The Schlieffen Plan

In 1905, 9 years before the start of World War 1,Alfred Graf Von Schlieffen devised a plan for the invasion of France through Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg. This became known as the "Schlieffen plan".

When Helmuth von Moltke replaced Alfred von Schlieffen as German Army Chief of Staff in 1906,the plan was modified,Holland would now not be included in the invasion because Moltke believed that because of the small size of the Belgian army would be unable to stop German forces from quickly entering France.

the main route through Belgium would be through the flat plains of Flanders,34 divisions would be used to invade Belgium,and 8 divisions would be enough to hold back the Russian advance on the German borders.

On August 2nd 1914 the Schlieffen Plan was put into action when Germany invaded Luxemburg and Belgium.

The Germans soon realised that the Belgian army wouldn't be as easy as they first thought and the Belgians held their ground.

The Germans were shocked at how quickly the British Expeditionary Force reached France and Belgium,

they were also surprised by the Russian advance on East Prussia.

Joseph Joffre Commander in Chief of the French forces moved his men to a line along the river Seine,south east of Paris,over 60km south of the Marne on the 3rd of September,Sir John French the Commander of the Brittish Expeditionary Force, agreed to join the French in attacking the German forces.

On September 6TH the French 6th army attacked the German 1st army at the marne,the commander of the German 1ST army General Von Kluck,turned his entire force to meet the attack which opened a 50km gap between his forces and the German 2ND army led by General Karl Von Bulow.

The French 5th army and the Brittish advanced into the gap,splitting the 2 German armies.

In the next 3 days German forces were unable to break through the allied lines.

The French 6th army came very close to being defeated but were saved by 6000 reserves who were rushed to the front line in taxi cabs from Paris.

On the 9th of September Von Moltke ordered Von Bulow and Von Kluck to retreat.

The Brittish and French forces could now cross the Marne,and the Schlieffen plan had failed.

The German army had not been beaten though and had a succesful retreat and the trenches they built between the Swiss border and the North sea killed any hopes of a short war.