Guns Of August

25 Pages 6194 Words

The Guns of August

BOOK SUMMARY
In May of 1910, the funeral of Edward VII of England took place. There were many royals in attendance there, including Kaiser William II of Germany, who disliked his uncle Edward and accused him of the encirclement of Germany. Edwards sociability resulted in reconciliation with France and a new friendship with Germany. Both arose the displeasure of William, who tried to rectify his situation with Russia and get them away from France although this failed. Soon thereafter, several publications on the prediction of a coming war were made public. Edwards magnificent funeral had the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. This was also to be the state of things prior to the first World War.
PLANS
Germany, France, Britain, and Russia were all prepared to make war, which was almost inevitable. Each country formulated secret military strategies that were to be used during this great war. Germanys plan of attack was the original idea of Count Alfred von Schlieffen. He, not wanting to fight a two-front war, decided to attack France first, swiftly by way of Belgium and attacking from the rear thus bringing about Frances envelopment. Although Belgium was declared neutral territory, he felt that it was a military necessity. This left East Prussia scarcely guarded, using primarily reserves, but the plan was to achieve a quick victory over France followed by an attack on Russia. Although it was predicted that a longer war might result because of the modernization of resources, it was not followed through with and no plans for a long battle were made. Instead, the idea of a decisive battle was held on to. In France, their military strategy was at first to attack Germany with a two-pronged offensive through Germanys center and left. Their main goal was to win back Alsace-Lorraine. General Ferdinand Foch was mainly in control of French military thinking and belie...