German advance in 1914 has 8 extra corps

trajen777

Banned
Ok in 1914 the german plan by Shef. Called for 300 k extra troops and invading thru the Netherlands in addition to Belgium.

Wiki ..,,. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan
Moltke also altered the course of an advance by the armies on the right (northern) wing, to avoid the Netherlands, retaining the country as a useful route for imports and exports and denying it to the British as a base of operations. Advancing only through Belgium, meant that the German armies would lose the railway lines aroundMaastricht and have to squeeze the 600,000 men of the 1st and 2nd armies through a gap 19 km (12 mi) wide, which made it vital that the Belgian railways were captured quickly and intact.

So let's say these modifications take place ...
1. Moltke replaced by Falkenhayne ( what many expected to happen) .. So stable leadership
2 germans recruit at the same level as France (85%) ( so extra 300 k +)
3 invasion goes forward w Netherlands also invaded ( so logistics improved)
4 no move of the 3 corps east
5 some of the extra corps move to seize the channel ports ( does the bef move to block this force) thereby putting the germans in an excellent position if the invasion fails, or does the bef fall back to the channel ports and are removed from the b of Marne.

So these changes do they end the war in the west // do they end in the same situation ......what is result ?
 
Moltke also altered the course of an advance by the armies on the right (northern) wing, to avoid the Netherlands, retaining the country as a useful route for imports and exports and denying it to the British as a base of operations. Advancing only through Belgium, meant that the German armies would lose the railway lines aroundMaastricht and have to squeeze the 600,000 men of the 1st and 2nd armies through a gap 19 km (12 mi) wide

Molke correctly reasoned that 2 or corps (84,000 men?) would be needed to mask the Dutch army of 90,000 if the Maastricht appendix was violated, so with good staffwork almost 1/3 of Schlieffen troops were not required. Similarly Schleiffen wanted to mask Antwerp with 5 corps, Moltke made do with 2 (saving 126,000 men?). With these 2 changes alone Moltke reduced the manpower requirement to within the 135,00 man expansion that was authorised for 1913-14.

However, unlike Schlieffen Moltke had to think of the French and Russian frontiers, so wasn't able to pile so many troops onto the right wing, and in any case wouldn't have been abvle to keep them supplied.

no move of the 3 corps east

IIRC it was 5 divisions, rather than 3 corps, but this was a stupid, stupid move when there were troops on the French frontier and well as guarding the North Sea coast that could have gone east.

some of the extra corps move to seize the channel ports ( does the bef move to block this force) thereby putting the germans in an excellent position if the invasion fails, or does the bef fall back to the channel ports and are removed from the b of Marne.

I think it would be difficult to seize the Channel ports before Amsterdam is properly besieged with the heavy guns, and these can't be bought north until the forts astride the path of advance are reduced. This is about the same time as the BEF began its move north anyway.
 
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