Conclusion of Our Armies of 1914

Their fates intertwined, when Germany invaded the tiny neutral of Belgium, Britain was honor and treaty bound to join the war

Once again into the Armies of 1914 we look:

So far in our study we have looked at the combatants in the Balkans, the eastern front and France. We continue our examination with the armies who were thrust into the war almost by accident. The Schlieffen plan of the German general staff called for a huge right wing through the neutral country of Belgium to strike at the undefended road to Paris and end the war with a knock out blow. The major powers had all guaranteed the integrity of the Belgian state in 1839 but this was disregarded by Germany completely. The decision to run through this declared neutral is what ultimately brought The British Empire off the sidelines and into the war on August 1914.

Expected not to even fight, but simply to stand by and watch the German imperial army march through their country to attack France, the Belgian army delivered a nasty surprise to the Kaisers war machine. Vastly outnumbered and outgunned tiny Belgium caused a significant delay to the German war plan that very well may have cost Germany the easy victory they based their war plan on. You can view the article here

The last article in this series is on the country who’s Germany’s invasion brought into the war, that of the British Empire. The Army of King George V was an army of colonial service that had not fought in Western Europe in 99 years. The ‘old contemptibles’ took the field and lost 40% of their number to casualties by the end of the year but they helped insure that Belgium never completely fell to the German invasion.

You can view the article here