The book starts with a funeral; King Edward VII of England was buried with full honors in the presence of nine other kings, one of whom was Kaiser Wilhelm (nicknamed Kaiser Bill by the British) who as well as being German Kaiser was King Edward's nephew. This leads to a discussion about the intertwining of the nation's different alliances both politically and within the royal families.
Plans is the section that deals with advanced military planning that all nations undertake regardless of whether or not they are intending to involve themselves in war. The major players in Europe at this time were Germany, with their Schlieffen Plan, France, who have Plan XVII and also an alliance between themselves and the British, and also the Russian's plans for war should it happen and they be called upon to side with one nation over another.
World War One was triggered when Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian national, assassinated the heir-apparent to the Austria-Hungary throne, on June 28, 1914. This triggered the outbreak of World War One. In August of the same year the strategies and manipulations of politicians and the movement of armies is detailed and it becomes apparent that the Kaiser is vacillating and somewhat reluctant to involve Germany in conflict; Russia, the key player, was trying to maneuver her ally, France, into the war, and France in turn pressured Britain, in a domino rally of political agreement. In turn, Germany pressured Belgium to stand with them.
The larger portion of the book concentrates on the battles themselves. The war took place on two main tactical fronts, the Western and the Eastern. Much of the war also takes place at sea. The success of the strategies does not rest entirely on the brilliance of military plans. The leaders of each nation are shown to be somewhat egotistical and this egotism sometimes has a very negative effect on the success of the battles and in some cases sends ill-equipped men to their deaths for the sake of sticking to a plan that never had a chance of working. The war is also shown through the eyes and opinions of the rest of the world who were not involved in the conflict.
The "Battle" section of the book tracks the search for the German battleship Goeben which had taken refuge in the Dardanelles., neutral waters close to Turkey. This unwittingly propelled Turkey into the war on Germany's side which was a big tactical advance for the Germans as it effectively blocked Russia's import and export channels along the Black Sea. This snowballed into the destined-to-fail Gallipoli Campaign.
The German invasion of Belgium was met by Belgian troops as the crossed into Liege, by French armies as they entered Eastern France, and by the British expeditionary force in the south of Belgium. The French had believed all three forces would work together but in reality the three worked as three independent forces. Each side has its own objectives and therefore deployed its armies accordingly. The French armies were saved from being completely surrounded by the Germans by he quick decisions of Charles Lanrezac who withdrew his troops from Charleroi without permission. The Battle of Frontiers was one of the most brutal and forced the Allies to retreat as far back as Paris. The city was only saved because a retired general, Joseph Gallieni, who used limited resources to avoid a siege.
Tuchman also highlights how much the German army was responsible for its own demise by pushing their infantry to exhaustion and sending them forward without supplies.
The Eastern Front battles mainly focus on the Russian invasion of Prussia and the German reaction to it which led to the Battle of Tannenberg which stopped the Russians in their tracks. The Eastern Front campaigns were not successful for the Allies.The book culminates with the fighting in France, which saw the British and French troops fighting together in a new trench system, a system so brutal to the armies that fought within it that an entire generation of young men was lost.
