Battle of Tannenberg
The Battle of Tannenberg () was a decisive defeat and rout of two Imperial Russian armies (de) invading the German Empire in August 1914. It is also known as the Second Battle of Tannenberg, the first being the 1410 Battle of Tannenberg between the villages of Grünfelde and Tannenberg during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. By these vicories General-Oberst von Hindenburg, as he was then, and Major General von Ludendorff achieved their greatness and popularity in Germany.
History
In the opening phases of World War I, the French had urged the Russians to take action to relieve the German pressure on them, and the Russian First Army under General Paul Georg von Rennenkampf (a Baltic baron) invaded East Prussia on 17 August 1914 in the direction of Königsberg (a fortress city). Three days later he defeated a German force at Gumbinnen, about ten miles inside the frontier. The insufficient German forces in this part of East Prussia fell back. The ageing German Eighth Army (de) commander, Max von Prittwitz (de), was replaced by his brother-in-law, General Paul von Hindenburg, who had been brought out of retirement, with Major-General Erich Ludendorff as his Chief-of Staff.
The Russian Second Army under General Aleksandr Samsonov had also crossed the East Prussian frontier on August 20th and the Germans decided to deal with this force first before the slow-moving Rennenkampf and the known fact that the two Russian generals were unwilling to co-operate with each other. The German plan was aided by the fifty-mile chain of the Masurian Lakes which formed a natural barrier between the two Russian armies.The German First Corps were now detraining west of Tannenberg, commanded by General Hermann von François (de). Samsonov hurried with undue haste to move forward but was forced to halt on August 25th due to the near exhaustion of his men marching in scorching heat. The following day General von François was ordered by Ludendorff to attack and there was fierce fighting. Generals August von Mackensen and Otto von Below drove Samsonov back. By the evening the Russian position was becoming untenable and almost hopelessly confused; one Russian division was pinned down around Lake Bössau. Nevertheless Samsonov decided to continue the battle as a holding action until von Rennenkampf could arrive to turn the tables on the Germans.
On August 27th von Francois hit the Russians with his heavy artillery. They were hurled back from their positions suffering horrendous casualties in the process. The Commander of the Russian North-western Army Group, Yakov Zhilinsky, now ordered von Rennenkampf to move forward but seemingly without urgency. Von Francois although hemmed in on three sides, now moved to cut off Samsonov's retreat. Ludendorff was meanwhile haunted by the spectre of von Rennenkampf's "formidable host". He need not have worried. Von Rennenkampf was moving forward so ponderously as to be useless.
Samsonov's position was now desperate. Only two of Samsonov's corps were any longer able to fight with any effect and communications and supplies were badly disrupted. A general retreat on August 29-30 developed into a cataclysmic disaster and countless soldiers were killed by German soldiers who were combing the forests. One Russian column suddenly found itself under searchlight beams and facing machine-guns and cannon-fire. The Germans took ninety-two thousand prisoners and at least thirty thousand were killed. German losses were between ten and fifteen thousand. Late on August 29th General Samsonov managed to slip away from his staff officers and shot himself.
Reinforced by two German Corps from the Western Front who had arrived by train, von Hindenburg was now able to defeat von Rennenkampf, who lost between thirty and forty-five thousand men as prisoners. He was, however, able to retreat some way with the bulk of his troops. In the Battle of the Masurian Lakes, September 8-9, Rennenkampf was driven out of East Prussia. He himself fled in ignominy by car to the fortress of Kovno (Kaunas) eighty miles away in Lithuania. (He would be murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.)
These great, imaginative and connected victories of the German army against much larger forces were Christened the Battle of Tannenberg (after the 1410 battle where the Teutonic Knights were defeated by a much larger multitude of Slavs, Lithuanians and Tartars etc.) and it was a valuable lift to German morale. East Prussia had been saved, and von Hindenburg became a folk hero - despite the military strategic plans being overseen by a brilliant staff officer, Max Hoffman, and won in large measure because of the initiative and sure judgement of von Francois.
Tannenberg Memorial
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An enormous memorial (Reichsehrenmal Tannenberg), with mausoleums, was subsequently erected at Tannenberg in Hohenstein. On 31 August 1924, the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone took place in Hohenstein, attended by von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff and a total of 60,000 people, most of whom were veterans of the battle exactly ten years ago. On 18 September 1927, Paul von Hindenburg, who was almost eighty years old and had been Reichspräsident since May 1925, inaugurated the monument.
- More than 100,000 people gathered to witness the ceremony. Six miles of veterans lined up to do honor to their old military chief. Some of them were dressed in field grey; others were resplendent in plumed helmets and gold-braided tunics of imperial days. [...] And with memories of his famed battle "thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks of Vallom-brosa," Germany's greatest warrior showed no sign of emotion as he approached the mammoth octagon memorial, surmounted by huge, lofty towers. Said he to the dense mass of people around him: "The Tannenberg national monument serves primarily as a memorial in commemoration of those who fell in freeing their Fatherland from enemy invasion. Not only in their memory, but also in honor of my living comrades, I feel it is my duty here on this occasion to say the following: "The charges that Germany is guilty of the greatest of all wars, we, the German people, repudiate in all its phases. Not envy, hate, nor eagerness for conquest caused us to resort to weapons. War was a last resort for us, and the requiring of the greatest sacrifices of the entire people was the last means of maintaining our prestige against a host of enemies. "With pure hearts we marched out to defend the Fatherland, and with pure hands the German Army wielded the sword. Germany is ever ready to prove it before impartial judges." Far away in Doorn the ex-Kaiser, too, bethought him of the Battle of Tannenberg and recalled that if Hindenberg and Ludendorff were its heroes, it was only because he had sent them there. With magnificent effrontery he wired the President of the German Republic: "At today's dedication of the memorial of the Battle of Tannenberg I am in deep and unforgettable gratitude with all those who participated in this gigantic Cannae.[1] "Instructed by me to free East Prussia from the enemy, your and General von Ludendorff's superior leadership, supported by the devoted cooperation of your subordinates, who were most of them trained in the school of my old chief of the general staff, Count Schlieffen, succeeded in gaining a splendid victory with our incomparable and brave troops. "Tannenberg showed the world again what German power was capable of under strong and definite leadership. May the heroic spirit of Tannenberg penetrate and unite our divided nation. Then it will achieve wonders and the brave men to whom this memorial is dedicated will not have fallen in vain. Then, with God's help, Germany will rise again. "WILLIAM, IMPERATOR, REX."[2]
All over Germany there were great rejoicings and preposterous prognostications; many saw in the President's words the beginning of a real move to clear Germany of the charge of being solely guilty for starting the war. Reichspräsident Generalfeldmarchall Paul von Hindenburg was buried there in August 1934 in tower 2 (world war tower) and was moved to the new Hindenburg Tomb in the Hindenburg Tower on 2 October 1935.
See also
External links
- Battle of Tannenberg, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Sources
- Shermer, Dr. David, World War I, with an introduction by A.J.P. Taylor, Octobus Books, London, 1973, pps: 44-49, ISBN: 0-7064-0245-6.
References
- ↑ Cannae was where Hannibal scored his famed victory over the Romans in 216 B. C.
- ↑ Tannenberg Monument, TIME, 1927