German War Planning 1891 1914

Author : Terence Zuber
Publisher : Boydell Press
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN : 1843831082

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German War Planning, 1891-1914 by Terence Zuber Pdf

Germany's Schlieffen Plan of the First World War is much talked of but little understood. Translations of primary sources recently available clarify the issues involved. The great deficiency in the discussion of German war planning prior to the Great War has been the dearth of reliable primary sources. Practically nothing was made public before the German Reichsarchiv was destroyed in April 1945, and this problem is compounded for Anglophone historians by the fact that the most interesting secondary literature was printed in German periodicals in the early 1920s. This book makes available in English translationmany of the documents concerning German war planning before 1914 that survived the war, but were kept closely guarded by the East German army archives, and only became available with the fall of the wall. Included are the only archival history of German war planning, Wilhelm Dieckmann's Der Schlieffenplan, Hellmuth Greiner's secret history of the German west front intelligence estimate from 1885 to 1914, and two of the younger Moltke's General Staff exercises. The book also presents other little-known documents found in other German archives as well as the most important parts of the 1920s literature concerning the debate on the German war plan. The picture ofGerman war planning which now emerges is both more complex and more credible than the previous single-minded emphasis on the 'Schlieffenplan'. TERENCE ZUBER has also written Inventing the Schlieffen Plan and The Moltke Myth; born in Cleveland, Ohio, he is currently living in Wurzburg, Germany.

Author : Terence Zuber
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199250165

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Inventing the Schlieffen Plan by Terence Zuber Pdf

The existence of the Schlieffen Plan has been one of the basic assumptions of 20th-century military history. Terence Zuber challenges this assumption and presents a different picture of German war planning between 1871 and 1914. He concludes that there never really was a Schlieffen Plan.

Author : Terernce Zuber
Publisher : The History Press
Page : 221 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2011-10-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9780752472904

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The Real German War Plan, 1904-14 by Terernce Zuber Pdf

The Real German War Plan, 1904-14 fundamentally changes our understanding of German military planning before the First World War. On the basis of newly discovered or long-neglected documents in German military archives, this book gives the first description of Schlieffen's war plans in 1904 and 1905 and Moltke's plans from 1906 to 1914. It explodes unfounded myths concerning German war planning, gives the first appraisal of the actual military and political factors that influenced it, shows that there never was a 'Schlieffen Plan' and reveals Moltke's strategy for a war against Russia from 1909 to 1912. Tracing the decline in the German military position and the recognition by 1913 that Germany would be forced to fight outnumbered on both the eastern and western fronts, it is an essential read for anyone with an interest in the First World War.

Author : Terence Zuber
Publisher : The History Press
Page : 517 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2009-12-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9780752496726

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The Battle of the Frontiers: Ardennes 1914 by Terence Zuber Pdf

Like the Battle of Verdun, the Battle of the Frontiers has often been ignored by military historians, who assumed that the French lost the first battles of the World War I because they launched suicidal bayonet charges against German machine guns. Therefore, for nearly a century, these battles have been considered uninteresting. In reality, these were some of the most important, hard-fought and instructive battles of the First World War. The Battle of the Frontiers is the first history of this battle in English and is based on ground-breaking research conducted in French and German army archives. It also makes use of neglected French and German books and articles, as well as German regimental histories, and includes personal accounts by participants such as Manfred von Richthofen (when he was still a cavalry lieutenant) and the young Erwin Rommel. Terence Zuber here presents a dramatic new perspective on combat in 1914.

Author : Hans Ehlert,Michael Epkenhans,Gerhard P. Gross,David T. Zabecki
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 520 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2021-05-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813182605

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The Schlieffen Plan by Hans Ehlert,Michael Epkenhans,Gerhard P. Gross,David T. Zabecki Pdf

With the creation of the Franco-Russian Alliance and the failure of the Reinsurance Treaty in the late nineteenth century, Germany needed a strategy for fighting a two-front war. In response, Field Marshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen produced a study that represented the apex of modern military planning. His Memorandum for a War against France, which incorporated a mechanized cavalry as well as new technologies in weaponry, advocated that Germany concentrate its field army to the west and annihilate the French army within a few weeks. For generations, historians have considered Schlieffen's writings to be the foundation of Germany's military strategy in World War I and have hotly debated the reasons why the plan, as executed, failed. In this important volume, international scholars reassess Schlieffen's work for the first time in decades, offering new insights into the renowned general's impact not only on World War I but also on nearly a century of military historiography. The contributors draw on newly available source materials from European and Russian archives to demonstrate both the significance of the Schlieffen Plan and its deficiencies. They examine the operational planning of relevant European states and provide a broad, comparative historical context that other studies lack. Featuring fold-out maps and abstracts of the original German deployment plans as they evolved from 1893 to 1914, this rigorous reassessment vividly illustrates how failures in statecraft as well as military planning led to the tragedy of the First World War.

Author : Hans Ehlert,Michael Epkenhans,Gerhard P. Gross,David T. Zabecki
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 592 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2014-10-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813147475

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The Schlieffen Plan by Hans Ehlert,Michael Epkenhans,Gerhard P. Gross,David T. Zabecki Pdf

With the creation of the Franco-Russian Alliance and the failure of the Reinsurance Treaty in the late nineteenth century, Germany needed a strategy for fighting a two-front war. In response, Field Marshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen produced a study that represented the apex of modern military planning. His Memorandum for a War against France, which incorporated a mechanized cavalry as well as new technologies in weaponry, advocated that Germany concentrate its field army to the west and annihilate the French army within a few weeks. For generations, historians have considered Schlieffen's writings to be the foundation of Germany's military strategy in World War I and have hotly debated the reasons why the plan, as executed, failed. In this important volume, international scholars reassess Schlieffen's work for the first time in decades, offering new insights into the renowned general's impact not only on World War I but also on nearly a century of military historiography. The contributors draw on newly available source materials from European and Russian archives to demonstrate both the significance of the Schlieffen Plan and its deficiencies. They examine the operational planning of relevant European states and provide a broad, comparative historical context that other studies lack. Featuring fold-out maps and abstracts of the original German deployment plans as they evolved from 1893 to 1914, this rigorous reassessment vividly illustrates how failures in statecraft as well as military planning led to the tragedy of the First World War.

Author : Richard F. Hamilton,Holger H. Herwig
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521110969

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War Planning 1914 by Richard F. Hamilton,Holger H. Herwig Pdf

This collection of essays by international experts in military history reassesses the war plans of 1914 in a broad diplomatic, military, and political setting.

Author : Gerhard Ritter
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2018-09-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781789122831

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The Schlieffen Plan by Gerhard Ritter Pdf

The Schlieffen Plan was the name given after World War I to the theory behind the German invasion of France and Belgium on 4 August 1914. In 1905-1906 Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, the Chief of the Imperial Army German General Staff from 1891-1906, had devised a deployment plan for a war-winning offensive, in a one-front war against the French Third Republic. After the war, the German official historians of the Reichsarchiv and other writers, described the plan as a blueprint for victory. Post-war writing by senior German officers and the Reichsarchiv historians managed to establish a commonly accepted narrative that it was Schlieffen’s successor Helmuth von Moltke the Younger’s failure to follow the blueprint, rather than German strategic miscalculation, that resulted in four years of attrition warfare. In 1953, renowned historian Prof. Gerhard Ritter Schlieffen’s unearthed Schlieffen’s papers during a visit to the United States, and he published his findings in the book Der Schlieffenplan: Kritik eines Mythos, presented here in its 1958 English translation, The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth. It proved to be an important historical publication, as it set in motion a period of revision, when the details of the supposed Schlieffen Plan were subjected to scrutiny and contextualisation. In Der Schlieffen Plan, Prof. Ritter presents the full text of Schlieffen’s military testament, and the relevant parts of other memoranda which shed light on the evolution of the Plan. They are preceded by Professor Ritter’s masterly exposition of their content and significance, while his accompanying notes add to the illuminating effect. “FOR two generations the Schlieffen Plan has been a magic phrase, embodying one of the chief mysteries and ‘might have beens’ of modern times. The mystery is cleared up and the great ‘If’ analysed in Gerhard Ritter’s book—a striking contribution to twentieth-century history.”—B. H. Liddell Hart

Author : G.W.L. Nicholson,Mark Osborne Humphries
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 709 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2015-11-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780773597907

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Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 by G.W.L. Nicholson,Mark Osborne Humphries Pdf

Colonel G.W.L. Nicholson's Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 was first published by the Department of National Defence in 1962 as the official history of the Canadian Army’s involvement in the First World War. Immediately after the war ended Colonel A. Fortescue Duguid made a first attempt to write an official history of the war, but the ill-fated project produced only the first of an anticipated eight volumes. Decades later, G.W.L. Nicholson - already the author of an official history of the Second World War - was commissioned to write a new official history of the First. Illustrated with numerous photographs and full-colour maps, Nicholson’s text offers an authoritative account of the war effort, while also discussing politics on the home front, including debates around conscription in 1917. With a new critical introduction by Mark Osborne Humphries that traces the development of Nicholson’s text and analyzes its legacy, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 is an essential resource for both professional historians and military history enthusiasts.

Author : Dennis Showalter,Joseph P. Robinson,Janet A. Robinson
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2019-05-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9781476674629

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The German Failure in Belgium, August 1914 by Dennis Showalter,Joseph P. Robinson,Janet A. Robinson Pdf

If wars were wagered on like pro sports or horse races, the Germany military in August 1914 would have been a clear front-runner, with a century-long record of impressive victories and a general staff the envy of its rivals. Germany's overall failure in the first year of World War I was surprising and remains a frequent subject of analysis, mostly focused on deficiencies in strategy and policy. But there were institutional weaknesses as well. This book examines the structural failures that frustrated the Germans in the war's crucial initial campaign, the invasion of Belgium. Too much routine in planning, command and execution led to groupthink, inflexibility and to an overconfident belief that nothing could go too terribly wrong. As a result, decisive operation became dicey, with consequences that Germany's military could not overcome in four long years.

Author : Keith Neilson
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2022
Category : Great Britain
ISBN : 9781783277056

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The Foreign Office's War, 1939-41 by Keith Neilson Pdf

Provides a forceful corrective to the idea that Britain 'stood alone' until the invasion of the Soviet Union and the attack on Pearl Harbor brought about 'the Grand Alliance'.

Author : Terence Zuber
Publisher : The History Press
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2011-11-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9780752476285

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Mons Myth by Terence Zuber Pdf

Conventional histories of the Battles of Mons and Le Cateau describe how, although the British were massively outnumbered, precise and rapid rifle fire mowed down rows of German troops: the staggering casualties inflicted made both British victories, and set the stage for the Battle of the Marne. But neither encounter has ever been described in English from the German point of view. Using German tactics manuals and regimental histories, Terence Zuber re-examines the battles at Mons and Le Cateau, subjecting British tactics to a critique that goes beyond admiration for rapid rifle fire and presenting new and startling perspectives, showing how the Germans employed a high degree of tactical sophistication in conducting combined-arms operations. The odds were, in fact, even, and German casualties never reached the levels described in the standard histories. 'The Mons Myth' is the first history of these battles to take this approach in ninety years, and completely changes our understanding of what actually happened.

Author : Professor Michael S Neiberg
Publisher : Amber Books Ltd
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2014-02-16
Category : History
ISBN : 9781908273109

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The Western Front 1914–1916 by Professor Michael S Neiberg Pdf

The History of World War I series recounts the battles and campaigns of the 'Great War'. From the Falkland Islands to the lakes of Africa, across the Eastern and Western Fronts, to the former German colonies in the Pacific, the World War I series provides a six-volume history of the battles and campaigns that raged on land, at sea and in the air.

Author : Richard F. Hamilton
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 269 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0511638396

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War Planning [electronic Resource]. by Richard F. Hamilton Pdf

Author : Michael Howard,Michael Eliot Howard
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2007-01-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199205592

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The First World War by Michael Howard,Michael Eliot Howard Pdf

By the time the First World War ended in 1918, eight million people had died in what had been perhaps the most apocalyptic episode the world had known. This Very Short Introduction provides a concise and insightful history of the 'Great War', focusing on why it happened, how it was fought, and why it had the consequences it did. It examines the state of Europe in 1914 and the outbreak of war; the onset of attrition and crisis; the role of the US; the collapse of Russia; and the weakening and eventual surrender of the Central Powers. Looking at the historical controversies surrounding the causes and conduct of war, Michael Howard also describes how peace was ultimately made, and the potent legacy of resentment left to Germany. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.