A more bloody Franco-Prussian War

[ChaosNDiscord]

Out of curiosity, what if the Franco-Prussian war were a more bloody affair for the Prussians. They still win, but not as crushingly as OTL and with many more losses due to better French adoption of defensive weaponry (say French versions of the Maxim gun and so forth being used somewhat better).

If this drove Prussia from the cult of the offensive and made its military adopt a more defensive strategy, what effect might this have on the TL? Would Germany still have a Schlieffen Plan in the event of another war with France? Would Germany go defensive in the west? Would there even be another WWI?

Please feel free to expound beyond my questions if you wish. I'm curious as to what effects people think this might have.

 

[Anaxagoras]

It was pretty bloody IOTL. The French did better on a tactical level in the Franco-Prussian War than they generally get credit for. The Prussians suffered heavy casualties in many of the battles.

 

[MarshalBraginsky]

I could think of having the French Army use their volley gun a lot better, as in better maintenance and to position it in front of the cannons.

 

[BigWillyG]

I could think of having the French Army use their volley gun a lot better, as in better maintenance and to position it in front of the cannons.

Having an older French general think to use the milletruse like older smooth bore battalion guns at cannister range rather than positioning them with the rifled cannon farther back could have made a big difference.

 

[MarshalBraginsky]

I'm not sure if the French Army also had gatling guns, but they could also have been positioned the same way the canister guns should have been positioned.

 

[wolf_brother]

The problem with the Mitrailleuse is that it was such a recently developed state-secret weapon that almost none of the French commanders even knew about it. There were only some two hundred of them altogether, and the artillery teams that were on paper designated to use them were still being assembled and trained when the war broke out. Hell, iirc one of the French commanders (perhaps either Bazaine or Mac-Mahon) later claimed that he had never even heard of the mitrailleuse until he saw one being pushed passed him.

This isn't to say that they weren't effective weapons though. They basically won the Battle of Gravelotte for the French, and the Prussians were so terrified of them they called them Höllenmaschine.

 

[Porsenna]

The problem with the Mitrailleuse is that it was such a recently developed state-secret weapon that almost none of the French commanders even knew about it.

Would delaying the Franco-Prussian war by, let's say, a couple of years be enough time to produce more Mitrailleuses and integrate them better in the French doctrine? Would it make for a better performance by the French?

 

[ChaosNDiscord]

Supposing they had more or they were better integrated then?

While the F-P war was bloody, the French had something like 140,000 dead and 140,000 wounded while the Prussians had 30,000 dead and 90,000 wounded (these numbers are from Wiki, I don't have my books with me). That just reinforced the Prussian belief that the offensive was the way to go - and it pushed the French into that same belief as well (which is why prior to the germans swinging through Belgium in WWI, French war plans called for an offensive posture in a conflict with Germany).

Supposing the Prussians suffered more casualties regardless of whether its better French tactics or weaponry or just dumb luck, and it DID cause a shift in strategic thinking on the part of the Prussian General Staff to adopt a more defensive strategy in future conflicts. What would the effects be?