Question

What was the strategy Germany took at the beginning of World War I with the goal of winning the war by Christmas? What disrupted this strategy and why did the war reach stalemate only months after it began?

I was asked this for Extra Cred at school, Although I have no idea! What do you guys say/think?

Answer 1

The German strategic plan was the Schlieffen Plan.This was a surprise attack through Belgium designed to outflank the French armies (deployed on the France-Germany border) and capture Paris,thus forcing a French surrender.The German army could then be transferred east to fight the Russians (France's ally).The Schlieffen Plan was designed to knock France out of the war in 6 weeks;as it would take the Russians at least 2 months to fully mobilize and be ready to attack Germany,this left plenty of time to transfer the German army east.Once Russia realized it would have to fight the whole German army by itself,Germany expected that they would agree to a quick peace.

Belgian resistance had nothing to do with the failure of the Schlieffen Plan.Although this was stronger than originally expected,German troops were still on schedule.What disrupted the Schlieffen Plan was the Russians,whose forces in Poland unexpectedly invaded East Prussia and defeated a German force at Gumbinnen (20 August).The Kaiser panicked,and ordered an immediate withdrawal of 2 corps from the attack on France to reinforce East Prussia.This withdrawal left a hole in the German front,which the commander of the extreme right wing of the German advance (general von Kluck) wheeled inward to close - but to the east of Paris,when the Schlieffen Plan called for the inward turn to be made only once von Kluck was west of the city,thus cutting it off.The result of this premature maneuver was not only that Paris was not surrounded,but von Kluck had exposed his flank to French forces in the city.French commander-in-chief Joffre thus took the opportunity to launch an attack on this exposed flank,which resulted in the First Battle of the Marne,which halted the German advance on Paris which meant the Schliffen Plan had failed.

Stalemate:
After the Marne,both sides tried to outflank the other in what was called "The race to the sea" but both failed.By the end of the year,both sides had constructed continuous trench lines reaching from the coast of Belgium to the Swiss border.As outflanking the enemy was no longer possible,commanders were forced into frontal attacks against entrenched defenders.Armies were much larger than in previous eras - for example,the Prussian army that invaded France in 1870 at the start of the Franco Prussian War had been 250,000 strong;German forces involved in the Schlieffen Plan totalled 4 million troops.This meant both sides had plenty of men to man the entire frontage of their trench lines,leaving no weak spots. Further, manpower was available to be held in reserve to launch immediate counterattacks against sections of the front line trenches that might fall into enemy hands.As the defenders were armed with modern weapons - bolt action magazine loaded rifles,belt fed machine guns,and rapid firing breech loading artillery,they could deliver a tremendous amount of firepower very quickly against enemy troops advancing across an open No Man's Land between the trenches,inflicting massive casualties.

All this made a breakthrough against the enemy virtually impossible for both sides,so from the beginning of 1915 onwards the Western Front bogged down into the stalemate of trench warfare.