The Schlieffen Plan essays

The Schlieffen Plan essays Germany was faced with a problem; they were threatened by Russia and France, hence making a plan was mandatory. In 1905 the Germany army Chief of Staff Alfred Von Schlieffen came up with the plan to prevent war on two fronts (Russia and France). Schlieffen called it the Schlieffen Plan, what was supposed to happen was Germanys military force was supposed to take out neutral countries containing: Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, and then attack Paris with full force of the country forcing France to surrender before Russia could prepare its forces. This plan was supposed to be executed, and done in about six weeks. The plan was flawless, but the way it was executed was not, so the execution did not work out too well. In 1905 Von Molkte replaced Schlieffens position in the military, because he died in his early fifties. He made a grave mistake in changing the original plan. He wanted to change the fact of taking over Holland, and concentrating the force he had on Belgium, he also changed the statistics. Originally Schlieffen wanted 90% of the force to go around the countries and sneak behind the country, and invade Paris while they were busy trying to get through the Lorraine Alsace because the other 10% was defending the border. What Molkte changed was the percentages, he took the 90% doing the hook through the countries, and changed it to 60% weakening the force, and strengthening the defense. It was a poor decision on his part, because now Belgium could actually fight back. On August 2, 1914 they proceeded to take out Luxembourg and Belgium all according to the plan, but by the time they got to Belgium their army withstood a good fight, and were backed up by Britains expeditionary forces, which had arrived faster than expected. A little while after this Germany had to withdraw forces in order to defend the eastern border of their country. Germany then moved the remaining ...