Why The Schlieffen Plan Failed
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.พ. 2025
- 3/11/2019 Update: I have replaced the original audio with much higher quality audio. It still is not perfect, but it is still a step up from before. I will continue to work on improving this aspect, as well as audio editing and animations.
This video is essentially a little experimental video, as I am working on a much larger project that will incorporate narration and some video animations, so this was me trying it out. Obviously the audio quality is not the greatest, but this is new to me. Any and all feedback is welcomed. I will improve greatly in the future. Also... Thank You for 100 Subscribers!
SOURCES:
The First World War by John Keegan
The Great War TH-cam Channel
This was actually quite well made.
Thanks! It was more of an experiment with narration and a bit of animation from Adobe After Effects than anything else, so Ill probably redo this at some point.
Very informative video, great work .
Great video
Super nicely made video.
And also
Your voice sounds kinda cute - w -
It's good
Because of Nationalism.
and the entente's usage of attrition warfare.
Slavs in Austro Hungary Form the Free Slav Army in 16 October.
Hungarian troops in the western front Began leaving from Verdun Fortress to Budapest.
Hungary had Left The Union by 24 october.
czechoslovakia was formed in 28 october.
Germany Begins talks for surrender with entente in Nov 3 1918
Nov 9 1918, German Empire Is dissolved into the territory of Elsace-Lorriane (which was under communist occupation). and The rest is known as The NSG (WER)
Nov 10 1918 New government is formed.
November 11 1918- Germany surrenders. It is now known as the National Salvation government.
German army begins to leave the trenches.
25 Novmeber - German Empire (Exiled Colony in New Guinea) Surrenders.
Aug 11 1919 National Salvationist Govt forms the weimar republic.
Jun 28 1919 - Treaty of versailles is signed.
Jan 23 1920 - it comes to effekt.
In all these "why the plan failed" videos nobody ever actually points out the real direct reason for the failure in the tactical and strategical sphere. They all talk about the broad grand strategic reasons like Russia and England entering the conflicts which had nothing to do with the immediate failure of the plan.
The German right wing was suppose to be as strong as possible, the center was to be a stable anchor and left wing reduced to the barest minimum in order to entice the French into launching their main effort against it(French army did just that). The intent was that while the French was pushing the left wing back, it would be luring itself into a trap and be cut off by the swinging German right wing. Like the hammer and anvil tactic with the right and left wing respectively. And the farther the French offensive against the left pushed, the more effective would be the German strike against their rear. The real genius of Schlieffen's plan therefore, wasn't in the direction or strength of the attacking force but in the distribution of the forces. By heavily modifying and meddling with the plan, Moltke made his entire line safer while making the plan itself unsafe and therefore reduced the chances that Germany could win a quick overwhelming victory in the West as it did in WW2 with Manstein's plan, which was basically a reverse version of the Schlieffen plan, where the French and British were lured by the German right wing while the German center enveloped them.
Moltke utterly failed to understand the subtleness of this strategy and that the shrewdness of Schlieffen to leave the left wing as weak as possible was intended. In the 10 years or so since the plan was created and the start of the war, if i recall, 9 new divisions became available on the German side. Instead of placing most if not all of them on the right wing, they were sent to the left, heavily reinforcing it. Whats worse, he took divisions that were allotted to the right wing and moved them to the East and once the offensive was underway, he peeled off even more divisions from the right wing to act as garrisons.
Moltke's meddling resulted in the now heavily reinforced German left wing holding their ground and throwing the French offensive back instead of conducting a fighting withdrawal and luring the French in as intended by Schlieffen for the German right wing to then strike from the northern flank and rear. This then allowed the French to switch over forces to face the weakened German right wing on its great drive southward. The result was the 1st Battle of the Marne where the French with reinforcements from the south, managed to throw back the German right wing and cause the entire plan to fall apart.