The Russians were to be held in position by a frontal attack, and if successful, Ludendorff planned further attacks on Osowiec and Grodno. The experiences of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Masurian Lakes had shown that a great and swift victory in battle could be achieved if the enemy were attacked from two sides." Ludendorff's target for the German attack was the Russian Tenth Army, with a northern thrust from Tilsit through Wladislawow to Kalvarija, and a southern thrust from the Spirding-See near Bialla to Raigrod and then to Augustowo. Whilst he remained convinced of the primacy of the Western Front, the failure to win a decisive victory there left him unable to counter the arguments of Hindenburg and Ludendorff.might be able to inflict a sufficiently heavy defeat upon Russia to end the conflict in the east." Ludendorff wrote, "It was agreed with OHL to use the four corps to strike against the enemy forces deployed against Eighth Army as soon as they arrived. Further south General Borojevic von Bojna would attempt to relieve the besieged fortress at Przemyśl.Īccording to Prit Buttar, "It was with considerable reluctance that Falkenhayn agreed to the deployment of four additional corps on the Eastern Front in early 1915. They would be led by General Alexander von Linsingen. The Austro-Hungarians would emerge from the Carpathian Mountain passes to attack the Russians by driving toward Lemberg. The Germans, led by Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East Paul von Hindenburg, would attack eastward from their front line in western Poland, which had been occupied after the Battle of Łódź in 1914, toward the Vistula River and also in East Prussia in the vicinity of the Masurian Lakes (site of the 1914 Battle of the Masurian Lakes). The Central Powers planned four offensives on their Eastern Front in early 1915. The offensive was intended to advance beyond the Vistula River and perhaps knock Russia out of the war. The Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, also known as the Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes, was the northern part of the Central Powers' offensive on the Eastern Front in the winter of 1915. Showalter, Tannenberg: Clash of Empires, Hew Strachan, The First World War (Volume I) Erik Durschmied, The Hinge Factor.East Prussia, German Empire (present-day Poland)ĥ0-146 000 died, wounded and prisoners By the evening, Ludendoff realized an opportunity had been missed most of the Russians would soon cross back over their frontier. On September 11, Ludendorff ordered Von François and Mackensen to aid XI Corps rather than pursue their flanking attack. They had arrived too late for Tannenberg (and would be solely missed at the Marne), but they now found themselves suffering under Russian attacks after their exhausting transcontinental journey. By this point, they had received reinforcements from the Western Front in the form of XI Corps. However, Rennenkampf was more cautious and began withdrawing his troops on the morning of September 10. Von François’ I Corps once again tried to outflank the Russians on their left flank, and had some success, capturing some thousands of prisoners. Now Rennenkampf faced the whole of the Eighth Army by himself. Hoffmann correctly predicted the pattern would repeat itself in East Prussia, and by the end of August Second Army was lost and Samsonov was dead while Rennenkampf stood by.Īlso at the train station was a young Captain Pershing, who would later command the American Expeditionary Force in France. The conflict was precipitated by Rennenkampf’s division failing to come to the aid of Samsonov’s a few days earlier. ![]() ![]() This deliberate insult soon turned into a full-fledged fight, with the generals rolling in the mud and tearing off each others’ medals. Max Hoffmann, deputy chief of staff for the Eighth Army, had been an observer accompanying the Russian Army when, at a train platform in Mukden, Manchuria, he saw Samsonov slap Rennenkampf across the face. It is highly likely this had something to do with the personal animosity between Rennenkampf and Samsonov dating back ten years to the Russo-Japanese War. Rennenkampf had done little to threaten the German rear during the Battle of Tannenberg, which had allowed the Germans to pull off their brilliant victory. September 11 1914, Gumbinnen–Despite the German Eighth Army’s great victory at Tannenberg over Samsonov’s Second Army, East Prussia was still under threat from Rennenkampf’s First Army that had bested them earlier in August. After his failures in East Prussia, he was dismissed in 1915, arrested by Kerensky’s government in 1917, and shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918. ![]() ![]() His personal animosity with Samsonov may have contributed to the latter’s defeat and subsequent suicide at Tannenberg. Paul von Rennenkampf (1854 - 1918), commander of the Russian First Army. Battle of the Masurian Lakes Russians Withdraw from East Prussia
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