France being alienated from UK/US is difficult. The UK is not stupid, they do not want any one power to dominate Europe, that is the cornerstone of their foreign policy for the preceding century, France is not in danger of that, Germany is, if France goes through Belgium (which would provide them with no real military benefit), the UK will be angry, send diplomatic notes, maybe embargo, but find an excuse not to actually go to war, as it is in their national interest for Germany to lose. And they have that excuse in Ireland exploding from the Home Rule issue, OTL WWI occurred just in time to delay that, no such convenient timing here
France has two armies to spare, going through Luxembourg would be possible, Germany by comparison had 5, they needed to go through Belgium (and 2 Armies also went through Luxembourg before Belgium), in fact the original Schlieffen plan had them going through the Netherlands as well until Moltke rewrote itYep, the French idea is pretty stupid but with this German "Maginot Line" I was talking about, France also decides to go around it.
Only one of those 4 apply, so the US is unlikely to get involved, especially given that US opinion would be a lot more split to begin with, or maybe even start pro French
I think some of you are really underestimating how much of a steamroller Russia will be without having to worry about A-H and the Balkans. Quantity has a quality all its own. it will take a while for British troops to arrive in Germany to resist the steamroller, and by then you may have large parts of Germany occupied, which will cripple their ongoing war effort.
Well you have a point there, but Germany could probably hold them off to an extent imo. They definitely won't cross the Oder. And I'll change it to a civilian one.Yes, I think Germany declaring war on France the day after an accidental warship sinking is going to create a lot of public sympathy for France in both the U.S. and the U.K. Germany definitely looks like the aggressor here.
So assuming they go through Luxembourg, what then?France has two armies to spare, going through Luxembourg would be possible, Germany by comparison had 5, they needed to go through Belgium (and 2 Armies also went through Luxembourg before Belgium), in fact the original Schlieffen plan had them going through the Netherlands as well until Moltke rewrote it
France going through Belgium would require 5 Armies and a very heavy investment in Siege Artillery, assuming they had the Artillery it would be about two months to have that depth of reserves, which is plenty of time for Germany to have hit the Russians hard, and thus have reserves to counter such a push, as busting through Belgium will take ~2 weeks, which is enough time to move forces by train
Depends on what forces Germany has where, if Germany has two armies in the West, they are screwed, 3 and it becomes a battle, but France has the edge until Germany rushes reinforcements, good chance of this giving them long tern edge, four France makes minor gains but are stopped cold could go either way, more and France is pushed back. Of course 2 armies in the West means 6 in the East, so parity with Russians, 5 means slight inferiority, 4 means Russia has a 3 to 2 edge. As both sides mobilize, France can hit 10 armies when mobilization is finished (starts with 5), Germany 14 (Starts with 8) and Russia 13 (starts with 6), Italy can be contained on the Alps by a single French ArmySo assuming they go through Luxembourg, what then?