That would be the only way possible. Cimino in his excellent "The German Way of War" gives numerous examples of Prussian/German field-grade commanders being akin to rabid dogs and exceeding the scope of their respective commanders' intent and through overzelaous attacking outpacing their support or opening a flank that should have stayed covered.I’m with @Dain on this but I think there’s ways you can accomplish this and still tell the story you want to tell.
For instance: An overconfident German counterattack after an initial repulse of the French attacks ending with their center point Army surrounded and annihilated, Stalingrad style, stunning the OKH and leading to a haphazard retreat by the left and right Wings of their lines to safer ground as they scramble to redeploy forces held elsewhere and not expected to be needed?
In this case, this would be worthy of a pro-forma court martial and subsequent reduction in rank to private and an immediate front posting or outright execution.
The plans for defending against a French invasion dated back decades and were mostly officer-proof. Let them batter themselves to bloody pieces against the German lines, open a gap, let them penetrate, close the cauldron, annihatw them.
As stated, no counterattack would normally be allowed to run into such an obvious trap. All those overzealous commanders mentioned by Cimino overreached their authority in the offensive, not defensive/counterattack. About the latter, I may however be mistaken.
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