Military History of the First World War
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Military Planning in Advance of the War
The German plan for the Great War was devised by their former chief of general staff, Count Alfred von Schlieffen (retired 1905). In the Schlieffen plan German forces were to invade Belgium, by-pass the French defenses on the Franco-German border, and hence out-flank the French army and cut-it off. The French also had a plan devised by French commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre (appointed 1911). This Plan 17 proposed a French assault to push the Germans back across the Rhine, followed by a move northwards to cut off the German armies in Belgium from supply. The Schlieffen plan failed to calculate for the problem of the front units outrunning supply and becoming exhausted. The French Plan 17 failed to account for the fact that the German High Command would immediate commit their reserves to the offensive and thus have adequate manpower to thwart the French offensive. Strictly, the Russians did not have adequate resources for attacking both Germany and Austria-Hungary simultaneously. Their rail network predominantly ran east-west thus making any transfer of forces north-south very difficult. Russian command structure and weaponry was also insufficient. Nonetheless, Russia did opt for an aggressive campaign on both fronts. The Austrians, commanded by Conrad von Hötzendorff, planned to attack simultaneously Serbia and Poland. At the outset of the war the British did not have a substantial army. It was planned that the British forces (the British Expeditionary Force, BEF) would be an adjunct to the French army. In advance of the war British military preparations were focused on countering the threat to British naval domination in the North Sea. In fact, British production of battleships did outstrip that of Germany in the period leading up to the war, and the German fleet was predominantly confined to harbour throughout the war as a consequence.
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Contents of
Military History of the First World War
1 The Central Powers and the Entente
2 The run-up to the war: The July Crisis, 1914
3 Military Planning in Advance of the War
4 Serbia and the Eastern Front, 1914
5 The Battle for the Marne
6 The Race to the Sea and the First Battle of Ypres
7 First Battle of Ypres
8 The Pacific
9 Africa
10 The Eastern Front during 1915
11 Italy enters the war
12 The Balkans
13 The Western Front
14 Gallipoli
15 The Western Front, 1916
16 Verdun
17 The Battle of the Somme
18 The Trentino Offensive
19 The Brusilov Offensive
20 Romania
21 The Russian Front in 1917
22 Mesopotamia
23 The Nivelle Offensive
24 The Third Battle of Ypres (The Battle of Passendaele)
25 Cambrai
26 Caporetto
27 German offensive in Russia, 1918
28 Ludendorff's offensive in the West
29 Allied counter-offensive
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