chapter 13: the schliffen plan
- The idea of the plan was to win a two-front war by first quickly defeating France in the west the plan scheduled 39 days for the fall of Paris and 42 for the capitulation of France before the Russian Steamroller would be able to mobilize and descend upon East Prussia. The plan depended on Germany's ability to quickly mobilize troops and invade France before the French could fully mobilize their troops and defend their territory, and then to turn on Russia, seen as the slowest of the three to mobilize, before the Russians were ready.Germany had 6 weeks to defeat France. Germany would then use her modernised rail system to move troops from the French operation to the Russian front. Russia would then be attacked and defeated. The Schlieffen Plan was daring but it had a number of glaring weaknesses:the actions of Russia determined when Germany would have to start her attack on France even if she was ready or not. It assumed that Russia would need six weeks to mobilise. It assumed that Germany would defeat France in less than six weeks.