Modern: World War I and Helmuth Von Moltke Essay

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Using sources A and B and your own knowledge, explain the reasons for stalemate on the western front
During World War One the army of Germany against allied forces of France, Belgium and Britain had experienced a stalemate at the western front. There were many reasons as to why the stalemate occurred. These reasons include the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, ambitious generals, such as Alexander von Kluck, and an out-dated mentality in which the war was fought. Firstly, according to source B, the Schlieffen Plan assumed that Russia would be slow to mobilize allowing Germany “six weeks in which to overcome France” and after two weeks for the Germans to make their way to slow Russia and also predicted that Belgium would remain neutral when the Germans invaded them, however this was not the case as Russia mobilized earlier than expected and the Belgian forces had in fact resisted to the invasion, bringing the British Expeditionary Force into the war in defence of its allies. The failure of the Schlieffen plan had caused issues of “over-extended supply lines, inadequate communications system, the fatigue of troops and the unpredictability of battle” as suggested in Source B. The mobilization of Russia and resistance of Belgian forced Helmuth von Moltke, the Chief of the German General Staff, to modify the Schlieffen Plan. The original “Swinging gate action” plan shown in Source A was abandoned as the 1st and 2nd German forces that had to pass through Belgium before the other forces were delayed, moreover Moltke had also moved troops from the 1st and 2nd army who were attacking Belgium to the 6th and 7th army, going into France. This then made the 6th and 7th army too strong and pushed the French forces back to their supply lines where they grew stronger. Furthermore, ambitious generals in the German army who wanted total glory not only abandoned and failed the
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