Also, the Russian assault required strong lines of communication, supply and good mobility, qualities which the Russian army lacked in drastic amounts. Though the first stages of the invasion of East Prussia had gone well for the Russian forces, the two generals, who held each other in strong disregard, failed to maintain the communication between the two Russian armies. Seizing the advantage, the German commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff struck at the isolated army of Samsonov, whose advanced stretched across nearly 60 miles. Taking a calculated risk, Ludendorff not only used the three divisions he had pulled off of guarding against Rennenkampf, but he also pulled the rest away from Gumbinnen, leaving only a small screening force of calvary, to try to keep Rennenkampf from moving.
#BATTLE OF TANNENBERG 1914 FULL#
These messages would continue throughout the battles which followed, allowing the German forces to know the full measure of their enemy, a nearly perfect position for the German leaders to be in. Now the German’s received a gift from the two Russian armies, as the beginning of a massive amount of uncoded Russian communications were intercepted and the German forces learned that Rennenkampf was not going to be moving from his position near Gumbinnen. Ludendorff would immediately also accept Hoffman’s recommendation with only a few slight modifications from the original plan. On the 23rd of August, Prittwitz was replaced by General Paul von Hindenburg and his chief of staff, Erich Ludendorff. Prittwitz though, was not sure of his choice and he also campaigned heavily for the tactical withdrawal of German forces from East Prussia. The German commander of the 8th army, General von Prittwitz, meanwhile approved a plan proposed by a Lieutenant Colonel Hoffman to strike at the left flank of the Samsonov’s army, with the help of three divisions of the German army being moved in, by rail, to assist from Gumbinnen. Schultz was now forced to retreat to Tannenberg and the two Russian armies were doing what they were supposed to up until now, showing early promise in their offensive and forcing the German military command to take troops away from the western assault on France. Meanwhile Samsonov’s forces had crossed the border into East Prussia, on August 22nd, where the Russian Second army had defeated the German 10th corps under their commander Schultz. Coming off a victory in the Battle of Gumbinnen on August 20th, where a German counterattack, consisting of eight divisions of the German Eighth army had been repulsed by Rennenkampf’s First army, the Russians looked poised to dominate the conflict in East Prussia. Of the two Russian armies, the First army was under the command of General P.K Rennenkampf and the Second was under the command of General A. Thus it was that two Russian armies would move into German East Prussia, with their ultimate goal being the city of Königsberg. With the onset of the First World War and the rapid German push into France, the Russians were requested to open a second front in Eastern Germany. Occuring in the early days of World War I, the Battle of Tannenberg was fought between August 26th and 30th of 1914. Eighth Army Corps (tranferred to command of Hindenburg on August 23, 1914).First Army Corps under Rennenkampf (did not actively participate).Second Army Corps under Samsonov (actively participated).While the Germans did heavy casualties this battle represented one of the greatest German victories ever.įought On: August 26 - 30, 1914 ( World War I) The result of this was the death of some 30,000 Russian troops and the capture of about 90,000. The right flank would suffer a similar fate.
/battle-of-grunwald-large-56a61c1f5f9b58b7d0dff668.jpg "battle of tannenberg 1914")
The left Russian flank ended up taking a horrible beating and became encircled. The Russian plan was a basic pincer maneuver, but the two sides were never able to attack at the same time. Information was extremely important in a battle and the Germans had more than they could ever have planned for. They were unable to lay down their own communication lines and had to use the wireless in the open with simple encryption if any. The latter would play the most important part in their downfall. When the Cossacks started to near the German borders they were already having major problems with supplies and especially communications. While the Germans made their share of mistakes, the Russian campaign ran across problems from the start. The first major battle between Germany and Russia in WWI in August, 1914.
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