Schlieffen Plan forced Belgium invasion, Britain entered WWI

Faced by Russia to its east and France to its west, Germany believed that its only hope for victory was to strike first. The German military had formulated a blueprint (known as the Schlieffen Plan) for victory in Western Europe in 42 days, before the Russians would have time to advance from ...

Mombauer’s comments regarding ... back-dated to December 1905, that called for 24 divisions over and above those which the German army had available at the time, in order to invade France....

The German offensive strategy, the Schlieffen Plan, supported by the German High Command, necessitated invasion of France by crossing through neutral Belgium to surround Paris, a violation of international law Germany openly acknowledged.

The Schlieffen Plan (German: ... on an invasion of France and Belgium, that began on 7 August 1914. Schlieffen was Chief of the General Staff of the German Army from 1891 to 1906. In 1905 and 1906, Schlieffen devised an army deployment plan for a decisive (war-winning) offensive against France. German forces were to invade ...

Voice over: "On August 4th 1914, German forces began their attack. While a few army corps held the border with France, the bulk of the German army moved forwards in Belgium, bringing Britain into the war the following day.

This struggle on the Western Front ... and futility. Germany’s war plan, the Schlieffen Plan, called for it to quickly defeat France and then shift east to fight Russia....

The Schlieffen Plan was a military strategy devised by Germany in the early 20th century to address the challenges of fighting a two-front war against France and Russia during World War I. Developed by Count Alfred von Schlieffen in 1905, the plan aimed for a rapid invasion of France through Belgium and the Netherlands, with the objective of quickly defeating French forces before turning eastward to combat Russia.

He proposed a rapid, decisive blow against France by sweeping through neutral Belgium, enveloping French armies, and forcing a quick surrender. This would allow Germany to then concentrate its forces against Russia, which was expected to take ...

Moltke took Schlieffen’s plan and modified the deployment of forces on the western front by reducing the right wing, the one to advance through Belgium, from 85% to 70%. In the end, the Schlieffen plan was so radically modified by Moltke that it could be more properly called the Moltke Plan. Germany attacked Luxembourg on August 2 and on August 3 declared war on France. On August 4, after Belgium refused to permit German troops to cross its borders into France, Germany declared war on Belgium as well. Britain declared war on Germany on the same day following an “unsatisfactory reply” to the British ultimatum that Belgium must be kept neutral.