Posted: September 2nd, 2022

The Schlieffen Plan

The Schlieffen Plan
German Military Preparedness
The German military was not prepared for the war since the government approved the war when there was no clear plan. The plan presented to the authorities was simply a memo on what would be done. It was thus a summary that did not have the necessary details to guide the generals on the specific decisions they needed to make to win the war (Neiberg). It was also based on assumptions which created an opportunity for the enemies to take advantage of their weaknesses. The military had also not prepared sufficient transportation for the soldiers. The soldiers did not have an exit plan when the Schlieffen plan started failing to prevent further casualties. The high number of casualties is a clear indicator that the military team had not planned their gameplan sufficiently. It was clear that the German troops had not prepared sufficiently since they would have tried to win the favor of some countries rather than assuming that they would not fight them back. The lack of preparedness was evident since they did not take the necessary precautions such as surveying the state of the art of equipment of the enemies (France). The lack of planning also led to poor allocation of soldiers to the west and eastern front. However, if the plan was well-prepared they would have won the war.

Underestimating Russians
The military plan was doomed to fail since it made critical mistakes of estimating that the Russian army needed 12 weeks to mobilize their troops. Eventually, the Russian troops took only 6 weeks which did not allow the German army enough time to execute their plans (Mulligan). The success of the plan depended on the delay by the Russian troops to prepare and attack. Therefore, they did not consider the Russians as a threat before the 12 weeks elapsed. When they attacked before the 12 weeks, the army was not ready and thus they were defeated. Additionally, they had sent over 100,000 troops to the Eastern front prematurely. Therefore, they did not have an adequate team of troops to attack the Russians who emerged at a time when they did not expect (Gilbert). The Russian troops had an advantage over the Germans since they had outnumbered them.
The assumption that the Russians would not become a threat until 12 weeks weakened their military plan. The planning was not based on real facts, but assumptions. They did not consider that Russia had improved their military strategies and thus their ability to mobilize their troops within a short time (Baker). The military plan was based on the assumptions that the Russians would not respond on time. The generals who were leading the military to advance their attacks in the Russian front did not carry out intensive research before invading the enemies. Therefore, they were likely to fail since they were attacked at a time when they least expected (Baker). It was late to change their plan based on the number of troops available to fight against the Russians and the machinery available to overcome the resistance.
Not Winning in France
The German soldiers left a big portion of their army troops in Alsace-Lorraine and thus they did not have sufficient troops to fight against the French. The plan was to allow the French an early short-term victory in Alsace-Lorraine and then attack them heavily by capturing Paris. However, the French realized the plan and decided not to focus on Alsace-Lorraine (Mulligan). Therefore, the many soldiers who were focused on Alsace-Lorraine consequently weakened the team which was fighting the main war against the Russians. Therefore, when France did not focus on fighting in the Alsace-Lorraine it meant the Germans could not defeat them as expected. The original plan was that the fight at Alsace-Lorraine would create an opportunity to attack and capture Paris. When the success was not realized in Alsace-Lorraine it meant the troops could not advance their plan to capture Paris (Mulligan). The expectation was that they would fool the French that they were attacking from the East whereas they were actually attacking from the North. The plan was not successful since the French did not fall for the trap and thus making the invasion from the North unsuccessful.
The speed was essential in fighting the war yet the Germans did not make adequate plans to move their soldiers fast to a strategic location where they could easily win the war. The soldiers moved slowly since they did not have mechanized transport (Gilbert). The long march allowed the French to have a breathing space for striking back their enemies and jeopardize their plans. The initial plan was that they would use the railway to transport the soldiers once they had captured Paris. The Germans did not focus on the Belgium war front which emerged to be a critical point of crossing over to fight against the Russians. Additionally, the plan had been developed without such keen details of how the troops would move using modernized means of transport. The plan was simply drafted as a memo that was used to persuade the government to increase the troops (Gilbert). Schlieffen did not design it with the mindset of using it in a real war that would require modernized transport since time was crucial in moving the soldiers. When the soldiers did not quickly move to attack France, they created an opportunity for France to respond in a magnitude that the Germans did not expect in their original plan.
British Involvement
The Schlieffen plan did not consider the massive involvement of the British troops in the war. The British troops were triggered to react when the Germans attacked Belgium, which was considered a neutral nation. Britain was passionate about fighting against the rights of the neutral nations. In the planning stage, Germans did not consider that British troops would be alarmed (Baker). In the original plan, Germans had underestimated the weakness of Belgians and British troops. Therefore, as the German troops were seeking to overcome the Belgians and British soldiers and advance to France, they were stalled. Every day they were delayed their plan started falling back giving the enemies a chance to take advantage of their weaknesses and overcome them. The involvement of the British soldiers also led to heavy casualties on the German side which resulted in a decision to retreat. The decision to retreat undermined the ability to accomplish the Schlieffen plan (Baker). Additionally, the Germans knew that British troops were strong and so they decided not to invade the Netherlands and thus focused on going through Belgium. It emerged as a logistical challenge to the Germans who had not anticipated that the British would not be strongly involved in the war. They had underestimated British during the planning stage and thus responding to their attack was not well-planned.
The Germans could not easily go through Belgium since they were stalled by the British. The Germans were caught by surprise and thus they did not reach their target, Paris, which was a critical part of the winning plan (Mulligan). The British forces were slowed down since the French and British troops were transported to critical areas where they could attack the invader. They were transported fast by over 600 taxicabs, which undermined the projected success of the Schlieffen plan. The delay also complicated the game plan since it delayed the achievement of milestones in the plan against the French. One of the consequences of delaying the achievement of the initial plan was that the German soldiers started running out of supplies. To reduce the impact of the delay and the rising threat of the British troops, Joffre started using the French railroads to transport the German soldiers away from the danger zone (Mulligan). The assistance of the British helped French to defeat the faltering German soldiers in a counter-offensive war of Marne. The war was becoming friendly to the French since they had the assistance of the British troops who increased their opportunities for winning the battle.
Conclusion
German troops utilized a poor strategy while invading their enemies. One of the weaknesses of the plan that resulted in heavy casualties and finally defeat was the assumptions they made. The soldiers assumed that they would not be heavily opposed by other nations such as France, Russia, Britain, and Belgium. For example, they did not estimate that Russia would take 6 weeks to prepare since they still regarded them as less-developed. Additionally, they did not expect that the British could join the war and support neutral nations such as Belgium. Therefore, the assumptions led to heavy casualties which resulted in a decision to retreat from the war. It is clear to note that the war was not clearly thought out since Schlieffen had only presented a memo on the need to increase the soldiers. Therefore, the plan was not inclusive of the details on how to overcome the enemy. It was also void of the strategies that could be used as back-up if the original plan failed.
References
Alfred Von Schlieffen – 1905 – Von Schlieffen Plan: Taken from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=796
Baker, Chris. “France and Flanders”. The Long Long Trail. Archived from the original on 8 June 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
France, Russia – 18 August 1892 – The Franco-Russian Alliance Military Convention Retrieved from https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Franco-Russian_Alliance_Military_Convention
Gilbert, Martin (1994). The First World War: A Complete History. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN.
Mulligan, W. (2011). The Origins of the First World War. History Review, (69), 12. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ulh&AN=59833103&site=eds-live&scope=site
Neiberg, Michael S. Fighting the Great War. Harvard University Press, 2005.

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