NoMommsen
Donor
Beside all his other duties of being the chief of Kiev military disrtict. It was a personal, individual ... homework, Alexeev conducted. Therfore he turned his plans over to the quartermaster for dfetailing and "fleshing out", his ideas and concepts.Since you won't read the link I gave you, could you at least read your own? "[Alexseev] Spent the next year poring over maps and intelligence summaries to develop a new strategy" War planning p.115 So we have one of the leading military minds of the day spending an entire year on the project. So much for your two pages like it was the back of the envelop. If you would read Snyder, you'd find out that it was turned over to the quartermasters to develop detail plans
What seemingly/obviously didn't come to much, as it was a mixture of Alexeevs and Danilovs "concepts" with an IMO clear overwight towards Alexeevs idea, that was detailed and "fleshed" out into IOTL Plan 19 with its variants A and G.
Compared to the "Alexeev plan" the german "Großer Ostaufmarsch" 1912/13 WAS a fully developed and detailed plan with written orders down to single timetables on single railway-stations, down to battalion level.This is not a crazed AHer coming up with an idea of "germans go East" ...
Alexeev plans would have hit air at least to the same amount as the IOTL deployment of russian troops hit air IOTL by the fact, that Conrad DID change deployment plans by very simply detraining his troops further west, than the plans submitted to the russians by traitors wihtin the austrian military stated.Not at all. Aleseev's plan doesn't hit air. It goes right at Conrad. Your overestimating Austrian intelligence- which never developed a full picture of Russian forces, the ability to make corrections (even if Conrad does figure it out, his deployments will be made) and the time it takes to make these changes.
BTW, these changes actually WERE also transmitted to russians, but russian intel and military decided to ignore them or render them false ... Mabe because it would have made it necessary to change their own plans suddenly too, which soo nicely predicted a russian victory.
You are constantly underestimating austrian (as well as german, but for that later more) intelligence. A "full picture" isn't needed at all, a gross picture fully suffice, a gross picture of "VEERY BIG army in southern Poland, small (smaller than IOTL) armies against East-Prussia and the Dnjestr east of Lemberg". And the necessary peacetime preparations - nothing more on info neede to get this gross picture - for such a big army in southern Poland could not be concealed by the russians.
It doesn't take many or Bond-level "agents" or "spys" to get such info. Questioning of traders, observations of consuls, reading newspapers is all that this would take and took for the germans.
Something the austrian deployment plans IOTL were actually exactly planned for.Finally there is no way to deploy B-staffel except to Eastern Galicia. Its there or out of the ball park.
A-Staffel against Russia ... in Galicia.
Minimal-Group Balkan ... to the Balkan aka against Serbia and Montenegro
B-Staffel : as might seem fit to the Balkan OR to Galicia. For both options for B-Staffel the plans were made, written and ready to be applied.
Noone ever contested that, only the extend you are imaginatingEither way, the Russians are punishing the Austrians hard
Wrong. They would have anticipated, learned about the russians deployment, as they did IOTL. In 1914 they actually had a quite good "estimate" from their admitted less than ideal intelligence work (almost no "agents" or "spys", only what I've described above) :... the Germans aren't picking up the move until at least the middle of August ... (as well as for the rest of your assumptions about the germans)
- Njemen-Army (districts of Wilna with reinforcements from St.Petersburg district) : 4 1/2 Corps, up to 6 1/2 by further reinforcements from St.Petersburg district, ready to march between day M+6-8 to their deployment areas
- Narew-Army (Warsaw district) : 5 1/2 Corps with strong cavalry, ready to march between day M+3-5 to their deployment areas
With such a big army as outlined to be anticipated in southern Poland, threatening not only Galicia and their austrian allys left/northern flank but also their own industrial centre Silesia, I doubt the german General Staff would not have made changes to its plans as well, as also the austrians, if only the way Conrad did IOTL, though for other reasons.
(As IOTL there WAS no such build up, IOTL there was ofc also no german as well as austrian plans about countering such a non-existing case.)
See above.Show us how he intends to do it. Give us his contingency plans, redeployment moves and organization to carry it out. When and how does he discover the Russian deployment and why is his information any better ITTl than it is OTL
In general you totally ignore any reaction of the austrians as well as of the germans to obvious ongoings on the russian side, if the "Alexeev-plan" would have been been implemented and therefore your demands are without any reason.
Having dispensed with the AHer's objections, we turn to the reasons the Russians rejected the plan to see if they were valid. In the end, Alexseev is proved right and his critics wrong. The Russians made the wrong choice due to an abundance of caution
The main objection was that deploying so far forward would leave the attack open to a pincer move from Poland and an attack from Austria. In reality, the critics overestimated the German force in East Prussia and the speed of Austria's deployment. OTL proves Alexssev right on all accounts
- You haven't "dispensed" anything.
- The actual Plan 19 owed an awfull LOT to Alexeev ... but was a compromise, in that it tried to do two things at once : fight Austria AS WELL as Germany. They should have concentrated on one choice. In that I fully agree, to render the compromise choice of OTL as a BIG mistake.
- IMHO (and Hew Strachans, Pritt Butlars, Bruce Mannings, Norman Stones also) it wasn't "caution" but the wish to "attack" due to doctrinal reasons as well and perhaps even more important political reasons (You remember ? This little inconveiniance for your imaginations called Franco-Russian Alliance).
But also no way to turn it into a Russian wank. ... only by constantly denying, that the austrians as well as the germans won't react to obvious changes 2 years prior to the happenings here discussed. You even deny the austrians to act as they even IOTL did : changing their deployment , though - as already said - for other reasons, so that Alexeev's huge polish army would hit air as IOTL russian 3rd and 4th armies did.There is no way to turn this into a German wank.