To what extent did the Schlieffen plan cause Germany's defeat on the western front?

To what extent did the Schlieffen plan cause Germany’s defeat on the western front?

The Schlieffen plan can and will never be dismissed from the reasons behind the German defeat, not only for the loss on the Western front but the war itself. It would be easy to say that even if it had been successful that Germany would have won in a quick conflict. The Schlieffen plan was literally built on a minefield of assumptions and with little reality it was blind to carry it out.

The key parts of the plan had ninety percent of the German army marching for three weeks through Belgium. Then surrounding Paris with three weeks allotted for the cities capture. By this time they expected the Russians would have mobilised, and the remaining eight divisions not needed in Western Europe would confront the Russians in East Prussia.

Some of Alfred Von Schlieffen’s mistakes were amended after he was replaced as the German Chief of Staff in 1906. Helmuth Von Multke still kept the basic principles of the plan, which contained many fatal flaws. The Germans had overlooked the 1839 treaty between Belgium and Great Britain; probably since at the time Belgium was worried about the threat from France. Germany obviously thought the British would not bother them. The British intervention was the first of the fatal assumptions.

Similarly the Germans may have seen little threat in a possible British intervention. Surely, the 34 divisions would cope with the threat of 100,000 British troops. They would hardly be inconvenienced. However this minor intervention was an important event. It significantly delayed the German advance, to leave the Schlieffen plan in tatters and almost ineffective. The Schlieffen plan needed to be quickly altered or the attack would end in a stalemate, or even worse, defeat. A long war would basically doom the Germans, yet the failure of the Schlieffen plan was not the only reason behind Germany’s defeat. Britain was ready for a long, perpetual conflict. They soon began preparing for shortages of food such as meat and sugar products. To counter the forthcoming problem the British government, acting through DORA, made efforts and encouraged citizens to help themselves. Many parks were ploughed and any wasteland was soon turned into allotments. The Women’s Land Army helped the British people through these privations, but eventually in December 1917 sugar was rationed, and early in 1918 meat and dairy products followed. However, the most upsetting thing for the British people was the rationing of tea. This seems strange, as there was already a shortage of milk and sugar.

Germany was not really prepared for a long war in comparison to its effective ‘Blitzkrieg’ schemes for a quick conflict. Germany’s resistance in a long war was centred on its one masterstroke, the U-Boat campaign. Britain had forever been an ‘Island fortress.’ This made it very difficult to attack, due to its excellent navy and partly because of the 21-mile minimum ‘moat.’ In 1914 air warfare was just not sophisticated enough to mount ambitious, large scale bomber attacks, which were later used to devastating effect in World War II. The Germans had no chance of matching the British up ...

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One of the German generals must have been thinking of castles when he devised the scheme for the German U-Boat blockade. The U-Boats would surround the British Isles, destroying any warships coming near Britain. When the allies learnt to protect their warships the Germans then focussed on Allied cargo ships. Then they thought they could simply wait until Britain starved. Just like besieging castles in the middle ages. The Germans were doing reasonably well and they had the British down to six weeks supply of grain. With this news the Germans became impatient and employed their feared shoot on sight policy. This lead to the British adopting a convoy system to get a small proportion of food and supplies through the blockade. Unfortunately the Germans became too enthusiastic in response and in 1915 wrongly sunk a liner, the Lusitania. On board this ship there were 128 American civilians who had no chance of reaching their destination. After the sinking of the Lusitania Germany called off the unrestricted submarine warfare, but started it again in 1916. By this time the Allies had improved their tactics against the U-boats as follows:

Q ships Merchant ships, which were cunningly disguised with heavy guns. They fooled U-Boats into attacking a heavily defended target. The success of the Q ships is probably why unrestricted warfare returned.
Mines The mines effectively prevented U-boats from travelling to British ports and using the English Channel. They destroyed more U-Boats than any other weapon.
Depth Charges Small underwater bombs either blew up the U-Boats or at least forced them to surface, leaving them vulnerable to attack. Introduced in 1916, and were almost as effective as mines.
Long-range aircraft Aircraft technology advanced significantly in the war years. So much so that more sophisticated aircraft could give support to ships and act as a convoy

The sinking of the Lusitania dragged the United States into the war. The British, boosted by the appearance of supplies from across the Atlantic, decided to use the same tactics as the Germans. Suddenly the British adopted the view that “Two can play that game” and drained the life and food supplies from the German people. In Germany, the longer the war went on their situation got worse. As early as 1915, things got tough. A third of the pigs in Germany had to be slaughtered, as there wasn’t any imported food, to feed them. It wasn’t only the sinking of ships containing food, which caused the civilian population hardship. The blockade stopped vital supplies of nitrate reaching Germany. Without these Germany could not make any explosives, and farmers could not fertilise their crops. It was slowly getting worse, by 1916 the adult meat ration in Germany was so little that nowadays McDonalds could barely make two hamburgers with it. Cheeseburgers were totally out of the question, and this amount was for a whole week!

From now on Germany was looking for a change. People wanted Kaiser Wilhelm II to leave the country while the Social Revolutionaries encouraged the overthrow of the monarchy. Thus a struggle for power occurred when the Kaiser’s support for the Spring Offensives backfired. Protests were widespread and there was anarchy in Berlin. Eventually late in 1918 the Kaiser fled to Holland.

Throughout the war Germany had severe problems with its allies. They were inefficient and failed to work together as a unit. Their main ally was the Austro Hungarian state that had seen better days. In fact the single word “weak” could describe both its army and government. They were first to declare war on Russia, this dispute with Serbia was Germany’s opportunity to skip in and start the First World War without supposedly getting the blame. They significantly helped the Germans as closest ally for most of the war. However by 1917 the Triple Entente was plotting their demise. Wilson broke up the empire, and occupied countries like Czechoslovakia and Romania were spared any punishments. Another ally was Italy that was even less committed and didn’t even declare war until later. It appeared that the Italians were hedging their bets. The country had strong links with both Britain and its neighbour France. Officially the Italians started in the triple Alliance yet, in a dramatic twist became part of the Triple Entente. The Allies saw Italy as an ideal partner as it would encircle Germany from the south. They were lured onto the British side for the exact reason they initially supported Germany. The Italians saw an opportunity to acquire a greater empire.

The Germans had other allies, but these ties were at best a little stormy. Bulgaria was lured in to help the Alliance with nearby Macedonia as bait. The Bulgarians never had a great armoury and weren’t that enthusiastic to fight. When they did they provided good resistance against the French in Salonika during October 1916. The German problem was the Bulgarians were not prepared to consider other faraway campaigns. Bulgarian assistance ended on the 29th September 1918. Another ally of the Germans was the Turkish (Ottoman Empire) they had been lured into conflict in October 1914 with promises of land like the Bulgarians, as they were unlikely to gain anything significant, country wise. They joined Germany simply out of hate for the Russians and British who they had been hostile with for over 50 years. The Turkish soon lost 70% of their mediocre army of 100,000, built from scratch after the Balkan war of 1912-13, in their first battle at Caucasus in Russia. Thousands of men literally froze to death in the harsh Russian winter. The Turks returned battered and frozen in January 1915, a mere fighting force of 30,000. By early 1917 the Ottoman Empire was being broken up, The Allies demanded “The freeing of the populations subject to the bloody tyranny of the Turks.”

The Triple Entente seemed indestructible compared to the Alliance. Two of the leaders became close friends and Anglo-French relations had never been stronger. The British and French also had help from the Russians but they wilted at Brest-Litovsk. Clemenceau and Lloyd George were not about to surrender while Germany was gradually falling apart. Surrender was not seen as an option by the German high command and in spring 1918 the Ludendorff offensives were launched against the odds.

These attacks were planned as the grand finale of the war. The Germans had no capable troops in the support trenches like the British. There was no second wave of Germans in this attack. Haig’s war of attrition at the Somme did have some logic yet still seemed barbaric. Another problem for the Germans was morale. The army was practically broken and became a joking matter to the British. Dead German soldiers were found “tied” to their weapons. The first thought was that they had been prevented from deserting but in fact it was only done so that they had an arm free to reload their weapons.

Lack of food also hit the German army. Many troops who advanced remained in the British trenches to gorge on the relatively plentiful supplies courtesy of the Americans. Another factor significant in making German morale hit rock bottom was the Americans. They brought 50,000 new troops each week through the spring offensives, as well as supplies of food to the British. The Germans could no longer get funds from the US and the British Tommies had seen the last of the bully beef. General Foch was able to use the ‘scarecrow’ tanks, to good effect even though they kept on breaking down in the mud. The Germans did have their mighty storm troopers equipped with flame throwers, but their successes were only really isolated incidents. The Germans were steamrollered by more sophisticated, armoured caterpillar tractors (tanks) with some help from the US.

I think it unfair to say that either the spring offensives or the failure of the Schlieffen plan were the main reason for the German defeat. In reality the former only occurred as a result of the change in strategy. In conclusion I feel it would have been incredibly difficult for Germany to emerge victorious after the Schlieffen plan failed especially as later its allies more or less totally capitulated. The Schlieffen plan had been designed in an attempt to avoid a war of attrition. The plan was novel and looked good on paper but had too many unrealistic assumptions. What the Germans lacked was the ability to consider all possibilities or more simply to think negative thoughts. This war was won on back up and the Schlieffen plan had none. The same was true for the German strategy and so the once proud military machine ground to a halt. Some brains would be good with all that brawn Mr. Kaiser. Their assumptions shot them in the foot, and the heart.

Bibliography:

Britain at war 1914-1919 by Craig Mair

The World War I source book by Philip J. Haythornthwaite

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