biography
| name: |
Schlieffen, Alfred, Graf von (Count of)
|
pronunciation:
[shleefn]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1833–1913)
|
| biography:
| Prussian field marshal, born in Berlin, Germany. He entered the army in 1854, and rose to become chief of general staff (1891–1905). He advocated the plan, which bears his name (1895), on which German tactics were unsuccessfully based in World War 1. He envisaged a German breakthrough in Belgium and the defeat of France within six weeks by a major right-wheel flanking movement through The Netherlands, cutting off Paris from the sea, holding off the Russians meanwhile with secondary forces. |
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