Mitchell Loughlin’s Reviews > The Guns of August > Status Update

These plans were so thorough that they had even planned rest points for soldiers to have coffee breaks along the march. They had supply agreements with France, a plan for how long each unit would be deployed and so on.
The one condition they offered in there involuntary if war was that if France violated the Belgium treaty before Germany they would not assist France.

England was at first uncommitted to helping g in this war as it saw France of having concave of winning. It thought it could be most helpful by use of its navy drawing some of the Germans away from Paris. One man however was dogged in his review of german military policy and basically figured out the entire German plan. With the help of Winston Churchill they managed to convince the government to make plans to help

The common belief amount war leaders was that G would t risk attacking through Belgium because they wouldn’t want to pull in England. Many descenders were silences, demoted or shamed for their presided weakness of character. They devoted all of there effort in defending there right and smashing the German troops that would come through here while ignoring the left which Germany was betting on

It turns out for much of this same period the hearts of the French people where dedicated on venegences for there loss in the 1870s and they were also planning on war. Both sides believed in an offensive approach while France had the home ground there loss in the 70s allowed Germany to change the border in a way that would help them in future wars. Germany believed they should attack through Belgium

Going into this book over a hundred years after the events I actually don’t know much of the story beyond the assassination of frank Ferdinand and that a lot of the war took place in France. Until this chapter I was unaware of the long history between France and Germany and that they had been on and off wars for hundreds of years. Because if this ignorance I thought it insane for Germany to wish for conquest

15 years of planning made them aware of any surprises, however it left them extremely rigid and they overlooked France’s relationships with Russia and Britain assuming they would not have time to respond before it was over

Despite his refusal, much to the shock and anger of the Kaiser, Germany planned to move forward with the attack. The commander in charge passed away in 1913 telling his successor to ensure the right side is strong against British attack. His successor ignored this advice knowing he would need horse to break through the man French line. The whole war was intended to last 39 days from the day they entered Belgium

While other countries showed the grief over kind Edward’s death the Germans did as well but the heart of the people knew the time for their plan was soon. For 15 years Germany developed its plan to destroy France.
“France must be so completely crushed that she can never cross our path again”

So while the other leaders mourned the death of there friend he tried to lay the seeds of war and partnership

He was influenced by a German book released before the turn of the century that turned into a dogma for the German leaders. The book, called Germany and The Next War was about how it was the natural right of a sovereignty to need to increase its power or to burn out. This is backed in history of conquest and shaped the German minds to a need of domination. This was in the mind of the Kaiser through the 00s

In the first decade of the 1900s a book called The Great Illusion was growing in popularity across Europe. Its message was that due to the development of trade, technology, and cooperation there would be no justification for war in the modern world as the aggressors would surely be beaten and dismantled. This belief was strong in the minds of all nobility at the funeral besides the Kaiser.