August 1914 - TannenBerg

Imperial Russian Army

-Consisted of around 5 million men
-Standard issue rifle was the
Mosin-Nagant Model 1891/30
-Russia had the largest army in the world
at the time
-Mobilisation of these men was difficult, as
Russia was very large, and had a poor rail
network
-They could only issue around 4.6 million
rifles, meaning they didn’t have enough for
every man in the army
-Russia did not have large reserves of
artillery and field guns, having just over
2500 in total
-They did, however rely on the Maxim
machine gun, which was outdated by this
point.
 The Russian Offensive
• In order to ease pressure on France, the Russian CIC, Nikolay Nikolyevich urged for action against
the Germans on the Eastern Front
• General Yakov Zhilinsky was in charge of the 1st and 2nd armies, which combined had a numerical
superiority over the Germans
• The plan was to advance on East Prussia with the First Army and draw out the Germans. Two days
later, the second would follow, and cut them off from the rear
• Neither army was prepared for the assault, and were separated by a chain of lakes
• On August 18th, the 1st Army advanced on the Germans. They were quickly routed, not expecting a
Russian attack
• This disturbed the XXth Corps Headquarters, as the Russians had come uncomfortably close to the
southern border
• Max von Prittwits, commander of the German forces, decided to pull his 8th Army back to reinforce
XXth Corps, and strike at the Russian’s western flank
• By the 22nd of August, the fighting drew to a close, as the Germans pulled back
• Zhilinsky ordered the 2nd Army to pursue the Germans over the Vistula river
• On August 26th, the Russian second army came under artillery bombardment, followed by a cavalry
chargem which broke their lines
• The Germans had circled behind the Russians and occupied the road between Niedenberg and
Wielbark, the Russians line of retreat
• The retreating Russians were dashed on the German lines
• Ultimately cut off from the 1st Army, the Russians surrendered in the tens of thousands
• The commander of the 2nd Army, Alexander Samsonov, took his own life rather than face the defeat
• The Russians sustained around 30 000 casualties from the combined shelling cavalry attack and
the subsequent retreat, whilst the Germans only took 13 000