32? The Great War was what the world expected at the moment mobili- zation was ordered. German mobilization was sure to be far more rapid than the Russian. Hence all French military writers were agreed that the German plan would be to direct practically all its field army upon France with the expectation of overwhelming French re- sistance before the Russians could come up. Thus French writers believed that German mobilization would be in Alsace-Lorraine, on the line between Metz and Strassburg, and that the mass of the Ger- man army would be ready to move across the fron- tier at Nancy by the tenth day. French military writers estimated that by the tenth day Germany would have on a narrow front of one hundred miles and just east of the frontier twenty-three army corps, or substantially 900,000 men. This number would be materially lessened if Russian mobilization proceeded more rapidly, be- cause this left but two German army corps to face the Russian forces. To face this host the French writers asserted France would have, based upon her three great for- tresses, Toul, Verdun and Epinal, which, save for a single gap, constituted a line of permanent works from the Luxemburg frontier to the Vosges, eight- een army corps, two of the twenty-one which make up the field army of France having been detached to observe the Italian frontier, and one, having its station in North Africa, likely to be delayed in ar-