If you make a false premise at the very beginning, it really doesn't matter how relentlessly logical you are thereafter the whole edifice is built on sand.
That is the story of German war planning immediately before the First World War. Inspired by Hannibal, Napoleon and the elder von Moltke, Alfred von Schlieffen, Chief of the Great German General Staff 1892-1905 left his successor the plan that bears his name. It was a massive envelopment encroaching on three neutral states that would sweep the French against the Vosges mountains. He thought he could end Germany’s strategic weakness by effectively wiping France off the map.
To complicate the history further, it took 70+ years for the truth behind the German plans to gradually emerge piecemeal. In doing so a number of accepted wisdoms have been cast aside. Schlieffen himself planned for an attack on France only; there was no obligation to go round Paris, the main battle was always likely to be near Charleroi; Schlieffen's numbers did not add up.
His successor, von Moltke the younger, was handed something of a poisoned chalice.
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Ross Beadle has been lecturing on the subject of the First World War and military the developments that preceded it for 15 years and is consistently in demand by specialist societies like the Royal Artillery Historical Association, the British Society for Modern Military History and the Western Front Association. He has a degree in history and an MBA from Birmingham in First World War Studies. He has written for military history publications and specialises in entertaining and animated lectures.
His specific area of interest is in pre-war military planning. This centres on the German Schlieffen Plan and also the developments in the British Army in the late 19th and early 20th Century that led to Britain breaking with tradition and committing to fighting on the continent of Europe. He is currently writing a history of the Schlieffen Plan.
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