What the fuck were they thinking?

worked pretty well for a while

>>2892081
It worked in 1940.

>>2892156
Are you retarded?

>>2892081
>so I told the Kaiser to invade three neutral countries and gamble on the off chance that our most powerful rival is just going to ignore that and he actually did it the complete madman

>>2892081
It's symbolic, and the shortest route to fuck Paris from another country's border.

They believed that the only way to win a two front war (against France and Russia) was if they could knock France out before Russia could mobolise.

Von Moltke also edited the plans and put too many troops along the Alsace-Lorraigne border, for the French Plan XVII was easily repulsed after a small retreat to suck the French army deeper into the trap.

Moltke also sent troops to the eastern front after Russia mobolised 4 weeks faster than anyone had planned. Although the ill-equipped and poorly led Russians were easily mopped up BEFORE the troops from the western front even arrived.

Whats more, after the success in Alsace, the Germans advanced here as well thus taking more resources from the Schlieffen planned envelopment, and also allowing (forcing) the french further back and thus making the envolpment even harder to execute.

The reduced troop numbers meant when the right wing did swing shut it had to do so before Paris and not past and around the crucial city.
In doing so it exposed itself to a counter attack from reserves in Paris and the oppurtunity was lost.

The plan executed as Schlieffen supposed probably would habe failed as well though. Only scrapping it altogether could have led to a Central Powers victory.
>defend along French border and bleed them white
>focus on Russia which was waiting to collapse
>no blockade from the British navy as without the violation of Belgian neutrality they have no reason to go to war
>Germany sea superirioty most likely as well
>execute schlieffen plan AFTER the fall of Russia utilising a fully mobolised and experienced army all on the one front

Even if Britian declared war now it would be too little too late

>>2892190
What about the Battle of France was significantly different from the schlieffen plan?

>>2892343
More motorised vehicles

>>2892343
In the Battle of France the advance across the lowlands of the Netherlands and Belgium was a faint to draw in British and French troops and then a secondary mobolised advance throught the hilly and wooded ardennes cut off the Allied advance into Belgium by driving to the sea.

It was very different from the Schlieffen plan

>>2892343
The whole von Manstein strategy presumed that the french and british would believe that the germans would be repeating their Schlieffen plan, therefore drawing the allied armies into Belgium where they believed they would blow back the greater strength of the German army, while the true strength was spear-heading through the Ardennes, breaking through at Sedan, and catching the allied armies in their back by entrapping them in Belgium.

Maybe I made my wording too hard, but the Schlieffen plan was nothing like 1940.

File: erich.jpg (33KB, 602x396px) Image search: [Google]

33KB, 602x396px

>>2892469
Based Manstein

>What the fuck were they thinking?
This:
>we BTFO'd the in the Franco-Prussian War, we can totally do it again!
>muh Russian Steamroller, we should quickly BTFO the Frogs before Russia completes their mobilization
They underestimated the French while overestimating the Russians. If they had reversed the plan (focus offensively on Russia while playing defense against France until Russia is knocked out) they'd probably have won WW1, or st the very least get back to a status quo antebellum.

>>2892525
No
Logical France is easier to ko than Russian

The plan was to ambitious and failed just short of Paris due to the heroic bef slowing con kluck and opening a gap between the 1st and second German armies which enabled the victory at the marne

>>2892542
Absolutely eternal post.

>>2892525
20/20 hindsight there, could easily say

>Stupid Germans, didn't they learn the lessons of the Franco-Prussian war? Why would you try and knock out GIGANTIC Russia first when it's shown that France can be dealt with quickly?

Not to mention that Russia was also significantly brought down from within

>>2892542
The plan was ambitious but it was carried outby an unimaginitive, unambitious general who fucked it up by weakening the right arm constantly, and counterattacking through the Franco-German border after Plan XVII was easily stabbed after a feigned flight.

>>2892525

>They underestimated the French while overestimating the Russians.

You mean overestimating the French and underestimating the Russians?

Also, public and military support for invading Russia only came about because of the swift victory over France.

>>2893319
>You mean overestimating the French and underestimating the Russians?
Not him, but I'm pretty sure he meant exactly that. The Schlieffen plan was based on the idea that they needed to knock France out quickly, before Russia picked up steam, or be crushed between them, and that France would be easy to bowl over, just like in 1870. Neither of these assumptions turned out to be correct.

>Also, public and military support for invading Russia only came about because of the swift victory over France.
We're talking WW1, not WW2.

>>2892081
wasn't the schlieffen plan originally calling for attacking russia first? i don't think the anons in this thread realize this crucial point. it was only at the last minute that the germs decided to go west instead of east iirc