Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail?

Shanika Mehta History CNT 08/05/2007

Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail?

The aim of the plan was to avoid having to fight two was at the same time (France and Russia). The plan was devised by Alfred Von Schlieffen. His plan was to attack France, not on the main border, which was strongly fortified, but to attack through Belgium and circle the Paris by going to the west of it, not east. He predicted this should take 6 weeks leaving enough time to go to the eastern front at Russia and fight there. The plan was very precise and accurate but when it was put into action there were changes, which led to the Germans failing to capture France.

The first change was made by Moltke (Schlieffen’s successor). He decided that they would not go through Holland, but just go through Belgium, hoping to keep Britain neutral. One of the main factors of the plan was the speed. However, this slowed down everything as they now only had one railway line to transport five large armies. Also, they did not expect the resistance from Belgium. Although, Belgium was not that strong, they delayed the Germans for 12 days at the fortress at Liège. The Germans had to bring up the railway-mounted artillery. The Belgians also stopped supplies and reinforcements, and destroyed their railways.

One of the great ideas about the Schlieffen Plan was that the army invading France was so large and strong. However, when Russia recovered unexpectedly in 10 days (not six weeks as the Germans expected) the German leaders worried and many troops were transported to the Eastern front, weakening the blow to France. By now they were very behind schedule.

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The consequences were bad for the Germans. France was sending troops to the frontier at the North and even more importantly, Britain had joined the war. They had promised to protect Belgium (because they were worried about being attacked on their coast) and also they did not want Germany to dominate Europe. Britain sent the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) under Sir John French. The army of 100,000 soldiers arrived in Belgium on the 17th August. The Germans, who had hoped the British would not join, were now forced to fight them at the Battle of Mons. The British retreated to the French armies.

The German Armies were now moving south. The right wing was moving towards the west of Parris. However, Von Kluck was worried about the spread out nature of the German armies. Also the Belgian delays meant that the armies were tired and supplies were stretched. Therefore, he decided to go east of Parris. This violated Schlieffen’s dying words, “Keep the right wing strong”, and prevented the encirclement of Parris. They then had to cross three rivers to reach the French armies. They became vulnerable as they exposed their flank. The French Commander (Joffre) took advantage and counterattacked them at the river Marne. This led to a five-day battle in which the Germans were forced to retreat Back North, to the river Aisme. The Germans had underestimated the power of France, and the two armies reached stalemate, dug trenches, and war raged for four years instead of the intended six weeks.

I can conclude that the Schlieffen plan failed because of all the changes and delays. The calculations of the Russian recovery and travelling through Belgium were inaccurate. The Schlieffen plan was too ambitious and it attempted to do too much, too quickly. The plan also failed because it was based on a number of assumptions (like the British would not interfere) which were fatally flawed. In the end the Schlieffen plan ceased to exist and the Germans changed it to an entirely different plan of taking the Channel ports, which became a race to the sea and a war of attrition.

Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail?