Schlieffen Plan Essay

The Schlieffen Plan, of the The First World War was an operational plan designed by the German army to wage a successful two front war against France on the west, and Russia on the East. Arguably this is one the most known battle plan throughout history as it played an enormous role in the outbreak of war in 1914. One of the reasons why the plan was devised was because of rapid rise of tension and instability in Europe, and with the formation of the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entete, things only become worse. The plan eventually came into development as the German Military began to fear a possible combined attack from Russia, France and Britain which would obviously lead to the defeat of the German forces. Therefore, as a counter to the

Expecting the Belgium people not to fight back, instead they showed great resistance. Ultimately the Germans did pass through Belgium but there were some casualties. Consequently when the Germans fought at the battle of Marne they lost. Some other factors that caused the failure of the Schlieffen Plan was the poor communication between the headquarters at Berlin and the frontline soldiers. Also, the plan mainly relied for speed and to move a large number of German troops they would need transportation. For this the Germans relied on trains. Once the Germans had started the invasion, the French destroyed the train tracks so the German forces was slowed down substantially. Also, the assumption made by the Germans turned out to be wrong. Russia didn’t need six weeks to mobilize its troops and the British played a huge role in protecting Belgium. At that point Germany had no option to turn back as there was no alternate plan. Adding to the point that the plan relied on speed, any delays or mistake would lead the plan to crumble. All of this sums up that the Schlieffen plan was indeed totally inflexible and in many ways doomed form the start. However, it can be argued that the true intentions of the Schlieffen plan were not implemented because of the many alternations and to some, the Schlieffen plan was even partially successful because of Germany’s rapid attack towards France which lead France fighting a long