Trench Journal- Battle Orders

September 23, 1917

Today I asked our Sargent how the war even came to fighting in trenches. He told all about the Schlieffen Plan, a plan created after the Prusian War. He told me the plan depended on the quick defeat of the French. The troops where to invade France through Belgium and the Netherlands, however plans were made to the plans which caused a bottlenecking of the troops. THe Belgians also resisted our efforts and gave France enough time to mobilize their troops. Also many troops were pulled from the Western Front to go and fight against the Russians which were predicted to be slow in responding to our attacks. However, Russia responded quickly and this caused enough of a stalemate on the fronts to bring us to trench warfare. In my opinion the original plan seems like it would have worked rather well.