The British were confident that their Navy would defend them from attack, however they thought about sending the BEF into a flexible and strategic position on the left of the French army.
All three sides expected a short war with a few decisive battles that would be over by Christmas. How wrong they all were…
The Battle of Mons
Germany at once put into action the Schlieffen plan, marching though Belgium. They expected a quick advancement through to France. In the meantime, the BEF was preparing to travel to Belgium and halt the German advancement, and the French were concentrating on attacking and reclaiming Alsace-Lorraine from Germany.
The German army marched on neutral Belgium on 4th August 1914. This said, the Germans had not counted on Belgium’s army and their patriotism. Belgium’s frontier forts helped to slow Germany’s advance by several days, but still it was not enough. The Germans efficiently used artillery to bombard the forts and destroyed them. Although the Belgian army was crushed, it did what it set out to do; give the BEF time to arrive.
The BEF arrived in France on 21st August to honour the century-old alliance with Belgium which the Germans had thought Britain would have either forgotten, or not cared about. Even if the British did send troops, the Germans counted on meeting no resistance whatsoever in Belgium, and so thought by the time the British did arrive, it would be too late.
The British Expiditionary Force (BEF) was made up of 100,000 well equipped, trained and experienced soldiers, far better than the civilian conscripts of France and Germany’s armies. Also, whereas the other armies had not had experience, the BEF had fantastic experience in the field during the Boer war. Travelling by rail, the BEF travelled through France to Belgium.
On 14th August, the French, following Plan XIV attacked Alsace-Lorraine on the French/German border. Plan XIV outlined the French attacking and taking back Alsace-Lorraine, a land it had lost to Germany over forty years before. It was a complete failure. 200,000 Frenchmen, including some of France’s best soldiers died in 12 days, slaughtered by the German defences.
At the time, it seemed the Schlieffen Plan was working fantastically. France’s Plan XIV had failed, although this was one of the contributing factors of the failure of the Schlieffen plan. The French, accepting defeat moved their armies to defend against the advancing German army – this was something the Germans had not expected and anticipated when making the Schlieffen Plan.
Well behind in their schedule to meet up with France’s Fifth Army under General Lanrezac at Charleroi, the BEF, under Sir John French encountered German patrols on 22nd August. Sir French, against intelligence advice, made plans to attack the German army, but overnight changed tactics. French ordered his five divisions to make defences at the nearby Mons canal.
This bought the BEF one day before conflict with the German First army. When the German army, under von Kluck, reached Mons, he ordered a massive offensive through the woods. The British’s fantastic marksmanship with rifles led the Germans to believe they were facing machine guns, and after the offensive, von Kluck had achieved nothing.
But the BEF had achieved in holding up the German army, and giving the French army time to move and protect Paris. But the BEF could not halt the entire German advance – only the French army could do that, with the French armies retreating, and knowing that the BEF would have to do the same, or face the whole German army on their own, Sir French ordered a retreat.
Von Kluck didn’t give chase, but instead concentrated on the casualties he had sustained, though ultimately he killed 8,000 of the BEF’s rear guard. Sir John French himself recommended to Kitchener, the British War Minister, that the BEF make a full withdrawal to the coast. Kitchener, however, rejected the suggestion and the BEF retreated to meet the French at the Marne.
The Battle of the Marne
The battle at Marne was one of the most decisive battles in The First World war, not because it resulted in the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, but because it ended in stalemate.
The First battle of the Marne was between 6-12th September 1914. The German army had advanced to within 30 miles of Paris. The British and French forces were in constant retreat. The city of Paris prepared itself for a siege, and the French government left for Bordeaux.
But instead of following the Schlieffen Plan, swinging around Paris and attacking Paris from the west, the Germans decided to attack from the east.
The defending French armies, and the British Expeditionary Force retreated to the other side of the River Marne, where, under the recommendation of the Governor of Paris, the French Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Joffre, decided on a counter attack.
Aided by the BEF at point of exhaustion from 10-12 days continuously retreating under German attack, the French armies prepared to make their stand. The Governor of Paris sent out the 6,000 defending troops in taxis to attack the unguarded right flank of the German army, where men had been removed from the original Schlieffen plan to be put on the Eastern front to deal with the Russians instead. As soon as they crossed the river, the retreating French armies turned and attacked from their right. The BEF marched around into the middle of the two fighting French sides and joined the battle.
The Germans, who had advanced so rapidly that communication, food, and equipment had not been able to keep up, were weary from the marching. When the French and British turned around and began attacking they were amazed. As the German general von Kluck put it: “That [French soldiers] who have retreated for 10 days, sleeping on the ground and half dead with fatigue, should be able to take up their rifles when the bugle sounds is a thing we never expected.”
Realising their armies were exposed and vulnerable on both sides, the German generals ordered a retreat. This was the end of the German advance. Some historians think that even if the Germans had won the battle of the Marne, they wouldn’t have got any further due to their condition.
The Trenches
The British and French forces pursued the Germans to the river Aisne, where by sheer fatigue the Germans were forced to stop. They began to dig trenches, and they set up their machine guns. They blew up all the bridges on the river except one, which they heavily guarded.
The allies arrived, and began to dig in. Several attempts to take the Germans at the river failed. A new German General was appointed, and seeing that they were in a war on two fronts and that they could not break through enemy lines, began to try to outflank the Allies’ trenches.
When the Germans tried to break through, the British and French moved troops to block them. Both sides moved their troops by rail. As a result of the ‘Race to the Sea’, there were lines of trenches reaching from Switzerland to the sea. These trenches determined the opposite to what all sides thought when they entered the war; that it was not going to be quick and decisive; that it was going to be a war of attrition.
Conclusion:
The Schlieffen plan depended on one swift attack of France in 6 weeks. It failed. All the causes, all the countries made it possible, and each cause had consequences and affected the others, they were all linked together.
Belgium’s unexpected resistance gave the BEF time to arrive – something the Schlieffen Plan had not intended. The BEF held up the Germans long enough for the French to leave the border and intercept the Germans, another thing von Schlieffen had not intended. The Russians’ early mobilisation left the German right flank unprotected, and because of this, when the Germans changed their plan and instead of going around to the west of Paris, they attacked it from the east, where they faced the French army and the BEF they were beaten.
The Schlieffen plan ran war on a timetable. If something changed, the rest of the plan would go wrong. The Schlieffen Plan was flawed even when it wasn’t out of date 9 years before. It gambled on factors it had no control over, like the BEF. Instead of asking how the plan could fail, maybe we should be asking how could it have worked?
The Belgians and BEF slowed the Germans, the early Russian mobilisation weakened them. The French and BEF beat them. All the causes were linked together.
The role of the BEF was a very important factor in the failure of the Schlieffen plan for two main reasons. Firstly, the Schlieffen plan had not counted on meeting the BEF at all, and their morale decreased after facing such well trained troops, and the fact that the BEF gave the French army time to stop the German army at Marne. If the BEF weren’t there, the Germans, regardless of whether they marched around to the west or straight to the east of Paris, could have taken both it and the French army from behind resulting in the overall success of the Schlieffen plan.
In the end, the Schlieffen plan really did fail. It ended up with exactly the opposite it had intended. It ended up with a stalemate and leaving Germany fighting a war on both sides which it would eventually lose.