A Perfect Plan

Fieldmarshal Alfred von Schlieffen had a perfect plan. Should Germany find herself embroiled in a European war, the military would rush westwards and secure and quick and decisive victory, thus positioning itself as essentially invincible by the time it had to face challenges from the East.

Schlieffen was a genius. He read a lot. And wrote even more. Not content with merely directing the messy day-to-day tactical manoeuvres of diplomacy and war, he set to completely eliminate uncertainty from the equation.

The only problem with Schlieffen's plan was that to know how well it works Germany would have to go to war.

Spoiler alert: Germany lost; Millions died.