Post-war writing by senior German officers like Hermann von Kuhl , Gerhard Tappen , Wilhelm Groener and the historians led by the former ( Lieutenant-Colonel ) Wolfgang Förster , managed Preventing_or_letting to establish a commonly accepted narrative that it was the failure to follow the blueprint by Moltke the Younger , rather than German strategic miscalculation , that condemned Judgment_communication the belligerents to four years of attrition warfare instead of the quick , decisive conflict it `` should '' have been .