The Schlieffen Plan and How It Was Meant to Work

The Schlieffen Plan and How It Was Meant to Work

France had made an alliance with Russia that said that nether country

could attack the other. This was done to defend against a German

attack because both countries border Germany and this made them very

vulnerable.

Germanys army was not strong enough to attack both France and Russia

at the same time. Because of this, the Fuhrer wanted another way that

Germany could attack both countries without the army being too weak at

one front and being beaten there and not having the other half of the

army ready to fight. A plan was formed called the Schlieffen plan.

This plan worked on the assumption that the Russian army would take

six weeks to mobilize. This would be because if the large size of the

country, the poor rail transport system and also the poor

communication network. It was decided that whilst France was being

attacked, the Russian army would take six weeks to mobilize, which

would be enough time for the German army to conquer France.

France was very bitter towards Germany since the France-Prussian war

of 1870-71 in which Alsace Lorraine was taken by Germany. Because of

this bitterness, the border between France and Germany was very well

defended. Because the border was so well defended, the Schlieffen

decided that the best tactic would be to go through Belgium with the

bulk of the German army, and leave a small number of troops to fight

against the French attack. Belgium was an obvious option because it

was seen as a small, weak country with an untrained and small arms

army. It was also a very flat country, which meant that it would easy

and quick to get tanks through it....

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...f food and also because the Russian army was just so immense.

On March 1918 the German army made one last attempt to defeat the

American, British and French combined army. The British tanks, the

fresh American troops and weapons and the French army defeated the

German army on the Western Front and forced the German's to surrender.

To conclude, I would say that the statement is true and that all the

factors stated were equally important to the defeat of the breaking of

the stalemate on the Western Front. This said however, it is difficult

to measure how important these things are. Whilst I consider them

equally important, it is difficult to measure them against each other

and say weather one is more important than the other. This is why I

consider them equally important factors, as they all helped in

different ways.