If necessary, they urge the commander to decide and act. [35] The plan has been accused of being too rigid. In the event, at the outset of the Franco-Prussian War, 462,000 German soldiers concentrated flawlessly on the French frontier while only 270,000 French soldiers could be moved to face them, the French army having lost 100,000 stragglers before a shot was fired through poor planning and administration. In August 1914, following the pre-war mobilization plan, most of the General Staff, including the Oberquartiermeisters, were reassigned to the headquarters of the Armies and Corps. When Hitler went to war in 1939 the tank columns were still followed by horse-drawn artillery pieces. The Prussian General Staff also enjoyed greater freedom from political control than its contemporaries, and this autonomy was enshrined in law on the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire in 1871. "General von Krauseneck, who was the Chief of the General Staff from 1829 to 1848, was the son of a Brandenburg organ player and had been promoted from the ranks. [29] Most states hastened to adopt Prussian staff methods and structures, with mixed success.[30]. (The combined scandals were known as the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair.). The German Army had tactical success during the Spring Offensive, but the Allies held strategic points. To meet this threat, Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen and his successor, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, drew up and continually refined the Schlieffen Plan to meet this eventuality. Chief of the General Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger and Generalquartiermeister, Hermann von Stein convinced him that this was unthinkable because the thousands of orders could be quickly rewritten and because the French with their quicker mobilization and excellent railways would be attacking a German border in force long before the Russians. For other European armies which lacked this professionally trained staff corps, the same conventions were often a recipe for disaster. Their senior officers entirely failed to grasp the methods of the Prussian General Staff. His French and Austrian opposite numbers took a similar view. "A swift victory over the main armies in the main theatre of war was the German General Staff's solution for all outside difficulties, and absolved them from thinking of war in its wider aspects." For example, Paul von Hindenburg thought that the history of ancient battles should be minimized to give more time to modern, and that trigonometry was only useful to those who would be surveyors. The Weimar Republic's army, the Reichswehr, was led by Hans von Seeckt. From his studies and experiences during the Napoleonic Wars, he wrote a syllabus which became the staff's central doctrine. [55] In November 1939, Halder, still fearing the war would end in disaster, discussed a coup with Army C-in-C von Brauchitsch and Carl Goerdeler of the Schwarze Kapelle, but finally decided Hitler was untouchable until Germany met a "setback".[56]. Admission to the academy was highly selective. )[27], During the war, there were again the inevitable mistakes due to the "fog of war", but German formations moved with a speed and precision which French staff officers, accustomed only to moving battalion-sized punitive columns, could not match. Felix Graf von Bothmer (1852-1937) Nemesis of the Russians. Beneath them were the five Oberquartiermeisters, who supervised the heads of the General Staff departments. How Germany Could Have Won World War I. In part this was due to the increasing pre-eminence of the other branches of the German armed forces, in particular of the Luftwaffe. Every General Staff officer had to be able, at any time, to take over the work of another and apply to it the same body of basic ideas and the same principles of operational and tactical thought. Schlieffen argued that if war took place it was vital that France was speedily defeated. Corrections? The Germans were overwhelmed during the Hundred Days Offensive, and eventually agreed to an Armistice of 11 November 1918 with the Allies.[44]. British Broadcasting Corporation Home. Moltke's wide experience also prompted the General Staff to consider fields of study outside the purely military, and rapidly adapt them to military use. German World War One general, Nazi sympathiser. The highest commander and the youngest soldier must always be conscious of the fact that omission and inactivity are worse than resorting to the wrong expedient. Before the nineteenth century, success on the battlefield largely depended on the military competence of the sovereign. Home Helpful Info Medical service of the German Army during World War I ... Restructuring of the German Army under Paul von Hindenburg, the new Chief of the General Staff, concerned the Medical service as well with implementation of new directives in 1916. He had succeeded the wholly successful General Helmuth von Moltke, who together with Bismarck had won a series of short wars and created the new German Empire. They led OHL in aggressively intervening in German political and economic life, changing the original goal of defending Germany's borders to conquest and expansion. The task of a skillful offensive will consist of forcing our foe to attack a position chosen by us, and only when casualties, demoralization, and exhaustion have drained his strength will we ourselves take up the tactical offensive.... Our strategy must be offensive, our tactics defensive. The remaining core became the "General Staff of the Field Army", part of the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL, Supreme Army Command). Students at the War Academy attended about 20 hours of lectures per week. They were sure that a series of successful breakthroughs would snap their enemy's resolve, ignoring the fact that each victory sapped German strength, while their foes were continually strengthened by Americans flooding into France. His modification of the German attack plan in the west and his inability to retain control of his rapidly advancing armies significantly contributed to the halt of the German offensive on the Marne in September 1914 and the frustration of … Newly developed rifled artillery would no longer be placed in the rear of the order of march for employment behind the infantry; instead, a significant detachment would travel with the advanced guard of the leading corps or other major element, and the remainder would march with the front of the main body, providing immediate artillery coverage of the advanced guard on contact and of the main body during subsequent deployment on the field. In the victories which the Prussian Army was to gain against Austrian Empire and France, Moltke needed only to issue brief directives to the main formations, leaving the staffs at the subordinate headquarters to implement the details according to the doctrines and methods he had laid down, while the Supreme Commands of his opponents became bogged down in a mountain of paperwork and trivia as they tried to control the entire army from a single overworked headquarters.[22]. In the French army of the time, there was an anti-intellectual prejudice in favour of brave and unimaginative regimental officers over intelligent and well-trained staff officers. He allowed several army commanders on the German left wing to attack into France instead of remaining on the defensive. At the beginning of World War II, by contrast, its influence was less than it had been at the outset of the First World War and actually declined during the war. The elected representatives in the Reichstag were needed to pass budgets, but aside from this had no power over the conduct of the government. Reforme… During the three month summer breaks the students attended manoeuvres and were taken on field tactical exercises in which they commanded imaginary units. In 1806, the Prussian Army was routed by French Armies led by Napoleon's marshals at the Battle of Jena. Each army corps had one chief of staff and two other staff officers.
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