André Geraque Kiffer 
World War I In Europe, 1914 — 1918 [EPUB ebook] 

In August 1914, the importance of Paris as a strategic objective was such that its capture was regarded in many circles as capable of provoking the military collapse of France. Thus, at that time, decisively decaying almost only the land forces of France and Germany, the possession of Paris identified, for many German generals, as the very objective of German warfare. To meet the political and military objective of conquering Paris, the German Schlieffen Plan envisaged intensive exploration of the interior lines, conferred by Germany s geographical position, on the assumption that the mobilization of France was rapid and that of Russia was slow. In the simulation on the Eastern Front an expectation device will be observed combined with a mobile defense against the Russians; on the Western Front the main action will be an encirclement by the Ardennes, the secondary action will be an involvement by Belgium and both combined with a mobile defense against the French in Alsace-Lorraine.