Meebs & Jovial's Quest for Power

[southbiochem]

6500 it's cloudy outside...that's always good

[southbiochem]

6501 who's idea was it to start spamming like crazy

[southbiochem]

6502 ooooh....maybe I can do another History review...nice..

[southbiochem]

6503 Western front WWI 1914-1918

France and Germany hate each other, Europe is filled with tension that will explode into general war soon enough.

Germany had been planning a course of action in the events of a European war cause it would have to face France and Russia, thus fighting in 2 fronts.

to avoid this, the Schlieffen Plan was elaborated



Basically, instead of storming France through their shared border, they would go through Belgium with 7 armies (while and 8th Army would guard the Eastern border and a 9th army would be stationed in central Germany awaiting to reinforce where needed) and get into France in an enveloping movement, since they predicted that French would head for the border trying to regain Alsace and Lorraine lost to Germany in the 1871 Franco-Prussian war


they assumed that France could be defeated like this in 6 weeks with the envelopement of French armies and the subsequent capture of Paris.

then they would use their awesome railroad network to move all armies fast to the Eastern Front to met the Russian Armies, deeming (and very much correctly) that Russia was a slow mobilizer due to the massive size of their forces, the vast amout of territory they had to cover and their crappy road infrastructure.

[southbiochem]

6504 This plan had some key points that were just assumptions

1.- Belgium would not resist the pass of German troops

2.- Britain would remain neutral

3.- Russia would take 6 weeks before reaching full mobilization.

All of this assumptions would prove wrong.


So we all know what happens: the chain of alliances soon draw the European powers into general war, after the Sarajevo Assasination: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia July 28th 1914, Russia orders full mobilization in response on August 1st which leads to a German declaration of war on the 2nd, followed by a declaration of war againt France on the 3rd.

On August 4th Germany took the initiative and crossed the Belgian border, which caused a British declaration of war for violating Belgian neutrality.

Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia and Serbia to Germany on August 6th.

The first conflict of the war was the Battle of Liège on August 5th





German troop defeated and captured the 12 forts guarding the city, but in an unexpected action Belgium not only resisted the German invasion but stalled the advance until the 16th

this delayed German plans and was the first of many factors leading to the failure of the Schlieffen plan

[southbiochem]

6505

After Liège fell, the Belgian Army retreated to Namur and Antwerp.

German captured Brussels on the 20th and Namur on the 23rd but Antwerp remained a focus of resistance for some time threatening German flanks

[southbiochem]

6506 More disturbingly Russians were quicker to mobilize than expected and invaded German East Prussia, a move that had to be answered desperately by the German 8th army.

Superior tactics and command saved Germany when they engaged Russians in the Battle of Tanneberg on the 26th and the First Battle Masurian Lakes in September, which effectively defeated and ousted Russian from German territory.

However, the threat made Germany withdraw troops from the Western front and send them East, thus weakening German forces in the West, this was the start of the failure of the Schileffen plan

[southbiochem]

6507 After most of Belgium had fell, German met French and Brits (who had had enough time to send their Expeditionary Force) in the Battles of the Frontiers

these engagements resulted due to French General Lanrezac's movement of the French Fifth Army to intercept the German advance, thus ruining their chance of executing their enveloping movement.

Up until then France have been, like Germany predicted trying to recapture Alsace and lorraine

Also the BEF presence in the left flank was important to threaten German advances




Under the weight of 3 German Armies, the BEF and the French Army were driven back, but their actions allowed enough time to transfer troops West to Paris to defend the city.




Germans achieved victory on the 24th and effectively crossed the French border

[southbiochem]

6508 After the success in the borders, German kept their advance now shifting southwards, and putting the Brits and French on constant retreat

BEF and the French Army conducted the Great Retreat towards the Marne river alwasy followed closely by the German Armies.

Despite small victories like Etreux from the 26th until September 1st Germans pushed Allies back

then, the Battle of St.Quentin ensued, as a French and BEF failed counter offensive.

For a time Germans failed to pursue, but Allied forces retreated to the Marne river and German troops came within 70 miles of Paris.

However the German First Army had to detour from it's original course and came to be East instead of West of Paris.



Up to this point this is the extent of German advances, up to September 5th

[southbiochem]

6510 As the German troops became exhausted and their supply line had become overextended, the German forces had to stop their offensive.

As of this point, a gap had appeared bewteen the German First and Second Armies, a weakness that was exploited by the French and the BEF which resulted in the Allied counter offensive that would prove decisive.

The First Batte of the Marne was fought bewteen the 5th and 14th of September,





It effectively pushed German forces back to the Aisne river, thus saving Paris and making the Schlieffen plan fail all together..a chance for a quick victory was evaporated and now Germany was engaged in a 2 front war