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In Berlin, Chief Propagandist Goebbels denied that Germany was getting ready to violate the Low Countries' neutrality. Another explanation might be that from Germany's nearest points to England and the Channel she was planning an air war on British shipping, to back up her submarine attacks on Britain's food supply. But Allied and neutral apprehensions inclined toward the explanation denied by Dr. Goebbels. From near Aachen the great German juggernaut started rolling 25 years ago. Transit of the Lowlands has always been the basic principle of German war to the west. Nature made it so long before the Maginot Line was built.
Last time, seven German armies were concentrated on the French border. The Sixth and Seventh, under Prince Rupprecht and General Herringen, respectively, were massed above and below Strasbourg to drive into the valley of the Moselle. The northern five were to execute the famed "swinging door" plan of Count Alfred von Schlieffen (see map, p. 28).
Hinge of the "door" was the Fifth Army commanded by the German Crown Prince Starting from the Trier-Saarbrtücken area (where fighting is most active this time), his course was through Luxembourg and Longwy in a short arc southwest to Verdun. The Fourth Army, under Duke Albrecht, was to swing in a wider arc through Luxembourg into the dense Ardennes forest, cross the Meuse and the Aisne northwest of the Crown Prince's Army, and sweep south toward Châlons. Other concentric arcs were mapped for the Third and Second Armies under Generals Hausen and Buülow, respectively, who jumped off from between Aachen and Trier. Hausen's objective before swinging south was near Namur on the Meuse in Belgium. Billow's course pointed for Maubeuge on the French frontier after cracking through the forts at Liége in conjunction with the First Army. That Army, mobilized north of Aachen and led in under the Limburg tip of The Netherlands by General Alexander von Kluck, was, after passing Liége, to execute the widest, swiftest swing of all through Belgium, to envelop the French left flank and its unready British supports, to sweep around through Paris, to herd the French Army away from the city toward its eastern frontier where it might be surrounded.
By the terms of her neutrality, Belgium was not mobilized when Germany struck on August 4. Within twelve days all her Liége forts fell and Kluck rushed westward, intending to smash the Belgian Army at Jette. The Belgians retreated into fortified Antwerp, where he bottled them and passed by.