. The Schlieffen plan was known as a ‘Blank Cheque’ and eventually the plan had encountered many problems. After Germany found out about the promise, it declared war on Russia alongside with France because they supported Russia. The plan had started to suffer because Germany had very poor communication with each other, they made a two front war, and the military of Germany was weak. The technology was different between the Countries which interfered with communication, Their decision of the two front war
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The countries that were part of the triple alliance were: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy and those apart of the triple entente were: France, Russia, and Great Britain. The Triple Alliance were having a poor communication between themselves. Germany was the only country of the triple alliance who was apart of the Schlieffen plan. Germany knew that Russia did not have as much advanced technology as France. Therefore, Germany made it their mission to defeat France within six weeks; however, the mission had backfired. The mission had backfired because Germany had a difficult time communicating between the frontline commanders and the army’s headquarters in Berlin. The lack of communication lead many soldiers to withdrawal as they entered the Russian front also from the military; unfortunately, the germans were left with less military than needed. France had to be defeated, but the Germans had to succeed in the plan or else the French would be in control of the plan. Communication was an important factor in the mission because the schlieffen plan belonged to the Germans since a German had created it. The poor communication lead to weak responses within the country itself let alone other countries. The poor communication had misleading information between the German military and headquarters that a two front war had been declared even though there were not enough military …show more content…
Germany did not have enough technology to make railways, airplanes and cars so the army couldn’t take any transportation and the ended up waking to France. The Military didn't really have any equipment to communicate back to the headquarters in Germany. Alfred von Schlieffen was trying to divid his military up so that Germany can defeat France and Russia before the start of world war one. The Germany military wasn't strong enough for walking to France and then fight them. Some of soldiers couldn’t handle the pain and starvation so they decided to quit and go back home. when half of the German military had quit the headquarters didn't know about this until later in the war. The military had been going the wrong way towards France and Russia since they had been walking. The troops ended up switching their way towards Russia and they went east towards Russia and defeated
This essentially left Britain as the only power that had not picked a side and therefore the deciding point for the balance of conflict. If they choose the Franco-Russian alliance, then the delicate balance of power that had so long existed would remain. Lafore explains the reasons in which Britain may have wanted to join either alliance and finally gives the reason for joining the Franco-Russian alliance by saying that the effects of the Boer war and other events had led Britain into an uncertain alliance with the two countries (140). Thus Britain, France, and Russia formed the Triple
was taken away shortly after the Russians had moved out and the Germans began to
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.
Even though German high commanders have received much praise, they relied on the ability of senior German generals. Many commanders lacked ideas for victory and often were indecisive which led to unwillingness of using modern technology and resources to conduct a successful war effort. Commanders had little understanding on what was really needed; many only thought more men would successfully defeat the allied forces, along with an increase in firepower all which strained the troubled home nation. Not only did the war effort rely on the efficiency of the army and armed forces, but it also relied on the homefront. The German homefront felt the brunt of the war and the British naval blockade was not helping.
It was military plan for outlined to tackle with a threats of Russia and France if Russia declared war on Germany. Germany had fear because France was militarily stronger at that time. First, Germany would set up a defensive line of military on the Russia and German border to secure their eastern side. This plan involved German troops entering France through its more lightly defended northern borders—but most would instead invade via the small nations of Belgium, Luxemburg, and Netherlands. The plan was strategically important to play a defensive role in the
...ced to retreat or be cut off from their supplies. The German High Command, at this point, knew that they could no longer continue to fight and needed to surrender or face annihilation.
False information that was released by the British was actually successful because it had people from Germany not being able to trust that the right thing was going to occur. The false information then continued
The plan intended that1.5million of Germany’s men would win the war in just six weeks. They aimed to invade France through Belgium, en-circle Paris and therefore becoming behind the French army to the lack of their knowledge, and attack France form the rear, making them surrender. By doing this they would have captured Paris, thus being the capital, making Germany in control of France. Unfortunately for them they were not able to do this. As this would be an extremely rapid victory, Germany would then be able to concentrate on attacking Russia as by this time they would have only just mobilised.
Alliances between European nations can also be considered an underlying cause of World War I. As a result of the Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, the Triple Entente (understanding) was formed between France, Britain, and Russia. Although France and Britain were natural enemies, their fear of Germany united them together with Russia. These alliances set the final stage for the beginning of World War I. Each country in each alliance would help each other during warfare. For example, if Germany attacked France, Britain and Russia would help France, and Italy and Austria would help Germany, dragging Europe into a state of chaos and violence.
The Germans took an unrealistic approach in the decision making process for the battle. During the debate in the German High Command about what to do in the summer of 1943, two options were introduced. The realistic option, which was supported by the best German field commanders and many soldiers, was to compensate for the large Russian numerical advantage by fully utilizing the superiority of the German commander and soldiers in tactics, command and fighting, by a strategy of dynamic mobile defense that would cause great losses to the Russians in a series of local clashes. This would delay the Russians and was a realistic goal as it was easily achievable. However, Adolf Hitler wanted to follow the enthusiast-optimistic option of having a major decisive battle against a large portion of the Russian armour in order to destroy them. He thought that the best suited place for such a battle was the Kursk salient, where the Russians had already established battle grounds. In fact, aerial photos taken by German airplanes clearly revealed that the Russians had already built dense and deep fortifications at the Kursk salient in order to counter an attack. Also, it was evident that many Russian tanks were moved deeper behind the front line. Finally, the Blitzkrieg tactic that was often used by the Germans would have to be changed.
World War I had been fought primarily on French soil, and the military as well as the government never wanted that to happen again, therefore they wanted to reinforce their main border against any future German. Little did they know that only twenty-two years later they would be bested by German forces in a way that would shock the world.... ... middle of paper ... ... Situational awareness was almost non-existent, with many French commanders not even knowing where their own subordinate units were located.11
The alliance system ideated by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck kept peace in Europe but its main aim was, however, to forestall the possibility that, in the event of war, Germany would have to fight it on two fronts (basically France and Russia). This was achieved by diplomatically isolating France so that its dream of recapturing its lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine couldn't be fulfilled. This was done by, firstly, the creation of the League of the Three Emperors or Dreikaiserbund. It was first projected as a meeting of the monarchs of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia in 1872 and confirmed the following year, the 22nd of October 1873. Here, the very general and formless agreement was given a more solid form by military agreements promising to help any country attacked by a fourth party. And all this even though that there was mutual rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary in the Balkans. This proved to be a concrete way to isolate France for as E. Eyck mentions, "the League ensured that neither Austria-Hungary nor Russia was available as an ally for France". At this point, Bismarck didn't consider Britain as a potential French ally as they had a long history of rivalry. Secondly, in 1887 the Reinsurance Treaty was signed with Russia in which it promised to support Russia's claims to the strait and to remain neutral in the event of war unless it attacked Austria-Hungary, the same with Russia, who promised to remain neutral unless it attacked France.
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.
The führer clearly miscalculated the Russian’s forte or he believed that he can use Blitzkrieg to achieve a swift victory (WWII, 137). The Germans overlooked Russians ability to replace broken armies with new ones within a short period of time. If the Germans hadn’t underestimated the Red army and adequately planned for the invasion, they would have noticed that operation Barbarossa alone would not had been sufficient to take over Russia. And as we saw, once operation Barbarossa was not successful in securing Russia, the Germans had to carry out further operations in the attempt to take the east resulting in them exhausting resources which will prove costly for them in the
This was demonstrated at the Second Battle of the Marne, when they failed to achieve any sort of breakthrough. The German military during the offensive faced a critical shortage of supplies. The German economy was on the verge of collapse and it could barely feed its people. This was perhaps the main reason why the German Offensive in Spring 1918 ultimately failed.