Global InformationBattle of Tannenberg information
| Battle of Tannenberg | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the East Prussian campaign of the Eastern Front in World War I | |||||||
 Russian prisoners of war after the battle | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 German Empire |
 Russian Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff Max Hoffmann Hermann von François |
Alexander Samsonov † Yakov Zhilinsky[a] | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
|
VIII Army |
II Army | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
153,000[1] 294 machine guns 728 guns and howitzers |
180,000[1] 384 machine guns 612 guns and howitzers | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
21–30 August: 13,873+ [2]
Other estimate: about 30,000 dead and wounded[3][4][5][6] |
70,000–90,000 killed, wounded, captured[7][8][9][10] See casualties | ||||||
The Battle of Tannenberg, also known as the Second Battle of Tannenberg, was fought between Russia and Germany between 23 and 30 August 1914, the first month of World War I. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army and the suicide of its commanding general, Alexander Samsonov. A series of follow-up battles (First Masurian Lakes) destroyed most of the First Army as well and kept the Russians off balance until the spring of 1915.
The battle is particularly notable for fast rail movements by the German Eighth Army, enabling them to concentrate against each of the two Russian armies in turn, first delaying the First Army and then destroying the Second before once again turning on the First days later. It is also notable for the failure of the Russians to encode their radio messages, broadcasting their daily marching orders in the clear, which allowed the Germans to make their movements with the confidence they would not be flanked.
The almost miraculous outcome brought considerable prestige to Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and his rising staff-officer Erich Ludendorff. Although the battle actually took place near Allenstein (Olsztyn), Hindenburg named it after Tannenberg, 30 km (19 mi) to the west, in order to avenge the Teutonic Knights' defeat at the First Battle of Tannenberg 500 years earlier.
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- ^ a b Hastings 2013, p. 281.
- ^ Sanitätsbericht über das deutsche Heer im Weltkriege 1914/1918, III. Band, Berlin 1934, S. 36
- ^ Gordon Kerr, A Short History of the First World War: Land, Sea and Air, 1914–1918 (2014)
- ^ Nigel West Historical Dictionary of World War I Intelligence (2014) p. 310
- ^ Journal Studies in Intelligence vol. 50, №2 (2006) p. 16
- ^ (Russian) First World War
- ^ (Russian) First World War 1914–1918
- ^ (Russian Book) S.Kulichkin On the fronts of the First World War (2014)
- ^ Russian Association of Historians WWI
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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