The Failure of the Schlieffen Plan - How it was meant to happen.

The Assumptions

• The Russians would take at least twelve weeks to mobilise.

• Belgium would not resist the Germans as they made their way towards France.

• Britain would remain neutral and France would be easy to defeat.

• Germany could defeat France in just six weeks.

• Austria would easily defeat Serbia.

• France would be desperate to regain the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.

• Three-quarters of the German army was to make a gigantic westwards sweep through Belgium and Luxembourg, and then swing southwards around Paris.

How it failed

• Schlieffen died in 1913 and General von Moltke, the new chief of staff, took over his plan.

• The Germans were held up at Liege, (Belgium) which only surrendered after an 11-day siege.

• German troops advanced too quickly. Their supplies could not keep up and the men were exhausted.

• The BEF slowed down the Germans in battle at Mons and Le Cateau. The British rifle fire at Mons was so fast and accurate that the Germans thought they were being machine-gunned.

• The Russian army mobilised in just six weeks instead of the expected twelve, therefore General von Moltke was forced to send 100 000 men to hold them back.

• Von Moltke lacked the nerve to take all the troops he needed form the army in Alsace-Lorraine to hold back to eastern front.

• Moltke and the German Generals made a fatal mistake. Instead of going west to surround Paris as planned, the 1st army led by General von Kluck went east of Paris towards the Marne.

• When the Germans were 60 kilometres from Paris, the French and British counter-attacked along the river Marne. The Battle of the Marne (5-10 September 1914) was the most important battle of the war. The combined British and French forces were able to stop the German advance and the counter-attack pushed the Germans back to the river Aisne.

The defeat of the plan meant Germany would have to fight a war on two fronts. Germany could not win such a war.

The Race to the Sea

The British and French armies were backed up along the river Marne. If the German army could get round the Allied troops, it could surround them and trap them. If the Allied armies could get round the German troops, they would be surrounded and trapped. Both sides tried to do this. They raced through northern France towards the Channel, fighting a series of battles as they tried to outflank each other. This is known as ‘The Race to the Sea’.

The most bloody fighting was around Ypres, which was eventually held by British and French forces. By November 1914, of the original 160,000 members of the BEF, 90,000 had become casualties and 250,000French and 130,000 German soldiers had been either killed or wounded. Neither side managed to outflank the other. Each side dug trenches to defend themselves and to stop the other side advancing. A line of trenches stretched form the Belgian coastline to the Swiss Frontier. It was stalemate.