THE SCHLIEFFEN PLAN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 160, 6 June 1940, Page 7

THE SCHLIEFFEN PLAN.

ENCIRCLING STRATEGY. It was in pursuance of the Schlioffen Plan, in a modified form, that the Germans invaded Belgium in 1914. The idea was an encircling movement on the Allied flank, all along the line ,of the Franco-Belgian frontier. This avoided attacking the more heavilyfortified French post s on the German frontier and aimed at, surrounding the French and British armies by an ultimate - advance of the far wing ol the Germans down from Belgium between Paris and the coast. The 1914 getieral changed the plan, advanced on Paris from the front instead cif the rear; and faded at the Battle of the Marne. * Count Alfred von SchliefTen, the \ originator of the plan, was dead a year before it was tried out, but his influence was still great in the German Army, He Was appointed Chief of Staff of the army in 1891, and held the post for 15 yesrs, exercising an extraordinary effect on the development of the German General. Staff and the whole army. ■ Like the’elder Moltke, fechlieffen was a disciple of the noted strategist Clausewitz, whose ideas owed much to Napoleon. Their doctrine was thdt enemy forces should be not merely defeated, but destroyed, and thus to them it appeared necessary that not only the front hut the flanks and, if possible, the rear, should be attacked, so that the enemy should be forced to givebattle on a reversed front. Schlieffen, in the early years of this century, saw Germany surrounded on all sides ' by enemies who, together, were far more powerful than lierseli. • It seemed to hhn that the only salvation lay in opposing one of the ene- ) m ies with a superior force, inflicting a decisive defeat and then turning upon the other enemy, against whom defensive position had till + hen been maintained. To achieve such aims rapidly decisive blows were necessary and Schlieffen’s writings were designed to prove such blows possible and to show j’ow troops could be handled for that purpose. -