Von Moltke the son of von Moltke the elder, who had commanded the victorious German troops in the Franco-Prussian War, elected to.keep to the original timeline and shorten his line of march by swinging the German Army in front of the city of Paris. Either the original timeline was maintained with a shorter line of march, or the original line of march could remain the same but with more time added to the original Plan. By now the original Plan which required both a line of march and a timeline, could not be executed. Once the Germans entered French territory they faced a small, but very professional British Army (the BEF) which further delayed them. Instead, the Belgiums put up a resistance which delayed the German Army. Apparently the Germans beleived the Belgiums would simply let an enormous German Army pass thru their territory. Interestingly, the Plan did not seem to care that it required a German Army to pass thru a neutral country, namely Belgium, a violation of International Law. The Plan also required a very strict timetable. It entailed a line of march, a grand sweep that would bring the German Army between Paris and the sea before it swung in to destroy the french capital and the french armies. Its purpose was to quickly knock France out of a war before her allies could intervene. The Schlieffen Plan was a War Plan prepared by the German High Command in peacetime in case of another war with France. If they marched on, would they stand a chance against Gallieni's garrison there? Was this a serious mistake?ģ) Could the Germans have held on to Marne and pressed onwards to Paris instead of retreating? von Kluck's First Army was just 30 miles or so from Paris. Who's fault did it lie on mainly? von Kluck?Ģ) This book says that the German 5th (or was it the 6th?) Army was baited by Lanrezac's troops on a wild-goose-chase (that's what I interprete), resulting in them being too far away from Paris. Thus, even though they were supposed to envelop the French armies and the BEF, they fell into Joffre's trap and were enveloped instead.
They then retreated back to the Aisne river because they were getting too weak.ġ) Were the Germans really following the Schlieffen Plan? The German First and Second (mainly the First) Armies were on the wrong place.
Ok, so the Germans reached the Marne river after Joffre's plan to retreat. I've plenty of questions about the campaign, and am very confused about how I'm going to put my questions. As you know, the Germans had managed to advance all the way down to as close at 30 miles from Paris in their campaign, mostly during August and September. I'm reading the book The First World War by John Keegan.
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