Battle of Tannenberg (August 26 – August 30, 1914)
The Battle of Tannenberg, initially called the Battle of Allenstein by the German media was fought between the German Empire and the Russian Empire during World War 1 near Allenstein (today’s Olsztyn, Poland) from August 26 to August 30, 1914. It was renamed as the Battle of Tannenberg for propaganda purposes and to counter the Battle of Tannenberg (also known as the Battle of Grunwald) which took place in 1410 and resulted in decisive defeat of the Teutonic Knights by the Polish-Lithuanian Union. The battle that was fought during World War 1 was in reality about 30 kilometers (18.4 miles) west of the site of the 1410 battle.
The Schlieffen Plan, the German General Staff’s strategic plan for the war based on presumption that the Russian Empire will need time to mobilize and give the German Army enough time for a quick victory over France. And once France would be defeated, they could concentrate all they forces against Russia. At the outbreak of World War 1, the German forces were therefore concentrated on the west rather than on the east. However, the Russians mobilized faster than expected and invaded East Prussia as early as August 19, 1914, forcing the German Eight Army that was commanded by Maximilian von Prittwitz to withdraw. The German Chief of Staff, Helmuth von Moltke quickly replaced Prittwitz with Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff who made a daring maneuver that proved successful.
Hindenburg and Ludendorff intercepted Russian messages revealing that the commander of the Russian First Army, Paul von Rennenkampf was not planning a rapid advance towards Köningsberg. The German commanders quickly realized that the Russian generals were poorly coordinated and decided to attack Alexander Samsonov’s Second Army which was moving towards Tannenberg. Almost the entire German Eight Army was rapidly sent by train against Samsonov and after five days of fighting, the Russian Second Army was completely destroyed. The Russians suffered about 30,000 to 50,000 casualties, while over 90,000 Russians were taken prisoners. The Germans, on the other hand, suffered about 10,000 casualties.
The Russians failed to take advantage of their numerical superiority - the First Army numbered about 210,000 men and the Second Army about 206,000 men - over the German Eight Army that numbered about 150,000 men because Rennenkampf was too far away to be able to assist Samsonov. Hindenburg and Ludendorff were rightfully hailed as heroes after the Battle of Tannenberg because the German Eight Army was still outnumbered by the Samsonov’s Second Army, however, the Germans were also very lucky to intercept the Russian messages and that the two Russian generals who disliked each other were poorly coordinated unless their chances of victory would have been slim.
