BooNZ
Banned
No. In 1914 Britain had no allies in Europe. Both Grey and Cambon were acutely aware Britain was not bound by Grey's representations - Grey whispering sweet nothings in the shadows meant exactly that - nothing.Once Germany has broken the Entente, whether by way of military victory or a British betrayal of their allies, then the British no longer have access to any continental allies. Their last alliance will be with Japan, but Japan would no longer have any benefiet to the arrangement if Britain were facing a continental coalition.
You have previously cited Martin van Creveld as influencing your views on the German execution of the Schlieffen Plan. Has that changed?Pretty high, it's mainly human factors such as Moltke not keeping in close touch with the advance or appointing a HeeresGruppe commander on the right wing that it didn't happen, rather than physical limits like troops not being able to march that fast or whatever.
Agreed, there are probably a number of PODs that have the Germans winning the race to the sea, but at best that might have the Germans win a late war on a points decision - scarcely a "best case" for Germany. Further, as far as I understand it, "the race" was more a series of failed flanking manuvers rather than a concerted effort to secure strategic coastal views - therefore any race victory would be as much happenstance as anything else.You don't need to trap the BEF and/or 5th army to win the Race to the Sea, Moltke could have not allowed Rupprecht to go on the offensive on the left wing and instead in accordance with the plan began transferring left wing troops to the right wing. This would have provided the troops to win the Race to the Sea.
In a similar vein, the one redeeming outcome of the Schlieffen Plan, being the German occupation of productive parts of northern France, does not appear to have been a consideraton on pre-war German planning. The purported purpose of the Schlieffen Plan was to engage and destory French armies, not to occupy valuable French and Belgium real estate. The Schlieffen Plan was clearly not fit for purpose.
No. It was the German navy that was told to scrap plans for a naval war with Russia only and prepare for a naval war with Britain from day one. This begs the question, how was the Royal navy not already at the forfront of German naval preparations, given a decade long rivalry? It also appears dismissive of French naval capabilities. Moltke is on record in May 1914 telling Conrad "Our people unfortunately still expect a declaration from Britain that it will not join in", a view some have attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II and Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg at the time.8 December 1912, in what has been called the German Imperial War Council the Kaiser specifically told Moltke that Britain was to be considered as a belligerent in the next war. So when campaign planning cycle started in April 1913 Moltke developed a plan that aimed to engage British forces, that by then were planned to be deployed to France on the left flank of French forces.
I would respectfully suggest Moltke's opinion and plans remained substantially unchanged from the meeting of 8 December 1912. It is tempting for me to suggest Moltke's plans remained substantially unchanged from 1906 to 1914, but the reality is Moltke went to considerable effort to convert one of Schlieffen's selection of detailed etchings into something resembling a single inflexible war plan. However, like Leonardo Da Vinci's premature plans for the helicopter, that f**ker* was never going to fly - and no, I don't mean Forker*.
No. Haldane spelt out quite clearly in 1912 “England could therefore under no circumstances tolerate the crushing of the French…". For the benefit of the British, the French went to great efforts to paint the Germans as the aggressors, a role Moltke emblaced like the muppet he was...To assume Britain will be neutral will require Britain to do things differently up to 1912 so not to be seen by the German Government as a certain belligerent, it has nothing to do with the use of Belgium as a marching route in August 1914.
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