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Text Chapter 869 Schlieffen Plan

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    From the 19th century to the end of World War II, the world's most powerful army was none other than Germany. As the highest command organization of the German Army, the German General Staff Headquarters, especially the German General Staff Headquarters before World War I, was full of talents and talents. It is still  It makes countless passionate men yearn for it.  Among the previous chiefs of staff of the German General Staff Headquarters, the most accomplished was Moltke who assisted Bismarck in winning the Danish War, the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War, and unified Germany.  Schlieffen served as chief of staff from 1891 to 1906, a total of five years.

    Back to the day before Germany declared war on France, the German General Staff Headquarters was already busy.  Kaiser Wilhelm II, Crown Prince Wilhelm, Chief of General Staff Moltke, Navy Minister Tirpitz, Prince Heinrich and others all gathered here.  Among them, there was a middle-aged Oriental with yellow skin and black hair, who was particularly eye-catching.  He is Chinese Army General Zhao Bowen. This time he came to Germany as China's deputy chief of staff to observe Germany's upcoming attack on the Western Front!

    Xiong Wu, Chief of the General Staff of China, is old. The main work of the General Staff is actually handled by Cai Yunzai, Minister of Army.  After China enters the war, Army Minister Cai Yun will step down from his post and be specifically responsible for the work of the General Staff.  And General Zhao Bowen will take over as Minister of War!

    "Are all the ministries ready?" Kaiser Wilhelm II looked at a huge map of Western Europe and asked.  On the map, different colors are used to mark the military deployments between the Allies and the Allied Powers. On the borders of Germany with France and Belgium, there is a large black area. This color marks the German Army.

    "Your Majesty, we are ready! All group armies are in place and ready to launch an attack at any time!" reported the German Chief of General Staff Xiao Maoqi.  His voice was full of excitement and excitement. Soon, the powerful German Army will win one victory after another under his command!

    "Very good, we will declare war on France tomorrow! The attack will be launched at that time! I am waiting for the news of your victory!" Kaiser Wilhelm II said.  He has always had a firm belief in winning the war!

    "Your Majesty, don't worry, we will definitely defeat the French. His Majesty the Emperor is expected to spend Christmas in Paris this year!" Little Moltke said proudly.

    General Zhao Bowen saw all this, and a hint of ridicule appeared in the corner of his mouth.  These Germans also want to defeat France and France's ally Britain in a short time. This is simply impossible.  Do you really think that the French are so stupid and so easy to bully?

    Germany¡¯s war plan against France had been drawn up decades ago.  After subsequent additions and modifications by successive chiefs of staff, it finally took shape when Count Schlieffen served as chief of general staff.  However, what is unexpected is that after taking over as Chief of General Staff, Moltke once again made changes to the Schlieffen Plan, which ultimately caused the German army to fail!

    In 1870, the French government of Emperor Louis Napoleon destroyed itself by declaring war on Prussia.  The Prussians destroyed the French army in battles on their shared border, then marched in, surrounded and captured Paris.  To eliminate any future French military threat, the newly unified Germany annexed Alsace and part of Lorraine, including the fortress city of Metz, leaving France exposed to future invasions.

    French military engineers then built a series of forts centered on four cities along the 150-mile Franco-German border.  The southeast begins with Switzerland's impenetrable barrier, the Alps, with solid concrete fortresses stretching from Belfort, Erbinal, Tours and Verdun.  A wide gap was designed between Urbinal and Tours as a huge trap for the enemy to enter and then annihilate with crossfire from well-covered concrete box bunkers.  About twenty miles north of Verdun lie Luxembourg, Belgium and the rugged Ardennes Forest.

    Faced with this insurmountable bastion, Count Alfred von Schlieffen, the German Chief of Staff from 1891 to 1906, devised a strategy to invade France through the vast Belgian plains.  This small industrialized country offers easy access with ample railways, roads, rivers and canals, and its border with France is undefended.  Count Schlieffen was outraged by Belgium's fortified positions facing the Germans at Li¨¨ge and Namur, complaining that its military defenses were designed to "¡­prevent German incursions into its territory, but its frontiers with France are left undefended."  .  Count Schlieffen pretended not to know why Belgium was worried about Germany but not France.

    When Count Schlieffen was assisting Moltke and Waldersee, he conducted in-depth research on France and Russia.

    Although France, which experienced the Napoleonic Wars, failed in the Franco-Prussian War and lost Alsace and Lorraine, which were rich in iron ore, its power has not diminished and it is in a leading position in Europe.It was the biggest enemy of the unified German Empire on the European continent.  On the other hand, although Russia has millions of conventional troops, its equipment is backward and its strategic thinking is still stuck in the cold weapon era.  When Germany's Krupp cannons and Mauser guns were already world-famous, and the German General Staff Headquarters was focusing on studying the value of the Maxim machine gun, many Russian soldiers still used wooden sticks tied with sharp knives as their only equipment.  At the same time, Russia's vast territory, backward railway network and aging war mobilization mechanism have greatly reduced Russia's war response speed.  After carefully studying the balance of power between the two sides, Count Schlieffen came up with a bold idea: take advantage of Germany's rapid mobilization of troops to defeat France first, and then turn around to concentrate its forces against Russia.  Count Schlieffen judged that Russia's backward military mobilization system would take Russia at least 6 to 8 weeks to complete its military buildup against Germany.  During this period of time, with the dense railway network built under the leadership of Moltke, Germany was fully capable of quickly completing its military buildup and defeating France.  This is the basic strategic idea of ??the "Schlieffen Plan", which can be summarized in three words: "time difference."

    In 1891, his first year as Chief of Staff of the German Army, Count Schlieffen proposed a "Memorandum", known as Memo No. 1.  In this memorandum, Count Schlieffen used a "plot rehearsal" method rarely seen by military scientists to deduce the basic process of the future European war and proposed the strategic concept and implementation method of "time lag".  Afterwards, Earl Schlieffen proposed Memorandum No. 2 and Memorandum No. 3 in 1892 and 1894. These three memos were the basic prototype of the "Schlieffen Plan".  Thereafter, during his tenure, Count Schlieffen led numerous exercises, sandbox exercises and discussions on future wars, and repeatedly revised the memorandum.  In December 1905, Count Schlieffen completed the last memorandum and handed it to his successor, Moltke Sr.'s nephew Moltke Jr., in 1906. At this point, the complete "Schlieffen Plan" finally took shape.

    The main target of the "Schlieffen Plan" is naturally France.

    After the failure of the Franco-Prussian War, France built a strong defensive fortress starting from the Swiss Alps and passing through Belfort, Urbinal, Toul and Verdun in order to resist the German attack. It was only between Urbinal and Toul.  A gap was left to pass through the French-German border, and intensive crossfire was deployed on both sides of the gap. Therefore, the center and focus of the "Schlieffen Plan" was how to bypass France's long and solid defense system.

    The basic content of the "Schlieffen Plan" is to divide all German combat forces into the eastern front against Russia and the western front against France.  Among them, the Western Front Army has 79 divisions, while the Eastern Front Army has only 10 divisions mixed with some local troops.  The force distribution ratio between the east and west fronts is roughly 1:8. The west front is divided into left and right wings, with 68 divisions on the right wing and 11 divisions on the left wing. Part of them is located in the central area of ??Verdun, which is the northwest entrance to Paris and is only 135 kilometers away from Paris.  Miles, it is also the center of gravity of France's defense system against Germany.  The rest are deployed on the 240-kilometer-long French-German border.  The right wing on the Western Front was the main force of Germany and the soul of Germany's victory in the war.

    According to the "Schlieffen Plan", once the war started, the German troops on the eastern front would use their small number of troops to echo the Austro-Hungarian army to contain the Russian army, with the purpose of limiting Russia to the East Prussian border.  At the same time, the right wing gathered on the Western Front rotated southwest with the Verdun area as the axis, passing through Belgium, a neutral country in Europe, and entering France from the Belgian-French border. After crossing the Belgian plains and sweeping across the French coast, it moved from the north, west, and south.  Surround Paris from three directions, and then move eastward to outflank the main force of the French army from behind.  The task of the left wing on the Western Front is to resist the attack of the main French army.

    It¡¯s just that the cautious little Maoqi changed this plan to cope with what he thought was a different situation.  Instead of strengthening the right wing, he reduced its strength by one-third and added eight divisions to the left - a move that was fortunate for France.  Due to other obstacles and delays, Moltke shortened the German invasion front pivoting around Metz so that his troops moved to the east of Paris without encircling it.  A few weeks later, when the Germans attempted a frontal assault to capture Paris, they were repulsed at the Battle of the Marne.  This was also the most serious threat posed by the German army to Paris.  If Moltke had not weakened the strength of the right wing, maybe the German army would have successfully captured Paris in this battle.  The French army is likely to give up resistance because of the loss of Paris.  The rest of the UK has nothing to fear!

    The revised combat plan may be more appropriately called the Schlieffen-Moltke Plan!
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