After hearing about the the Schlieffen plan, when learning about the second world war, I wanted to look into it further. Germany like many other countries sit on different battle plans, for if they are brought into war so they are ready for everything. Alfred, Graf (count) von Schlieffen who was the architect of this plan first in 1905, tried to give Germany the most advantageous in a two sided war, which was becoming more imminent even in 1905.
Schlieffen's plan did not come out of the air, he was a military scholar and researched many different battle plans through history. But this specific plan was inspired by the battle of Cannae during the second Punic war. At Cannae the Carthaginian general Hannibal defeated a the larger Roman force with a double envelopment strategy, turning on the Roman army’s flanks and destroying it. He realized that the two different contries thatwere the strongesy contenders for the warfare, was France and Russia. Schlieffen's larger plan was to try to take France out of the fight as early as possible, by mounting a flank through Belgium.
Schlieffen's plan was very different than others at this time because the prevailing idea of warfare in Germany was to have a heavy center of mass (Schwerpunkt), and changed the ideas that other military scholars had of a war of attrition in which Germany would win because of their man power. Schlieffen's plan was never used from when it was first made, because at the outbreak of war in 1914, Schlieffen’s plan would be altered by Moltke(high ranking officer in the German army), and it would never be fully implemented as Schlieffen's envisioned.
At the end of the war, many of the Allies used the aggression that the Schlieffen plan offered as a way to blame the war on the German people. As the Germans get stuck in their debt and the war reparations, I can conclude that this hyper aggressive tactic can be seen as one of the causes for WW2.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Schlieffen-Plan
https://www.history.com/news/was-germany-doomed-in-world-war-i-by-the-schlieffen-plan
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/world-history/the-schlieffen-plan
Hey George, I think you make a good point about how the hostility led up to World War II. I wonder if there are other factors from World War I which contributed significantly to World War II?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you researched the Schlieffen Plan, because that was something that actually interested me as well. I find it really interesting that this plan had been in the works since 1905, well before the outbreak of war. This shows how, although several of the war's causes may seem short term, such as the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the war was actually motivated by a lot of long-term causes, and nations like Germany had recognized that almost a decade before the war actually began. I also like how you noted that the Schlieffen Plan was based off of General Hannibal's strategy in the battle of Cannae. This makes me wonder if there were other strategies utilized by either side during either of the World Wars that were based off of other historical strategies, and if they were as successful in the World Wars as they had been when first implemented in battle.
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting that Schlieffen based his battle plan off of a previous successful battle from history. It is also interesting that people used this plan, which was never fully implemented, to blame Germany for the war. I also liked your point about how this is one of the things that caused world war 2.
ReplyDeleteI found this to be very informative on how Germany changed their battle tactics. I wonder if the Germans made different battle plans to trick their opponents.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's interesting how the Schlieffen was really implemented in WW2. Using those tactics and flanking through Belgium, Germany forced France, Belgium and Holland to surrender in quick succession. It allowed them to focus their efforts after on Britain and Russia and although neither of them went well, it was close to accomplishing their ultimate goal of destroying the allies. I also liked how you gave background on how the plan was thought of and mentioned the Battle of Cannae. I guess it makes sense though seeing that Hannibal was a military genius, but I was surprised such outdated tactics that were used in Roman times could be applied in a modern war more than a thousand years later.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you are very interested in military tactics used during times of war. I also find this subject matter very interesting, and I really enjoyed reading your post. I have one question though: To what extent was this plan used during other wars after WWI? Have any other countries tried this strategy on the battle field and found it effective?
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