Shlieffen Plan

Question 0

What were the keys to success of the shlieffen plan?

Answer 0

• Timing. –> Immobilize French before Russians had mobilized, avoiding the two front war.
• French “PLAN 17” –> If French were going for Alsace-Lorraine territory, Germans would be able to “roll through Belgium” and flank the allies.

Question 1

Why was the shlieffen plan originally drafted?

Answer 1

• Germany recognizes they would fall into conflict with France again.
• likely to be a war on 2 fronts.
• “How do you deal with a war on two fronts?”

Question 2

What was ‘Plan 17’?

Answer 2

• French plan to offensively invade German territory and recapture Alsace-Lorraine which the Germans had taken over in the Franco-Prussian war.

Question 3

How many soldiers were involved in the Battle of the Marne?

Answer 3

50 000 - 60 000 soldiers.

Question 4

What allied and German military units were involved in the “Battle of the Marne”?

Answer 4

ALLIED:

• 6th French Army
• British expeditionary forces.

GERMAN:
- 1st German Army

Question 5

Why did Trench warfare develop as early as September 1914?

Answer 5

• Germans were pushed back substantially.

- Entrenched themselves in northern France and western Belgium

Question 6

Why is the battle of the Marne known as “The miracle of the Marne”?

Answer 6

• If the 6th French army hadn’t recognized the weak point in the First German army, they have succeeded and changed the outcome of the war.