MOLTKE 



5475 



MOLTKE: HIS WORK FOR PRUSSIA 



Bpenier Wllklnon M.A.. Prof, ot Military Hintory, Oxford 

 T/is- Encyclopedia mutants biographies of all the worlds %rtal 

 i;. Caesar; Hannibal ; I. ft 1 ; M:irlborough ; Napoleon; 

 ii-ih iiii,l others prominent durinR the Great War. Jb<v 

 o Prussian War; Seven HY.As It 'ur; Strategy; ladies; War 



ll< -Iniutli Karl Bmihard, Count 

 on .Moltke, was born Oct. 26, 1800, 



;it I'.livliilll ill Mecklenburg, (if 11 



niililr luit impoverished Cernian 

 family. II' 1 passed his childhood at 

 l.ul>eck ami in llnlstciii. At 11 he 

 wo* sent as a cadet to Copenhagen, 

 was at 17 a page at the Danish 

 niirl, ami at 19 a lieutenant in the 

 l>;mish army. In 1822 lie resigned 

 his commission to enter the l'ru>- 

 rvice. After three years at 

 tli.' Krie^sakademie (staff college), 

 lie liccame a garrison instructor, 

 uus then employed for three years 

 on the topographical survey, and 

 in 1 S.;L' \\ as attached to the general 

 staff at Berlin. 



With only his lieutenant's pay, 

 while performing all his military 

 and social duties, Moltke found 

 time to study history. In 1830, on 

 the occasion of the separation of 

 Belgium from Holland, he pub- 

 lished a monograph on the histori- 

 cal relations between those two 

 countries. In 1831, during the 

 Polish troubles, he wrote an essay 

 on the internal conditions of 

 Poland. In 1835 he became cap- 

 tain, and obtained six months' 

 leave to travel. He went to Con- 

 stantinople, and there accepted an 

 offer of employment in the sultan's 

 service. As a surveyor, he mapped 

 Constantinople, the Bosporus, and 

 the Dardanelles, as well as the 

 chief strategical points in Bulgaria 

 and Rumelia. Sent as staff officer 

 to the pasha who was raising in 

 Armenia an army to resist the 

 invasion of Ibrahim Pasha from 

 Egypt, he explored Armenia, 

 especially the Upper Euphrates. 

 When the army moved into the 

 plain of Syria, his pasha, against 

 his protest, accepted battle at 

 Nisib, where Ibrahim Pasha de- 

 feated and dispersed the Turkish 

 army. 



Moltke returned to Germany in 

 1840, and in 1841 he published 

 Letters on Conditions and Events 



in Turkey, a work which give, him 

 a high place among ( icriiiiin \vi iti-i -. 

 In IM_ lie was promoted major 

 and in |S|.~> married an Knglish- 

 \\om;in, Mary Hurt, published a 

 history of the Russo-Turkish War 

 of iSi'S -2J>, a military classic, and 

 was appointed personal adjutant to 

 Prince Henry at Rome. He spent 

 his leisure in surveying the city 

 and its environs, of which he 

 afterwards published a map, as 

 well as a monograph on its topo- 

 graphy and early history. In 1846 

 he became chief of the staff of the 

 army corps which had its head- 

 quarters at Coblenz, and in 184S 



was transferred in a similar ca- 

 pacity to Magdeburg. At this 

 time he thought of retirement and 

 a country life. But the revolution 

 of 1848 kopt him busy. In 1855 he 

 was chosen as adjutant to Prince 

 Frederick William (afterwards the 

 emperor Frederick), whom he ac- 

 companied to Paris and St. Peters- 

 burg, and four times to England. 



Moltke. 



The German battle cruiser which took part in the attack on 

 Scarborough. Dec. 16, 1914 



MOLTKE 



In I8. r .8 Moltke was selected by 

 the I 'liner; Regent, afterward* 

 King William I, a* chief of 

 the general staff of the Prussian 

 He occupied himself with 

 thinking out liin plans for such 

 wars as seemed likely, with military 

 history as the basin of generalship, 

 with problems of mobilisation, 

 and with the instruction of the 

 officers of the general staff. He 

 wrote a history of the campaign of 

 I N.V.I in Italy, and in 1862 a history 

 of the war of 1848-49 between 

 Prussia and Denmark, a renewal 

 of which took place in 1864. 

 Plans for the War of 1864 



For this renewal Moltke's plan 

 aimed at the capture of the Danish 

 army in the first battle. The 

 Prussian and Austrian forces were 

 under the command of Wrangel, 

 who. failing to grasp Moltke's idea, 

 let the Danish army escape to 

 Diippel. Moltke then planned the 

 storming of Duppel, by which the 

 Danish army was driven onto the 

 island of Alsen, and afterwards the 

 attack upon Alsen across an arm 

 of the sea, the success of which 

 decided the campaign. 



In 1865 Moltke sketched the 

 tactics suited to the breech-loading 

 rifle, and acting on these ideas, and 

 with William's confidence and sup- 

 port, was able to conduct with 

 success the wars of 1866 against 

 Austria, and of 1870-71 against 

 France. In each case he formed 

 three armies, the commanders of 

 which were Prince Frederick 

 Charles, the Crown Prince, and, 

 for the smallest army, one of the 

 generals. He himself remained at 

 the headquarters of the king, who 

 was commander-in-chief. He was 

 thus responsible for the instructions 

 given to the army commanders, 

 and for the conduct of those 

 battles at which the king was 

 present, in 1866 Koniggratz 

 (Sadowa) and in 1870 Gravelotte 

 and Sedan. 



Strategy in 1866 



It was Moltke who in 1866 de- 

 termined to employ seven-eighths 

 of the army against Austria and 

 Saxony, and only one-eighth against 

 all the other German states. By 

 his directions from Berlin the 

 Hanoverian army was brought to 

 surrender at the end of a fort- 

 night, after which South Germany 

 was easily overcome. The attack 

 on Austria was made by the con- 

 centric advance from separate 

 starting points of the three armies, 

 two of which united early in their 

 advance, so arranged as to bring 

 them into touch with one another 

 on the eve of the decisive battle of 

 Koniggratz. This plan has been 

 criticised, usually in ignorance 

 of Moltke's explanation of it, 



