Explain how the Schlieffen plan was meant to work.

On 1 august 1914 Germany declared war on Russia. At once hundreds of thousands of German troops began to move. Instead of going straight for Russia, they poured their troops into Belgium and Luxemburg. The Schlieffen plan was named after chief of the general staff Count Alfred von Schlieffen. His first plan was based on the possibility that Russia alone would be involved. In this case, he planned to send the German army across the north-east border …

…- he withdrew soldiers from the armies which were to attack in the west and placed them on Germany's eastern border to help guard against a Russian attack. But he went even further. He removed still more men from the attacking force, and moved them to face France's boarder with Germany. He hoped that he use them to attack France from another direction as well, and maybe even trap French in a giant pincer movement.