In 2009, David Stahel wrote that the Clausewitzian
culminating point (a theoretical watershed at which the strength of a defender surpasses that of an attacker) of the German offensive occurred
before the Battle of the Marne, because the German right (western) flank armies east of Paris, were operating 100 km (62 mi) from the nearest rail-head, requiring week-long round-trips by underfed and exhausted supply horses, which led to the right wing armies becoming disastrously short of ammunition. Stahel wrote that contemporary and subsequent German assessments of Moltke's implementation of
Aufmarsch II West in 1914, did not criticise the planning and supply of the campaign, even though these were instrumental to its failure and that this failure of analysis had a disastrous sequel, when the German armies were pushed well beyond their limits in
Operation Barbarossa, during 1941.
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In 2015, Holger Herwig wrote that Army deployment plans were not shared with the Navy, Foreign Office, the Chancellor, the Austro-Hungarians or the Army commands in Prussia, Bavaria and the other German states. No one outside the Great General Staff could point out problems with the deployment plan or make arrangements. "The generals who did know about it counted on it giving a quick victory within weeks—if that did not happen there was no 'Plan B'"
