NoMommsen
Donor
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Germans' only mobilization plan for invading Belgium and starting the "Schlieffen Plan"? In that case, they'd have to be improvising the entire mobilization process as they went which could slow thing down and leave their army in chaos for a while if they decided to concentrate on Russia first.
Sry, but ... only partially correct.You are 100% correct.
Correct, that in August 1914 the germans had only one mobilisation plan/schedule/timetable prepared.
But :
Incase they decide at the last minute for change to an eastern deployment (for which not too general outlines from 1912/13 were still available, only the detailed railways schedule for (almost) every single item were burned), the schedules for the remaining western armies (5th, 6th, 7th, maybe parts of 4th) would/could almost entirely stay as they were.
Further, in 1912 and 1913 the railway section of the General staff had experimented and tested, though on "small scale", methods "unfixed", "free" mobilisation methods, giving the operational section the "freedom" of sending the troops more or less on short notice (couple of days) whereever they want. In 1914 such plans were in the works for the entire armed forces to be "tested" in 1915.
Btw, these preparations helped the railways section a lot, when some units were reallocated and in conducting some transpotrs even faster than originally planned.
(source : "Das deutsche Feldeisenbahnwesen, Die Eisenbahnen zu Kriegsbeginn" [The german Field railwayorganisation, The railways at the begin of war], Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, Reichsarchiv 1928)
(Btw : for the interested, some very interesting maps, timetables etc. in the appendix parts ;-) )
