How was the Schlieffen Plan supposed to work?

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Name: Abdul Odud

Candidate: no: 5115

Stepney Green School: 10548

How was the Schlieffen Plan supposed to work?

In this essay I shall be writing about how the Schlieffen Plan was suppose to work to make Germany victorious against Russia and France, and how they were going to fight on two fronts.

  • How were the Germans going to invade France in just 6 weeks?
  • Why did the plan come about?
  • Who was Schlieffen?
  • How was the Schlieffen plan meant to work?

        When the Germans agreed to help the Austro-Hungarians the Russians were ready to support the Serbs.  Another problem was France and Russia were allies, therefore if they attacked one country they could end up fighting two countries instead. There was a possibility that Germany could fight Russia on the Eastern front and France on the Western Front.  This would have required Germany splitting their army into two, which would be weak and may even lead to defeat. This was unwanted so Von Schlieffen came up with a Plan!

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        Chief of the German general staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, came up with the basis of the German attack in 1914. The Germans knew Russia could not gather their entire troop, from all over Russia, because of lack of communication and poor rail links therefore knew it would take a long time. This was seen as a major advantage for Germany because the Schlieffen Plan relied on Russian lack of mobility. The Schlieffen plan had been planned to, firstly, conquer France in 6 week with a quick blow. They knew this was possible because in 1870-1871 the German empire conquered ...

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