Explain How The Schlieffen Plan Was Meant To Work.

Emily Grant

11M

History Coursework Part 1

Explain How The Schlieffen Plan Was Meant To Work

The Schlieffen Plan was written by Count Alfred von Schlieffen, and was Germany’s initial approach to a war; it was meant to ensure a quick and clean victory for Germany.

Germany needed to eliminate France from the war immediately because it knew that it did not have the capacity to be fighting on two fronts; Germany didn’t have the strength or the troops required to fight both Russia and France at the same time. Thus, the Schlieffen Plan was formulated in order to remove France from the war, and enable Germany to then quickly transport its troops to fight Russia.

Germany thought that Russia would take approximately six weeks to mobilise her army, which gave them a relatively short period in which to carry out the Schlieffen Plan. The Plan aspired to capture Paris and therefore force France’s peaceful surrender. Germany planned to transport nearly 90% of its troops to the front line using Germany’s railway system, one of the finest in the world. Germany planned to use railway to transport the troops because it would be the most quick and efficient means of transport available at the time, and it was necessary to transfer the troops quickly in order to complete the Plan in six weeks in time to fight Russia.

Germany knew that it was impossible to invade entirely through the Ardennes region because the French border there was protected by mountains and a string of ten forts. However, she decided to put approximately 10% of her troops to invade through the Ardennes border. This was intended to act as a decoy, and the French were meant to transfer most of their troops there, leaving the Germans open to invade easily through Belgium. This was an essential part of the plan because it meant that Germany wouldn’t face much resistance when invading France, and it would therefore aid the ...

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Although Germany planned to use a large proportion of her troops to invade through Belgium, the Germans knew that the Belgian army was weak, and Germany didn’t expect to meet any resistance from Belgium. Germany intended to invade through Belgium with overwhelming force, encountering little or no opposition, enabling the invasion to be quick, which was a necessity to achieving the aims of the plan. The German generals assumed that the British would remain neutral if a war between France and Germany ensued. Even if Britain did fight, Germany presumed that its forces would arrive too late to be of any help to the French. The Kaiser described the British troops as “That contemptible little army”, which shows that the Germans did not think Britain would prove any problem to the quick and effective execution of the Schlieffen Plan. Germany also believed that international opinion would ignore the treaty of 1839 which declared Belgium to be neutral—this meant that they would probably not meet any resistance when invading France through Belgium.

Germany planned to attack west of Paris, and to have encircled Paris within six weeks. The time limit was very important, because of the fact that Germany did not want to be fighting France and Russia at the same time. Paris would then surrender and the French would make peace—another assumption on Germany’s part. Germany thought that Britain would allow them to occupy the important Channel Ports of Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais etc, and wouldn’t put up any resistance which could hinder the plan. Germany could then transport its troops, again using its superior railway system, to face the ‘Russian steamroller’.

In conclusion, the plan was meant to prevent Germany from having to fight on two fronts at once. Germany intended to invade France through neutral Belgium and force her surrender in time to face Russia.