Letter To Schlieffen Essay, Research Paper

The Schlieffen Plan and its revision

Dear Helmuth von Moltke,

I am writing to you on this date of January 12th, 1913 for a very valid reason. I have heard of the predicament you may soon find yourself in, dealing with the threat of attacks by two fronts at once, and feel a major concern on your hands. I would like to take a minute to introduce myself to you, as I too am a very predominant war leader. My name is Patrick Frederick Hunder*. I have studied under Frederick the Great, who you may know, was one of the most famous leaders of Germany, and remains one of the most famous German rulers of all time for his military successes and his domestic reforms that made Prussia one of the leading European nations. I have found myself many a times in very sticky situations, and have learned quite well on how to deal with these dilemmas by resorting to wartime strategies. I have familiarized myself with the teachings of Frederick, and have thoroughly read and studied his Instruction to Military Generals. So, in essence, I feel I am in a position to earn your respect, or at least earn the right to suggest to you several revisions in regards to your course of action you might take in your upcoming battle.

I have done much research on your problem, and have attempted to help you in your decisions. The plan that has been drawn up by Alfred Graf von Schlieffen is a very in depth strategy, and will definitely help you in your battle. As you know, Schlieffen was the son of a very influential Prussian general. He quickly ascended through the rankings in the army, and soon made the level of general. By 1884, he had become head of the military-history section of the general staff, and in 1891, replaced Waldress as chief of the Great General Staff. While he was in this position, he foresaw the predicament the Nation was going to be in, and developed his plan. All of this information is familiar to you, as you are his successor. There is a flaw I am foreseeing though. While contemplating you’re past actions, and the battle you are about to enter, I urge you to stick to his plan. While diagramming out the actions that Schlieffen had proposed, I feel that the care he put into this is well thought out.

I am under the impression that you have been given the duty of revising this plan to meet modern conditions, but you must realize the importance of keeping his basic principles the way he has them stated. As you know, you will soon be faced with attacking France with your troops. What Schlieffen has proposed in this situation is to remain on the defensive. By doing this, you are guaranteeing yourself enough of a grasp on their troops, and you soon should be able to reach Paris for the takeover. This will be a crucial part of your left wing strategy. If you do otherwise, you may find yourself no longer being in control, especially if you lose touch with any of your generals. This should be your major concern in a situation like this. If you take your battle with France on to their territory too fast by taking the offensive, you are running a greater risk of not having the power of your troops to fully gain access to Paris. You must consider for a moment what might happen if you were to lose control of your troops, due to putting them on the offensive too soon. If the battle were to end up on French Territory, you may run the risk of requiring more troops to help your advancement. If this were to happen, you would then lose some of your major power that you are going to use against Russia.

This also leads me to my view on the order in which you will choose to attack. If you view Schlieffen’s plan in an overview, he believes that your first attack shall be against Russian troops. As I have aforementioned, I find that he is very conscious of what he believes to be right, but I feel that he may be mistaken in this regard. Under the present conditions, with France’s new barriers they have set up, and their military position, I feel you may make a very conscious attack against France first, thus getting an early defeat against France by capturing Paris, and this will lead you to only having to then face a one front attack against Russia now. The essential part of this idea is that you control your attacks though, especially as mentioned before, you must keep your troops under control, as this plan shall diagram out. Once you have thoroughly crippled the French troops, your right wing battles with Russia will be what will stand in your way. In consideration of the time it will take for them to arrive, and the condition your troops will be in, you should be able to use your major power to control them. Though the key still lies in Paris.

This brings me to my next suggestion. I feel that in your left wing attack, you will need to be in control for a majority of the time. If your troops are unable to defeat those of France in a short period of time, your whole attack will be flawed, if not destroyed. To do this, your defensive strategy must be accompanied by enough troops to control the pace of your attack on your own. If you lose control of the pace, you may lose control of your fighting. An adequate strength in numbers, as in any fight, will be needed. The crucial part of this is to make sure that both your right wing and left wing attack will be well backed though. While you will be able to sacrifice some of your troops from your defensive against Russia in the East, make sure you still have adequate protection against Russia. If you make your attacks quickly, and paralyze the other troops, you may be able to succeed in your initial battles before Russian troops can even make it to the front.

In my opinion, the biggest mistake you could presently make is to drastically change the plan you have in front of you. Though many new factors have arisen in this battle, the key concepts will still be acceptable. The contour of the land still remains the same, and it will not be necessary to plan on the land to your south being used for or against you. The difficulty that would arise in attempting to send troops through the mountainous regions seems very unlikely, if not impossible. This leaves you with your northern region to deal with, as well as your pre planned Eastern and Western Fronts.

In my opinion, the difficulty of the situation you presently find yourself in is one that cannot overwhelm you. The importance of keeping this plan as it looks now is crucial. Other than the minor changes in situations that existed between 1905 and now, you do not need to alter too many of the points in this plan, fore this could be what would lead to your down fall. Though I cannot guarantee you my ideas would truly help you in your current situation, and the one you are about to face, I do feel that what I have proposed will be of value to you. As a last reminder, the order in which you choose to attack, as well as the amount of troops you use and the essence of keeping in contact with your attacking and defending troops, is what will help you to win or lose this battle.

Sincerely Yours,

General Patrick Frederick Hunder