Was the German Defeat on the Western Front Caused by the Failure of the Schlieffen Plan?
Was the German Defeat on the Western Front Caused by the Failure of the Schlieffen Plan?
The German defeat on the western front was not due entirely to the failure of the Schlieffen plan, although had it succeeded they would have won. The aim of the Schlieffen Plan was to avoid having a war on two fronts, against France and Russia. It was devised by Graf Von Schlieffen in 1906. It was a daring plan to knock out France in one swift blow so that they could then focus all efforts on defeating Russia. They chose to wipe out France first as France would be quicker to mobilise than the Russians and the Russians would be the easiest to hold back.
They would achieve this by sweeping through Belgium, down through France between the English Channel and Paris then back through into Germany at the French boarder. This was a daring plan, with the main drawback being that invading Belgium would bring England into the war, this was because all Europe had agreed not to invade Belgium. They were willing to take this risk on the basis that the plan was to start and end the war so quickly that England wouldn't have enough time to make any great impact. They had to make it a quick war otherwise the powerful English navy would form a blockade, starving Germany out.
The plan failed for a number of reasons, Schlieffen died before the plan was carried out and the man who took over was General Moltke. He was far less daring than Schlieffen and did not have the confidence to hold back Russia with the limited force Schlieffen had planned on, so he weakened the forces that were to invade France and made the defensive forces stronger. This was a mistake, but not the most costly one that would be made. The plan started perfectly, destroying all resistance in Belgium and storming into France, they ploughed down towards Paris as planned. The first setback to the plan was the attack by the British, this was a surprise attack and caused the Germans great losses and knocked their confidence, but they recovered and carried on. They thought things were going more easily than planned so they decided to shorten the route and cut inside Paris. This proved to be a fatal error, the move was spotted by a Royal Flying Corps aircraft and the ground troops, who quickly reacted and launched an attack on the German flank, this is the most effective form of attack and forced the Germans back up through France and back to the River Aisne where the Western Front and trench warfare began.
The German defeat on the western front was not due entirely to the failure of the Schlieffen plan, although had it succeeded they would have won. The aim of the Schlieffen Plan was to avoid having a war on two fronts, against France and Russia. It was devised by Graf Von Schlieffen in 1906. It was a daring plan to knock out France in one swift blow so that they could then focus all efforts on defeating Russia. They chose to wipe out France first as France would be quicker to mobilise than the Russians and the Russians would be the easiest to hold back.
They would achieve this by sweeping through Belgium, down through France between the English Channel and Paris then back through into Germany at the French boarder. This was a daring plan, with the main drawback being that invading Belgium would bring England into the war, this was because all Europe had agreed not to invade Belgium. They were willing to take this risk on the basis that the plan was to start and end the war so quickly that England wouldn't have enough time to make any great impact. They had to make it a quick war otherwise the powerful English navy would form a blockade, starving Germany out.
The plan failed for a number of reasons, Schlieffen died before the plan was carried out and the man who took over was General Moltke. He was far less daring than Schlieffen and did not have the confidence to hold back Russia with the limited force Schlieffen had planned on, so he weakened the forces that were to invade France and made the defensive forces stronger. This was a mistake, but not the most costly one that would be made. The plan started perfectly, destroying all resistance in Belgium and storming into France, they ploughed down towards Paris as planned. The first setback to the plan was the attack by the British, this was a surprise attack and caused the Germans great losses and knocked their confidence, but they recovered and carried on. They thought things were going more easily than planned so they decided to shorten the route and cut inside Paris. This proved to be a fatal error, the move was spotted by a Royal Flying Corps aircraft and the ground troops, who quickly reacted and launched an attack on the German flank, this is the most effective form of attack and forced the Germans back up through France and back to the River Aisne where the Western Front and trench warfare began.