On 14 September 1914, the Germans suffered a setback at the First Battle of the Marne, and the Schlieffen Plan failed completely. With the collapse of the Schlieffen Plan, Moltke Jr. was relieved of his position as chief of staff of the German army, and he was replaced by the famous Prussian infantry general: Erich von Falkingham.
Falkingham
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > Fa jinhan formulated the "first west and then east" battle plan, but offended the "Xinglu duo". </h1>
This Falkingham's position in Germany at that time was not simple, this person was one of the initiators of the First World War, and he was also a very "passionate" general.
Falkingham had participated in the Eight-Power Alliance's invasion of China, but before the outbreak of World War I, Falkingham did not want Germany to be involved in the war, but he soon changed his mind, believing that Germany could only officially rise in Europe if it participated in the war.
German soldiers
As a result, Falkingham "transformed" into one of the active promoters of the war, and constantly urged Kaiser Wilhelm II to declare war on Britain and France. After Moltke Jr. stepped down, after Falkingham had just assumed the position of chief of staff, his ass was not hot, and he had already publicly shouted: "Let France bleed it all!" ”
As a result, the first thing Falkingham did when he took office was to start planning the "march to the sea" combat operation. Falkingham had always advocated that the German army should focus its strategy on the Western Front, but his strategic approach was unanimously opposed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, and the strategic dispute between the two sides also led to a crisis within the German army.
In fact, Falkingham did not ask to focus on the western front as soon as he came to power, he originally wanted to use the eastern front as the main offensive line, and the western front to maintain a defensive state. After quickly defeating the Eastern Front, turn around and pack the Western Front. However, Britain and France have been attacking frequently on the Western Front, resulting in the German army being unable to quickly solve the situation on the Eastern Front.
Hindenburg
Therefore, Falkingham decided to formulate a battle plan of "first west and then east". However, when he strongly advocated that the German army put the strategic focus back on the Western Front, the Eastern Front strategy of Hindenburg and Ludendorff could not be implemented. As a result, due to their different strategic ideas, the German top brass gradually began to diverge into two forces.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > the infighting between Fa jinhan and the "Xinglu duo" became more and more intense, and the German emperor was "embarrassed" in the middle. </h1>
In fact, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, they have always despised Falkingham, although Falkingham is their superior. As for the reason, it may be because of the strategic divergence, but it may also be because of jealousy: after all, At that time, Falkingham occupied two of the highest positions in Germany, the chief of the general staff and the minister of war (equivalent to the minister of defense), and his power could be said to be "in the sky".
Ludendorff
However, the series of strategies formulated by Falkingham have not had much effect, and they have even encountered embarrassment! After a major setback at the Battle of Ypres, Falkingham's authority in Germany began to suffer. At the same time, Hindenburg led his army to a great victory in the Battle of Tannenberg, and his prestige was greatly enhanced in an instant.
However, Hindenburg certainly did not use his winning reputation to support Fahingham, but attacked him. Hindenburg, with the support of Ludendorff, went so far as to publicly accuse "Falkingham of not being fit for such a high position"! And it encouraged the royal family and supporters within the government to go around saying bad things about Falkingham, the chief of the general staff.
The most serious direct conflict between the two sides occurred in a German strategic operation: Falkingham refused to transfer the newly formed troops to Hindenburg and Ludendorff for use on the Eastern Front, but Hindenburg transferred his three and a half divisions to the Eastern Front without authorization. This practice in the German army is undoubtedly "openly defiance of military orders", and the occurrence of this incident is shocking.
So Falkingham quickly expressed his strong protest to the Kaiser, and Hindenburg there showed no weakness: he also submitted his own letter of protest to the Kaiser, hoping that the Kaiser would support his approach. Such a "scuffle" occurred among the senior generals within the German army, and Kaiser Wilhelm II was once "embarrassed" in the middle.
In the end, Falkingham used his "supreme power" to organize the three and a half divisions transferred by Hindenburg into the New Southern Army Group, and appointed his trusted subordinates as the commander of the army group.
Most importantly, Falkingham also appointed Ludendorff as chief of staff of the army group, and his intention was clear: to break up the pair of Hindenburg and Ludendorff and isolate Hindenburg.
The orders of the superiors could not be disobeyed, but when Ludendorff left for the New Southern Army, Hindenburg still sent another "emotional" telegram to the Kaiser, and the details of the telegram were earnest, and Hindenburg was really a "move with affection, understand the reason" to ask the German Emperor.
The content of the telegram roughly meant: Ludendorff and I have been close comrades-in-arms for many years, and this good relationship has many benefits for the command of the troops, please allow Ludendorff to return to me quickly after stabilizing the situation there.
As more and more people began to oppose Falkingham, the general's life did not fare well. However, even though everyone was opposed to Falkingham at the time, he still had a staunch supporter, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and due to the opposition of the people below, the Kaiser symbolically removed Falkingham from his position as "Minister of War", but the post of Chief of Staff remained.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > the Battle of Verdun became the last "straw" to "crush" Falkingham! </h1>
In early 1916, Falkingham forcibly launched the Battle of Verdun, hoping that through this battle, he would force France to exhaust its military strength and thus achieve his strategic goal of quickly resolving the Western Front. The fierce battle lasted from February to December 1916, and the two sides invested enormous forces in a ten-month long battle.
Search for German troops in the trenches with flamethrowers
In the course of the campaign, Germany was even more surprised by the fact that Romania also joined the Entente. But The German chief of staff, Falkingham, had asserted that the country would not go to war until the harvest was harvested in mid-September.
As a result, the French blood was shed a lot after the battle, and their casualties were as high as 543,000, but the Germans themselves also lost too much blood, the Germans lost 433,000 people, and The strategic goal of Falkingham's launch of the Battle of Verdun was all disappointed.
At this time, the German Emperor seemed to have understood: Falkingham shouted "dry the blood of France", but the result was to shed all the blood of Germany.
The campaign also became an opportunity for Hindenburg to completely overthrow Falkingham, and in the midst of a "denunciation", the Kaiser finally relieved Falkingham of his post as chief of staff on August 28, 1916. However, in order to take care of the face of this famous general, the official disclosure is that Falkingham himself was forced to resign, but there is no excuse to save face.
German artillery
Hindenburg then formally succeeded as Chief of Staff, and Ludendorff was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff, equivalent to Hindenburg's deputy. The demoted Falkingham was pushed to the Romanian front, which seemed to be a satire of his predictions.
However, Falkingham "knew the shame and then braved", he led the army to a major defeat of the Romanian army, and directly attacked Bucharest. After this victory, he led the Ottoman army to the defense of Palestine. There, he succeeded in stopping the Ottoman Empire's plan to prepare for the "extermination of the Jews" in Palestine.
However, in December 1917, Falkingham was defeated by the British and Jerusalem was lost. After another defeat, Falkingham was sent to command the Tenth Army in 1918 and remained in Lithuania until the defeat of Germany.
After the end of the war, Falkingham had no choice but to retire and spend the rest of his life in seclusion on the estate, during which time Helmingham completed several military books and personal memoirs.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > Falkingham is not a philistine? His ability to restrain his subordinates was far inferior to that of the "Xinglu Duo". </h1>
Judging from Falkingham's series of performances, many people think that he can only be regarded as a mediocre general, but this is not the case! In fact, Falkingham's combat ability is very strong, at least much stronger than that of little Moltke.
Churchill once said of him: Falkingham was the most capable German general in the First World War, but because of his cruel methods, he was called "the blood miller of Verdun".
The Germans faced the pressure of two-front combat in the war, which also allowed Falkingham to make some "extremely wise" operations, such as delegating power to the "Eastern Duo" (Hindenburg and Ludendorff), and "zoning to manage the Western Front Theater".
Germans in the trenches
However, Falkingham's "manhood" was indeed a bit bad, not only because he was tired from the war situation on the front line, but also because he had to scare the government officials and imperial relatives who dismantled his backstage every day. When he was the chief of the general staff, his ability to restrain his subordinates was far inferior to that of the "Xinglu Duo", which was one of the important reasons for his eventual dismissal.
Many people still think that Falkingham was an excellent soldier, and many of his decisions were actually right! It was just that in Germany at that time, more people only saw the immediate interests, but could not focus on the long-term victory. The most important reason why Germany was eventually defeated in World War I was that Germany's internal situation was unstable, but the enemies were more and more numerous, and they were getting stronger and stronger.
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