Things were not entirely as they seemed to the German commanders in Berlin. They were replaced by Paul von Hindenburg, called out of retirement, and Erich Ludendorff as his Chief of Staff. When he heard this, Helmuth von Moltke, the German Army Chief of Staff, recalled von Prittwitz and his deputy, von Waldersee, to Berlin. Worried about his loss at Gumbinnen and the continued advance of the Russian Second to the south, von Prittwitz ordered a retreat to the Vistula, effectively abandoning eastern Prussia. The Battle of Gumbinnen ended with the Germans forced to retreat, in many cases via rail, to positions to the south of Königsberg. A counterattack planned for the 20th had a fair chance of succeeding, but François, apparently emboldened by his success at Stalluponen, attacked early and ruined the chance for surprise. The German theater commander, General Maximilian von Prittwitz, nevertheless ordered a spoiling retreat towards Gumbinnen. The Battle of Stalluponen, a small engagement by the German I Corps under Hermann von François was initially successful. The Germans had moved up about half of the units of the Eighth Army, reinforced by small groups of the Königsberg garrison, to points to the east of Königsberg near the border. When the war opened, the battle initially went largely according to the Russians' plan. If executed successfully, the Germans would be surrounded. The Russian Second Army under General Alexander Samsonov, located to the south, was to move westward around the Masurian Lakes and then swing north over a hilly area to cut off the Germans, who would by this point be forced into defending the area around Königsberg. The German Eighth Army was in place southwest of Königsberg, while the two available Russian armies were located to the east and south, the latter in what was known as the "Polish Salient." Russian battle plans called for an immediate advance by the First Army under General Paul von Rennenkampf into East Prussia, with Königsberg as their short-term goal. Just prior to the opening of the war, the situation developed largely as pre-war planning had expected.
#Battle of tannenberg 1914 series
In order to delay the Russian forces as long as possible, the entire area around Königsberg, near the Russian border, was heavily fortified with a long series of fieldworks. That said, there was little allowance for anything other than a spoiling retreat while the outcome in the west was decided. This allowed the Germans to garrison Prussia fairly lightly, with a single army, the Eighth. The entire Schlieffen Plan was based on the idea of defeating France and Britain as quickly as possible, and then transporting their armies by train to the eastern front. The Germans likewise, considered the Russians to be their primary threat. The presence of the armies of Austria-Hungary to the south, as well as initially those of Japan, to the east limited Russia's involvement in the beginning. Frustrating this plan was the Russians' lack of a quality railroad network-theirs operated on a different gauge than the German railroad network, meaning that unless the Russians acquired German railroad cars, most of their armies could only be brought to the German border. The numbers were overwhelming in perhaps as little as a month, the Russians could field around ten complete armies, more men than the German Army could muster on both fronts. The Allied battle plan prior to the War had been based on France and the United Kingdom simply halting the German Armies in the west while the huge Russian Armies could be organized and brought to the front. Stalluponen – Gumbinnen – Tannenberg – 1st Lemberg – Krasnik – 1st Masurian Lakes – Przemyśl – Vistula River – Łódź – Bolimov – 2nd Masurian Lakes – Gorlice-Tarnów – Warsaw – Lake Naroch – Brusilov Offensive – Kerensky Offensive
Russia's experience against Germany in World War II would be different, when she succeeded in pushing back the German advance and occupied almost the whole of Eastern Europe, which remained part of the Soviet sphere of influence until the end of the Cold War. Following the Russian revolution of 1917, Russia withdrew from the War.
/battle-of-grunwald-large-56a61c1f5f9b58b7d0dff668.jpg "battle of tannenberg 1914")
The battle is notable particularly for a number of rapid movements of complete corps by train, allowing the German Army to present a single front to both Russian Armies.
A series of follow-up battles kept the Russians off-balance until the spring of 1915. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army. The Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, was a decisive engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire in the first days of The Great War, fought by the Russian First and Second Armies and the German Eighth Army between August 17 and September 2, 1914.
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