The+Battle+of+Tannenberg+and+the+Masurian+Lakes

=﻿ The Battles of Tannenburg and the Masurian Lakes=

The battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes occured due to the Russian offensive into Prussia with the aim to attack and "pinch off" the East Prussia salient, and destroy the German Eighth Army in the field. Due to the German Schlieffin Plan to attack France, the majority of its forces were concentrated on the Western Front, leaving only von Prittwitz's Eighth Army to hold back the Russians. Thirty Russian infantry divisions with an additional eight cavalry divisions faced off against eleven German infantry divisions and one cavalry division.

There were two main corridors of attack:
 * 1) Toward Konigsberg (Kalingrad) in the north
 * 2) From the south (Russian Poland) into Germany's rear east of Thorn (Torun) by the town of Tannenberg (Stebark)

These two attack lines were separated by the Masurian Lakes.

The German General Prittwitz was dismissed and replaced by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff as Chief of Staff when Prittwitz ordered the retreat from the Battle of Gumbinnen, which would have surrendered East Prussia. With the new leaders of the army, a new plan of attack was devised by Maximillian Hoffman to reverse the decision to withdraw. These were:
 * 1) I Corps, led by Hermann von Francois, were transported southwest in order to meet the left wing Samsonov's Second Army
 * 2) Two other corps were to move south to meet the Samsonov's right wing
 * 3) The 1st Cavalry Division would be a screen to face Rennenkampf's First Army

**Battle of Tannenberg**
Aug. 26th - 30th, 1914

Despite being severely outnumbered, German forces were able to deal with each of the two Russian armies in turn due to the failing of Rennenkampf and Samsonov to coordinate their attacks. The German Eighth Army was lead by Paul von Hindenberg instead of Prittwitz, as he had been earlier dismissed after the German defeat at Gumbinnen by Rennenkampf. media type="youtube" key="JidDI60nBqw?fs=1" height="323" width="382" align="right" Maximillian Hoffman had devised a plan of attack against the Russians. His plan involved the I Corps to be transported southwest to meet Samsonov's left wing while two other corps would move south to meet his right. This would enclose the Second Army and cut them off.

Hoffman, on his way back from a meeting with Francois about the attack on the Russian armies, recieved two new radio intercepts. The first, sent by Rennenkampf to Samsonov, revealed the distance between the two armies and that his marching plans were not towards the Second Army but to the west. This meant that Rennenkampf's First Army would not interfere with the German's plans to assault Samsonov.

The second intercept was sent by Samsonov and it too detailed that his marching plans were to continue northwest, as he thought that the Germans were withdrawing to Tannenberg.

On August 26th, the German Eighth Army delievered the first attack against Sansonov. They used a plan of encirclement and attacked Sansonov's left flank, which, by August 29th, had cut off Sansonov's retreat. Seeing his defeat, Samsonov comitted suicide, leaving two and a half Russian corps to dissolve into leaderless mobs, and part of a Russian division hemmed in by Bossau Lake drowned. The battle was over by August 30th.

The victory at Tannenberg by the Germans saved East Prussia from invasion. The shattered Russian Second Army suffered 50,000 casualties, a loss of 92,000 prisoners and 400 guns. Of the original 150,000 men within the division, only 10,000 survived the battle.

Russian carelessness contributed as much to the German victory as German ingenuity.



**Battle of the Masurian Lakes**
Sept. 9th - 14th, 1914

Following the Second army's defeat at Tannenberg, Paul von Hindenburg, commander of the Eighth German army, lead his forces to defeat the second of the two Russian armies that were invading Germany. Lead by Rennenkampf, the First Army had been marching through the Insterburg gap, which lay between Konigsburg and the Masurian Lakes.

On Sept. 7, two days before the battle, the German forces initiated a preliminary attack on the Russian army scouts. With a 3-to-1 advantage, the Germans slaughtered the scouts of the First Army. At the same time, the remaining troops of the Second Army were at this point in disarray without a leader due to the suicide of Samsonov. In response to these two issues, Rennenkampf ordered the First and Second armies retreat to form a defensive line so that the two disorganized forces could regroup. In doing this, the First Army lost quite a bit of land taken in their initial march, and their line now only stretched from Angerburg to the southeastern edge of the Baltic Sea.

On Sept. 9 1914, Rennenkampf's forces were pushed back even further by the relentless German army. Rennenkampf ordered counter-fire in order to help his troops to withdraw. After losing even more land, Rennenkampf made his stand. For the next five days, bloody warfare occurred between the two forces. Ultimately, Russian forces were ejected from eastern Prussia. The battle lead to heavy losses on both sides, with 125,000 dead on the Russian side and 40,000 on the German side. Although Russia lost significantly more troops than Germany, Germany's already thinly spread military suffered heavily from this loss in manpower. In addition, the First Army was not completely annihilated and escaped due to skillful retreat tactics on Rennenkampf's part. Eastern Prussia was defended for a time, but the area was eventually retaken later on in the war by Russian forces at the Battle of Niemen.



Results of the Two Battles
In both battles, the Russians suffered an overwhelming total of 300,000 casualties, as well as the loss of 650 guns, in comparison to 100,000 German casualties. Russia's allies wondered whether these losses meant the defeat of the Russian army, but its sheer size ensured its survival. Despite Russian casualties numbering approximately three times greater than German casualties, the German military suffered as well. Unlike Russia, Germany was fighting on many fronts and payed heavily for such a loss in manpower.



**Important Figures of the Battles**
__Russian Figures__
 * General Paul von Rennenkampf** - Commander of the Russian First Army. After being criticized by Samsonov for his conduct at the Battle of Mukden (1905), Rennenkampf held a grudge against him that carried on into 1914 when he refused to aid Samsonov during battle if he had a justified reason not to. This was seen during the Battle of Tannenberg where despite knowing of the Second Army's plight, Rennenkampf did nothing (later leading to a questioning of his loyalties by historians).


 * General Alexander Samsonov** - Commander of the Russian Second Army. Due to his personal vendetta with Rennenkampf, his Second Army found themselves encircled by the German forces which resulted in a terrible defeat. Unable to report the disaster to Tsar Nicholas II he committed suicide in the forest, thus giving Russia someone to pinpoint the blame to.

__German Figures__ **General Paul von Hindenburg** - Commander of the German Eigth Army. He had retired in 1911 but was recalled to replace Prittwitz in the Battle of Tannenberg following Prittwitz' earlier failure at Gumbinnen. He lead his troops to victory over the First and Second Russian Armies.


 * Erich Ludendorff -** Developed the plan that lead to the German victory of the Battle of the Masurian Lakes. Though he had developed this plan, it was Hindenburg who lead it.


 * Maximillian Hoffman -** Deputy Chief of Staff of the German Eighth Army for the duration of the two battles, Maximillian Hoffman was stationed to defend East Prussia. Through intercepted radio messages, he knew of the lack of communication between the Russian First and Second armies, and was thus able to devise a plan for an encirclement victory of the Battle of Tannenberg, as well as for the second victory at the Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

Questions
1) Why did Hoffman's plan of attack against the Russian Second Army succeed? What were the elements that led to the Russian defeat? 2) What was Russia's aim in invading East Prussia? Was this achieved? Why or why not? 3) What were the two main corridors of attack? Which army took each attack line? 4) How did the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of Masurian Lakes differ? What different tactics did both sides use? 5) What were the results of each of the two battles? Which side won? At what cost?

Sources (Citations)
__Websites:__ [] [] [] [] []

[] (Map of Battle of Tannenberg) (Tannenberg Russian prisoners picture) (Map of Battle of the Masurian Lakes) [] (German soldiers at Masurian Lakes battle) [] (Image of Rennenkampf) [] (Image of Hindenburg)

__Books:__ Hughes, Matthew, and William J. Philpott. //The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the First World War//. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.