The Battle of Tannenberg

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The Battle of Tannenberg
By Cadet Esparza
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• The Battle of Tannenberg of 1914 was a decisive
  conflict between Russia and Germany in the first
  days of World War I.
• The Russian 1st and 2nd Armies and the German 8th
  Army fought from August 17 to September 2, 1914.

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• The Russian armies crossed into East Prussia with
  Königsberg as their goal.
• At first, the battle appeared to go well for the
  Russians, with the German's first counterattack
  repulsed on August 20.
• The German theatre commander, General Maximilian
  von Prittwitz, was sacked when he attempted to
  completely abandon East Prussia to the Russians.

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• While replacements were in route taken from the
  western front, the 8th Army's Chief of
  Operations, Max Hoffmann, redeployed the army.
• Hoffmann's plan left a screening force to delay
  the Russian 1st Army which was approaching from
  the east, and set a trap for the Russian 2nd Army
  which was moving up from the south.

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Alexander Samsonov (1858-1914), who oversaw the
Russian military disaster at the Battle of
Tannenberg, saw initial service in the Russian
army as a cavalry officer.
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• The German field commander, General Hermann von
  Francois, allowed the 2nd Army to advance, and
  then cut them off from their already tenuous
  supply route.
• This forced massive surrenders, and saw the
  almost complete destruction of the 2nd Army near
  Frogenau.
• General Erich Ludendorff, the chief of staff for
  new theatre commander Field-Marshal Paul von
  Hindenburg dated the official dispatch reporting
  the victory from the nearby village of Tannenberg
  (Stebark), and the battle is thus known to
  history.

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The German victory compelled Rennenkampf to
withdraw his army from East Prussia, and thus
cleared German territory of invaders. The
Russians remained on the defensive along the
German front for the rest of the war.
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• Tannenberg took its name from a large wood behind
  the battlefield into which the two central corps
  were driven and surrounded by the Germans

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The End