German Cavalry enters Warsaw

The following is a collection of three articles on a matter of popular and continuing discussion in the realm of military history – the German plans for the Great War, developed between 1889 and 1914 by the two chiefs of the German General Staff, Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen and his successor, Colonel-General Helmuth von Moltke (the Younger).

These are some of the first articles in English that incorporate the results of the most recent German MGFA study of 2007.

In 2007, the German Military History Research Office (MGFA) published “The Schlieffen Plan: Analyses and Documents“, edited by Michael Epkenhans, Hans Ehlert and Gerhard P. Gross. Wiki informs us that “This volume contains a copy of Schlieffen’s 1905 Memorandum misfiled in the German Military Archives at Friedberg, and German deployment plans from the year 1893/94 to 1914/15, most of which had been lost otherwise. These documents, not yet available in English translation, are said to strongly support the traditional ideas of a “Schlieffen Plan” that Zuber disputed.”

Heretics of the Schlieffen Plan

The following three articles discuss the:

(1) Heretics of the Schlieffen Plan

An introduction to the subject and recent literature plus operational analyses by John Keegan and the author …

(2) The Real German War Plan

A continuation of (1) with the ongoing publication of newly available original documents on the Moltke Plan from the new German study and

(3) Plans and War Guilt – The Story of early August 1914

Few treaty clauses had a greater impact on subsequent history than the asinine War Guilt Clause Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles – who actually invaded whom in August 1914?

Near Reims, 1914

… to be continued


(© John Vincent Palatine 2015/20)

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