but Lieutenant General Helmuth von Moltke, chief of
the General Staff, was the practical director of military operations.
General von Moltke was a nephew of the great strategist of 1870, and his
name possibly appealed as of happy augury for repeating the former
capture of Paris.

The First Army was assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle in the north of Belgium,
within a few miles of the Dutch frontier. It was under the command of
General von Kluck. He was a veteran of both the Austrian and
Franco-Prussian Wars, and was regarded as an able infantry leader. His
part was to enter Belgium at its northern triangle, which projects
between Holland and Germany, occupy Liege, deploy on the great central
plains of Belgium, then sweep toward the French northwestern frontier in
the German dash for Paris and the English Channel. His army thus formed
the right wing of the whole German offensive. It was composed of picked
corps, including cavalry of the Prussian Guard.

The Second Army had gathered in the neighborhood of Limbourg under the
command of General von Buelow. Its advance was planned down the valleys
of the Ourthe and Vesdre to a junction with Von Kluck at Liege, then a
march by the Meuse Valley upon Namur and Charleroi. In crossing the
Sambre it was to fall into place on the left of Von Kluck's army.

The German center was composed of the Third Army under Duke Albrecht of
Wuerttemberg, the Fourth Army led by the crown prince, and the Fifth Army
commanded by the Crown Prince of Bavaria. It was assembled on the line
Neufchateau-Treves-Metz. Its first offensive was the occupation of
Luxemburg. This was performed, after a somewhat dramatic protest by the
youthful Grand Duchess, who placed her motor car across the bridge by
which the Germans entered her internationally guaranteed independent
state. The German pretext was that since Luxemburg railways were German
controlled, they were required for the transport of troops. Preparations
were then made for a rapid advance through the Ardennes upon the Central
Meuse, to form in order upon the left of Von Buelow's army. A part of the
Fifth Army was to be detached for operations against the French fortress
of Verdun.

The Sixth Army was concentrated at Strassburg in Alsace, under General
von Heeringen. As inspector of the Prussian Guards he bore a very high
military reputation. For the time being General von Heeringen's part was
to remain in Alsace, to deal with a possibly looked for strong F