Mauro,
General von Moltle never did have the confidence and courage that his grandfather did against Napoleon Bonaparte plus he was hampered a bit by Kaiser Weilhelm II sometimes irrationability and temper. The whole war as well as history might have changed if it were not for one little lie by Moltke to the kaiser in the 11th hour before the war began. Plus, a number of the German staff did not have the courage to enact the most important part of the Schlieffen plan, namely to keep the right flank strong. They continuously weakened the right flank to strengthen the left.
Then there is the case of the two German generals, whose names elude me at the moment, that commanded the two wings that advanced through the French north. One was a warrior and the other was cautious. They were supposed to advance simutaniously. But the cautious one lagged behind the warrior one and eventually caused the warrior general to stop and eventually pull back until the cautious one could catch up. This gave the French time to reorganize and destroyed the rigid time table of the Germans.
The French plan, which was no plan, caused them to lose some 400,000 soldiers in the first few months. The British army at the beginning was extremely well trained and caused many German casualties at the beginning with their sharp shooting inspite of the British small commitment at the beginning of the war. The wear and tear of war gradually reduced this British advantage.
The big mystery of WW1 is that a German traitor sold the Schlieffen Plan to the French a year or more before the war began. To this day, nobody knows who that traitor was and why he did it. The French did nothing to counteract upon the information.
Big Norm
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