Tannenberg: Clash of Empires, 1914 (Cornerstones of Military History)

by Dennis Showalter

  2E. G. “Der Kampf urn Dörfer,” Militär-Wochenblatt, 1881, 30–31; “Gedanken über den Angriff auf befestigte Feldstellungen,” Jahrbücher für die deutsche Armee und Marine, 119 (1899), 295–309.

  3For the attack of Falk’s division cf. Traugott Hoffmann and Ernst Hahn, Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments Graf Dönhoff (7. Ostpreussischen) Nr. 44 1860–1918 (Berlin, 1930), 108–109; Alfred Dieterich, Geschichte des Grenadierregiments König Friedrich der Grosse (3. Ostpreussischen) Nr. 4 (Berlin, 1928), 653–654; and the detailed account in Kurt Hennig, Das Infanterie-Regiment (8. Ostpreussischen) Nr. 45 (Berlin, 1928), 20 ff. The Russian artillery’s role in this sector is presented in General V. Chernavin, “28th Artillery Brigade in the Vicinity of Gumbinnen, Aug. 6–7 (19–20), 1914,” Hoover Institution Archives, Nikolai N. Golovin Collection, Box 13.

  4Franz von Gottberg, Das Grenadier-Regiment Kronprinz (1. Ostpreussischen) Nr. 1 im Weltkriege, Vol. I (Berlin, 1927) 31 ff; Alfred Bülowius and Bruno Hippler, Das Infanterie-Regiment von Boyen (5. Ostpreussischen) Nr. 41 im Weltkriege 1914–1918 (Berlin, 1929), 16–17; and Germany, Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918, Vol II (Berlin, 1925), 87–88.

  5Gerhard Lapp, Das 1. Ostpreussische Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 16 (Berlin, 1928), 15–16; and Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 1, 35–37, are the fullest accounts of this mix-up.

  6For Mackensen’s peacetime career see his Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Wolfgang Foerster (Leipzig, 1938), and Rüdt von Collenberg’s völkisch-popular Mackensen (Berlin, 1935).

  7William Clive, Fighting Mac. The Climb to Disaster of Sir Hector Macdonald (London, 1977), 300.

  8A vivid account of XVII Corps’s night march is Kurt Hesse, Der Feldherr Psychologos (Berlin, 1922), 3 ff. Hesse was a company officer in the 5th Grenadiers, whose regimental history, Alfred Seydel, Das Grenadier-Regiment König Friedrich I (4. Ostpreussisches) Nr. 5 im Weltkriege (Berlin, 1926), 35 ff., is also evocative. Cf. Walter Richter, Das Danziger Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 128, Vol. I (Zeulenroda, 1930), 12–13.

  9Hesse, Feldherr Psychologos, 14–15.

  10Ibid., 16.

  11Mackensen, Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, 36–37; Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg II, 90.

  12Ernst Zipfel, Geschichte des Koniglich Preussischen Husaren-Regiment Fürst Blücher von Wahlstätt (Pommersches) Nr. 5 (Zeulenroda, 1930), 21 ff.

  13Mackensen, Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, 38; Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg II, 90; von Keiser, Geschichte des Inf.-Regis. v.d. Marwitz (8. Pomm.) Nr. 61 im Weltkriege 1914–1918 (Oldenburg, 1928), 11 ff.; Wilhelm Preusser, Das 9. Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 176 im Weltkrieg (Berlin, 1931), 35 ff.; Edmund Schulemann, Das Kulmer Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 141 im Weltkriege (Oldenburg, 1926), 14 ff. General Ardaridi, “Die 27. russische Infanterie-Division in den Kämpfen bei Stallupönen und Gumbinnen am 17. und 20. August, 1914,” Schweizer Monatshefte für Offiziere (Apr.-May 1928) 113–123, 153–163, is an account from the perspective of the formation that bore the brunt of Mackensen’s attack.

  14Richter, IR 128, 13–14.

  15Cf. inter alia the Exerzier-Reglement für die Infanterie von 29. Mai 1906, rev. ed. (Berlin, 1909); Balck, “Das Exerzierreglement für die Infanterie von 29. Mai 1906,” Jahrbücher für die deutsche Armee und Marine, 131 (1906), 111–135; and Otto Schulz, “Gruppenkolonne und Kompagniekolonne,” ibid., 136 (1909), 35–38.

  16See, for example, the description of the death of Major Haupt, commanding 1/128, from the diary of one of his officers, quoted in Richter, IR 128, 15–16.

  17Von Beseler, “Ingenieurkunst und Offensive,” Vierteljahresheft fur Truppen-fuhrung und Heereskunde VII (1910), 362–384; Immanuel, “Der Infanteriepionier im Feldkriege,” Kriegstechnische Zeitschrift XV (1912), 145–157.

  18Seydel, 5. Grenadiere, 38–39.

  19Undated letter of Lt. Wartze, quoted in Schulemann, IR 141, 15–16.

  20Hesse, Feldherr Psychologos, 28–29.

  21Richter, IR 128, 17–18.

  22Joseph Steuer, Das Infanterie-Regiment Generalfeldmarschall von Mackensen (3. Westpreussisches) Nr. 129 im Weltkriege (Oldenburg, 1929), 20 ff.

  23John Ellis, A Social History of the Machine Gun (New York, 1975) is a brief treatment of the human dynamics of the weapon. Cf. also Balck, “Maschinengewehre und ihre Verwendung,” JAM, 132 (1907), 269–288, 393–411.

  24Seydel, Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 5, 40–41; Hesse, Feldherr Psychologos, 33–34.

  25“Bis zur letzten Kartusche,” in Das Ehrenbuch der deutschen Feldartillerie, ed. A. Benary (Berlin, 1930), 251–252, is a vivid account of the fight and fate of 2736.

  260berstabsarzt Leopold, “Der Sanitätsdienst in der ersten Linie,” MW 1903, 26–27.

  27It is worth noting that the “Neumann” of jest and song ultimately evolved from a pathetic figure to a combination of Kilroy and Joe the Grinder. With his rank upgraded and his title changed to fit the times, Sanitätsgefreiter Neumann was credited by the end of World War II with the ability to beat the army system and the watchful gaze of chaperones in a thousand ingenious ways—even to inventing the sofa pillow as an aid to spontaneous coitus.

  28Diary entry of Aug. 23 by Staff Surgeon Krägel of 11/141, quoted in Schulemann,/^ 141, 16–17.

  29Elmar Dinter, Hero or Coward? Pressures Facing the Soldier in Battle (London, 1985), is typical of many works on this theme in focussing on formations with extensive combat experience or with a high number of professional soldiers in the ranks.

  30Narrative of Lt. Wendland, 5./141, in Schulemann, IR 141, 19.

  31Mackensen, Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, 40–41.

  32Report of Lt. Gittermann, 3./71st Field Artillery, in Schulemann, IR 141, 21–22.

  33Preusser, IR 176, 23.

  34Reserve-Infanterie Regiment Nr. 3, ed. by Regimental Officers’ Association (Berlin, 1926), 9 ff.; Max Gengelbach, Das Reserve-Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 36 im Weltkrieg, Part I (Berlin, 1929), 1 ff.; Max Meyhöfer, Das Reserve-Feldartillerie-RegimentNr. 1 im Weltkriege (1914–1918) (Oldenburg, 1926), 12 ff.

  35Below presents his peacetime career in stupefying but useful detail in his memoirs, held in Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Nachlass Below, N87.

  36The proposed support, the 3rd Reserve Division on the extreme right of the army, was in fact not ordered to advance until 4:30 p.m., and did not reach its assigned position until nightfall. It took no part in the day’s fighting.

  37The march and fight of I Reserve Corps has been reconstructed from the summary in Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg II, 91 ff.; and the more complete and evocative treatments in Hellmuth Neumann, Die Geschichte des Reserve-Infanterie-Regiments Nr. 59 im Weltkriege (Oldenburg, 1927), 12 ff.; Alfred Rothe, Das Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 61 im Weltkriege (Berlin, 1929), 13 ff.; RIR Nr. 3, 14 ff.; Gengelbach, RFAR Nr. 1, 17 ff.; and Meyhöfer, RFAR Nr. 36, 6 ff.

  38“The Point of View,” in The Green Curve and Other Stories, by ‘Ole-Luk-Oie’ (New York, 1911), 251–276.

  39Germany: Kriegswissenschaftliche Abteilung der Luftwaffe, Kriegsges-chichtliche Einzelschriften der Luftwaffe, Vol. Ill, Mobilmachung, Aufmarsch und erster Einsatz der deutschen Luftstreitkräfte im August 1914 (Berlin, 1939), 94 (hereafter cited as Luftstreitkräfte); extract from XX Corps war diary in Walter Elze, Tannenberg. Das Deutsche Heer von 1914 (Breslau, 1928), 226.

  40François, Marneschlacht und Tannenberg, 187.

  41Unger to 8th Army, Aug. 20, 1914, in Elze, Tannenberg, 226.

  42Luftstreitkräfte, 94; extract from XX Corps war diary in Elze, Tannenberg, 226.

  43Max Hoffmann, War of Lost Opportunities, in War Diaries and Other Papers, 2 vols., tr. E. Sutton (London, 1929), II, 28.

  44Ibid., 28–29.

  45Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg II, 102.

  46Hoffmann to his wife, Aug. 21, 1914, in BA-MA, Nachlass Hoffmann, NL 37; and War of Lost Opportunities, 29–30; Elze, Tannenberg, 368.

  470rders to XVII Corps and I Reserve Corps, timed at 9:00 a.m.; and to I Corps, timed at 9:30 a.m., are in ibid., 253–254. Cf. Elze’s comment on p. 216.

  48Prittwitz’s repo
rts of Aug. 17 and 18, OHL’s requests of Aug. 18 and 19, and OHL’s record of the noon conversation are in ibid., 216–217, 220, 233.

  49Moltke’s “Comments on the Change of Command of the 8th Army,” dated Aug. 26, is in ibid., 242 ff.

  50Mackensen’s report, “dictated from memory” on Aug. 25, is in ibid., 227.

  51François to Hoffmann, Apr. 5, 1925, and to Col. Emil Seelinger of the Neues Wiener Journal, in BA-MA, Nachlass François, NL 274/15, 19; François, Marneschlacht und Tannenberg, 190 ff.

  52Hoffmann, “The Truth About Tannenberg,” in War Diaries and Other Papers II, 250–251.

  53This dispatch, printed in Elze, Tannenberg, 233, was not received in Koblenz until 2:20 a.m. on Aug. 21. The governors of the fortresses of Königsberg, Thorn, Posen, and Graudenz were informed that the army was retreating into West Prussia in messages sent at 10:45 p.m.

  54Report of Stellvertretendes Generalkommando I, Aug. 20, 1914, received by OHL at 7:00 p.m., in ibid., 233.

  55Wenninger’s reports of Aug. 21 and 22 and an excerpt from his diary entry of Aug. 22 are reprinted in Bernd F. Schulte, “Neue Dokumente zu Kriegsausbruch und Kriegsverlauf,” Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen XV (1979), 154–156.

  56OHL’s records of the phone conversations are in Elze, Tannenberg, 233–244. Cf. Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg II, 104–105; and François to Hoffmann, Apr. 5, 1925, BA-MA, Nachlass François, NL 274/15. A corps commander’s right of direct access to the sovereign lapsed on the outbreak of war.

  57Hoffmann to his wife, Aug. 22, 1914, BA-MA, Nachlass Hoffmann, NL 37; Hoffmann to François, Apr. 10, 1925, Nachlass François, NL 274/15; Waldersee to Scholtz, Aug. 22, 1914, Nachlass Groener, NL 46/38. The latter conversation follows Prittwitz’s description of his intentions in his report of Aug. 25, which he described as having been composed before his relief from command. Elze, Tannenberg, 237 ff.

  58OHL’s conversations with I Corps (9:30 a.m.), XX Corps (1:50 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.), I Reserve Corps (2:30 p.m.) and XVII Corps (4:30 p.m.) are in Elze, Tannenberg, 236, 245–246.

  59Stein’s record of the conversation is in ibid., 235. OHL learned of the move of 8th Army headquarters only at 11:00 p.m., ibid., 236. The impact of the information is discussed in Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg II, 105–106.

  60Helmuth von Moltke, Militärische Werke, ed. Grossen Generalstab, 13 vols, in 4 (Berlin, 1892–1912), Part 3, Vol. Ill, 11.

  618th Army received this news from I Corps at 6:00 p.m.; it was noted by OHL at 7:15–7:30 p.m. as part of the conversation between Prittwitz and Moltke. Reports in Elze, Tannenberg, 258, 236. Max Hoffmann also refers to the 1st Cavalry Division’s triumphant return in his letter of Aug. 22. BA-MA, Nachlass Hoffmann, NL 37.

  62Schäfer, “Wollte Generaloberst von Prittwitz im August 1914 hinter die Weichsel zurückgehen?” MW, 1921, 45 Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg II, 106–107; Elze, Tannenberg, 112–113.

  63Reitzenstein, “Generaloberst von Prittwitz nach der Schlacht bei Gumbinnen am 20. August 1914,” MW, 1921, 43.

  64Report of Aug. 21 in Schulte, “Dokumente,” 154–155.

  65Wenninger’s diary entry of Aug. 22, ibid., 156.

  66Erich Ludendorff, Ludendorff’s Own Story, Vol. I (New York, 1926), 49–50.

  67Among the major English-language indictments of Ludendorff are Martin Kitchen, The Silent Dictatorship. The Politics of the German High Command under Hindenburg and Ludendorff, 1916–1918 (New York, 1976); and Norman Stone, “Ludendorff,” in The War Lords. Military Commanders of the Twentieth Century, ed. M. Carver (London, 1976), 73–83. D. J. Goodspeed, Ludendorff: Genius of World War I (Boston, 1966), establishes its tone in its title. Roger Parkinson, Tormented Warrior: Ludendorff and the Supreme Command (London, 1978), tries without success to establish Ludendorff’s humane and human aspects. The most balanced brief treatment remains Corelli Barnett, The Swordbearers: Studies in Supreme Command in the First World War (London, 1963), 15–106.

  68Ludendorff, Ludendorff’s Own Story, 52 ff.

  69See particularly his Denkwürdigkeiten, ed. F. Freiherr von der Goltz and W. Foerster (Berlin, 1932); and Hermann Teske, Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz. Ein Kämpfer für den militärischen Fortschritt (Göttingen, 1957), 66–67.

  70Wilhelm Groener, Lebenserinnerungen (Göttingen, 1957), 164–165.

  71Verdy to Waldersee, Jan., 1884, in General-feldmarschall Alfred Graf von Waldersee in seinem militärischen Wirken, ed. H. Mohs, Vol. II, 1882–1904 (Berlin, 1929), 180.

  72The story was probably apocryphal. August Lindner, in a letter to F. W. Foerster dated Mar. 23, 1957, said that a similar tale had earlier been linked with August Lentze of I Corps. BA-MA, Nachlass Foerster, NL 121/18.

  73For summaries of Hindenburg’s peacetime career see Walter Görlitz, Hindenburg: Ein Lebensbild (Bonn, 1953), esp. 41 passim; Andreas Dorpalen, Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic (Princeton, 1964), 7–8; and Walther Hubatsch, Hindenburg und der Staat (Göttingen, 1966), 12 ff.

  74Paul von Hindenburg, Out of My Life, tr. F. A. Holt, (London, 1933), 60.

  75Wilhelm Deist in Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, ed. J. C. G. Röhl and N. Sombart (Cambridge, 1982), 169–192.

  76Isabel Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1888–1918 (Cambridge, 1982), 266 passim; Georg Alexander von Müller, The Kaiser and His Court, ed. W. Görlitz, tr. M. Savill (London, 1961), 22–23.

  77Hindenburg, Out of My Life, 61; Ludendorff, Ludendorff’s Own Story, 55.

  78Winston Churchill, The Unknown War (New York, 1931), passim; Ludendorff, Ludendorff’s Own Story, 14; Hindenburg, Out of My Life, 62.

  79Ibid., 63.

  80Lyncker’s telegram of 4:45 p.m., Aug. 22, in BA-MA, Nachlass François, NL 274/16.

  81Hoffmann, “Tannenberg,” 252–253; and War of Lost Opportunities, 33–34; letter of Aug. 23 in BA-MA, Nachlass Hoffmann, NL 37.

  82Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Aus meiner Dienstzeit, 5 vols. (Vienna, 1921–25), IV, 455–458.

  83Hoffmann, “Tannenberg,” 252; Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg II, 115.

  84Ludendorff, Ludendorff’s Own Story, 55–56; Hoffmann, “Tannenberg,” 251.

  85Hermann Büschleb, Die Verzögerung: Das schwerste Gefecht (Osnabrück, 1978), 32 ff.

  86J. W. Wheeler-Bennett, Hindenburg: Wooden Titan (New York, 1936), 20–21; Hoffmann, War Diaries I, 18–19.

  87Holger H. Herwig and Neil M. Heyman, Biographical Dictionary of World War I (Westport, Conn., 1982), 88.

  88Jean Savant, Épopée Russe, Campagne de l’ ármée Rennenkampf en Prusse-Orientale (Paris, 1945), 249 passim, eloquently defends Rennenkampf’s behavior. Churchill, Unknown War, 185–187, is an imaginative reconstruction of possibilities. Cf. also Norman Stone, The Eastern Front, 1914–1917 (New York, 1975), 62. The anecdote of the staff officer encouraged to retire is from Alfred Knox, With the Russian Army, 1914–1917 (London, 1921), I, 89; the interrogator’s experiences are quoted in Savant, 428.

  89François, Marneschlacht und Tannenberg, 198.

  90Curt von Morgen, Meiner Truppen Heldenkämpfe (Berlin, 1918), 6–7.

  91Mackensen, Briefe und Aufzeichnugen, 46–47.

  92Richter, IR 128, 24 ff.; Steuer, IR 129, 30–31; Seydel, Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 5, 45 ff.

  93Edmund Ironside, Tannenberg (Edinburgh, 1925), 154; RIR Nr. 3, 22 ff.; Meyhöfer, RFAR Nr. 36, 11 ff.

  94A detailed account of the cavalry’s movements and condition is in Lt.-Col. Osterroht and Major Herrmann, Geschichte des Dragoner-Regiments Prinz Albrecht von Preussen (Litthauisches) Nr. 1, 1717–1919 (Berlin, 1930), 53 ff. Cf. Savant, Épopée russe, 219 ff.

  7. THE PROVINCE OF UNCERTAINTY

  1For the movements of the Russian 2nd Army, cf. the general staff history, La Grande Guerre. Concentration des armées. Premières operations en Prusse Orientale, en Galicie et en Pologne (1er âout–24 novembre 1914), tr. E. Chapouilly (Paris, 1926), 32 ff, 89 ff.; N. N. Golovine, The Russian Campaign of 1914, tr. A. G. S. Muntz (Ft. Leavenworth, Kans., 1933), 178 ff.; Edmund Ironside, Tannenberg (Edinburgh, 1925), 42 ff.;
117 ff.

  2David R. Jones, “The Advanced Guard and Mobility in Russian Military Thought and Practice,” SAFRA Papers, No. 1 (Soviet Armed Forces Review Annual) (Gulf Breeze, Fla., 1985); Ironside, Tannenberg, 120–121.

  3Yanushkevich to Zhilinski, Aug. 10, 1914; Zhilinski to Samsonov, Aug. 13, 1914; 2nd Army’s Directive No. 1, Aug. 16, 1914, in Sbornik dokumentov mirovoy voyni na russkom fronte. Manevrenni period 1914 goda: Vostochno-Prusskaya operasiya, ed. Generalny Shtab RKKA (Moscow, 1939), 85–86, 157–158, 245–246. Golovine, 1914, 166 passim; and Alfred Knox, With the Russian Army, 1914–1917, Vol. I (London, 1921), 59 ff., remain the most vivid descriptions of the 2nd Army’s situation. The Russian use of radio in 1904/05 is mentioned in Mario de Arcangelis, Electronic Warfare from the Battle of Tsushima to the Falklands and Lebanon Conflicts (Poole, Dorset, 1985), 11 ff.

  4Golovine, 1914, 184–185.

  5Andreas Kuhn, Das Tannenberg-Nationaldenkmal (Allenstein, 1932), 22 passim. This account is essentially a reprint of Kuhn’s earlier pamphlet, Die Schreckenstage von Neidenburg in Ostpreussen. Kriegserinnerungen aus demjahre 1914 (Minden, 1915). Cf. Heinrich Plickert, Das 2. Ermländische Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 151 im Weltkriege (Berlin, 1929), 27 ff. Gerhard Kneiss, Der Kreis Neidenburg/Ostpreussen im Ersten Weltkrieg und die Tannenberg-Schlacht 1914 (Bremerhaven, 1981), is local history in the old style, but useful for its anecdotes.

  6Knox, With the Russian Army, 62; Kuhn, Tannenberg, 30 ff.

  72nd Army Directive Nr. 4, Aug. 23, 1914, Sbornik, 263–264; Grande Guerre, 96–97; Ironside, Tannenberg, 132–133.

  8For Scholtz’s peacetime career and his approach to corps command, see Ferdinand von Notz, General von Scholtz. Ein deutsches Soldatenleben in grosser Zeit (Berlin, 1937), 11 ff. For the problems faced by artillerymen aspiring to high command cf. Hermann von François, “Kriegslage bei der 8. Armee zur Zeit des Kommandowechsels,” 7, Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Nachlass François, NL 274/17; and more generally Daniel J. Hughes, “The Social Composition of the Prussian Generalcy” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1979), 139 ff.