the retreat had become a rout and even the 65-year-old Mackensen was swept along when he tried to personally rally his fleeing troops. both divisions of August von Mackensen’s XVII Corps had been defeated and forced to retreat by 5 p.m. Here the Russian III Corps reacted quickly, giving ground in the center but holding firm on the flanks to draw the Germans into a salient.īy 3 p.m. The German XVIII Corps, having marched through the night and conducted no reconnaissance, attacked in the center two and a half hours after I Corps.
Its neighboring 28th Infantry Division quickly refused its own flank, however, and stabilized the Russian position. The Germans opened their attack before dawn, with a heavy artillery bombardment followed by a frontal assault that broke the Russian 28th Infantry Division. I Corps found the Russian right flank open, as the Russian cavalry corps that should have been screening the infantry had wandered off on the previous day. XVII and I Reserve Corps arrived even later than anticipated thanks to the need to navigate roads choked by fleeing German civilian refugees.įrançois (right) and Richard von Conta of 1st Division (left), spring 1914. And so the German Eighth Army courted disaster by undertaking to fight three separate battles against the Russians. The other two German corps could not arrive in time to join I Corps’ dawn attack, and so Prittwitz ordered them to attack piecemeal as they reached the battlefield. Prittwitz had no intention of allowing the Russians to rest and had ordered an attack by I Corps along with XVII Corps, I Reserve Corps and several smaller independent units. The Russians moved forward on the 19th, but supply delays and continued disorganization caused Rennenkampf to order a halt for the 20th. What reports did come from the cavalry had to be sent first to First Army headquarters and then back to the corps staffs. The Russians had a huge edge in cavalry, but almost all of it was stationed on the flanks of First Army, doing little to assist the advance, while very few horsemen scouted the ground in front of the advancing infantry. Russian casualties topped 6,000 against roughly 1,000 for the Germans.įrançois finally withdrew, but the Russians did not resume their advance until late on the 18th. Improbably, this Battle of Stallupönen resulted in a German victory, stalling the Russian advance for several days as Rennenkampf re-ordered his divisions. But the key moment came when Adalbert von Falk of the German 2nd Division marched to the sound of the guns and outflanked the Russian 27th Division, which collapsed amid widespread panic. François got good service out of his corps’ heavy howitzers, while the Russian artillery support - the dozen 122mm howitzers attached to III Corps - does not appear to have fired at all during the day’s events. The Germans attacked the Russian III Corps in the center of Rennenkampf’s line, inflicting heavy casualties and driving it back.
Battle of tannenberg ww2 plus#
I Corps commander Hermann von François decided to fight the six Russian division plus on rifle brigade that had crossed the border with his two German divisions. Prittwitz decided to avoid the risk and ordered his front-line forces to fall back.Īnd now the German “mission tactics” brought Eighth Army close to disaster.
It would be a risky move if the Germans were defeated, or simply tied up with First Army too long, Second Army would have the opportunity to trap them. That gave the Germans a brief window to attack First Army, defeat it, and turn on Second Army. Almost immediately they ran into strong German resistance.Īt Eight Army headquarters, Prittwitz and his staff had a good idea of Russian intentions, and knew that First Army would likely enter German territory some days ahead of its sister formation. With Second Army still some days from crossing the frontier, First Army moved forward on a broad front to find the Germans and bring them to battle.Ĭavalry probes had already begun on 6 August, leading to a few minor clashes, but the bulk of First Army crossed the border on 17 August. Pavel von Rennenkampf’s First Army barely made good the Russian promise to invade Germany on the fifteenth day of mobilization, marching out of its concentration areas on 14 August 1914.
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