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 destroyed most of the First Army as well and kept the Russians off balance until the spring of 1915.
The Battle of Stallupönen, fought between Russian and German armies on August 17, 1914, was the opening battle of World War I on the Eastern Front. The Germans under the command of Hermann von François conducted a successful counterattack against four Russian infantry divisions from different infantry corps, which heavily outnumbered them but were separated from each other, creating a gap between the 27th Infantry Division and the 40th Infantry Division, and had little coordination with each other. It was a minor German success, but did little to upset the Russian timetable.
Anton Ludwig Friedrich August von Mackensen, ennobled as "von Mackensen" in 1899, was a German field marshal. He commanded successfully during World War I (1914–1918) and became one of the German Empire's most prominent and competent military leaders. After the armistice of 11 November 1918, the victorious Allies interned Mackensen in Serbia for a year. In 1920, he retired from the army. In 1933 Hermann Göring made him a Prussian state councillor. During the Nazi era (1933–1945), Mackensen remained a committed monarchist and sometimes appeared at official functions in his World War I uniform. Senior Nazi Party members suspected him of disloyalty, but nothing was proven against him.
Carl Adolf Maximilian Hoffmann was a German military strategist. As a staff officer at the beginning of World War I, he was Deputy Chief of Staff of the 8th Army, soon promoted Chief of Staff. Hoffmann, along with Hindenburg and Ludendorff, masterminded the devastating defeat of the Russian armies at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. He then held the position of Chief of Staff of the Eastern Front. At the end of 1917, he negotiated with Russia to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881.
Aleksandr Vasilyevich Samsonov was a career officer in the cavalry of the Imperial Russian Army and a general during the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. He was the commander of the Russian Second Army which was surrounded and defeated by the German Eighth Army in the Battle of Tannenberg, one of the early battles of World War I. Ashamed by his loss of the Army, Samsonov committed suicide while retreating from the battlefield.
The Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, also known as the Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes, was the northern part of the Central Powers' offensive on the Eastern Front in the winter of 1915. The offensive was intended to advance beyond the Vistula River and perhaps knock Russia out of the war.
The 1st Army was an army-level command of the Russian Imperial Army created during World War I. The First Army, commanded by General Paul von Rennenkampf, invaded East Prussia at the outbreak of war in 1914 along with the Second Army commanded by General Alexander Samsonov. After declaring war on the German Empire, the Russian Empire had been able to mobilize very quickly. All Russian forces were put under the command of Grand Duke Nikolai and his Quartermaster General Yuri Danilov.
The First Battle of the Masurian Lakes was a German offensive in the Eastern Front 2–16 September 1914, during the second month of World War I. It took place only days after the Battle of Tannenberg where the German Eighth Army encircled and destroyed the Russian Second Army. Using the rapid movements aided by the East Prussian railway network, the Eighth Army reformed in front of the spread-out Russian First Army and pushed them back across their entire front, eventually ejecting it from Germany. Further progress was hampered by the arrival of the Russian Tenth Army on the Germans' right flank.
The Battle of Gumbinnen, initiated by forces of the German Empire on 20 August 1914, was a German offensive on the Eastern Front during the First World War. Because of the hastiness of the German attack, the Russian Army emerged victorious.
This is the order of battle for both the Russian and German armies at the Battle of Tannenberg, August 17 to September 2, 1914.
The Russian invasion of East Prussia occurred during World War I, lasting from August to September 1914. As well as being the natural course for the Russian Empire to take upon the declaration of war on the German Empire, it was also an attempt to focus the Imperial German Army on the Eastern Front, as opposed to the Western Front. Despite having an overwhelming superiority over the Germans in numbers, the invading Imperial Russian Army spread its forces thin and was defeated in the battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes, resulting in a complete strategic collapse of the Russian invasion.
The 2nd Division was a unit of the Prussian/German Army. It was formed in Danzig in March 1816 as a Troop Brigade (Truppen-Brigade). It became the 2nd Division on September 5, 1818. In 1890, the headquarters of the division was relocated to Königsberg, then the capital of East Prussia. In 1899, the headquarters was moved to Insterburg, further inland and closer to the border with the Russian Empire. From the latter's formation in 1820, the division was subordinated in peacetime to the I Army Corps. The 2nd Division was disbanded in 1919 during the demobilization of the German Army after World War I.
The XX Army Corps / XX AK was a corps level command of the German Army before and during World War I.
Abschwangen was a small village near Preussisch Eylau in East Prussia some 30 km south of Königsberg, today Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia and the scene of a massacre of German civilians on 29 August 1914.
Uzdowo is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Działdowo, within Działdowo County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 13 kilometres (8 mi) north-west of Działdowo and 57 km (35 mi) south-west of the regional capital Olsztyn. It was formerly part of the German province of East Prussia.
The I Army Corps / I AK was a corps level command of the Prussian and then the Imperial German Armies from the 19th Century to World War I.
The XVII Army Corps / XVII AK was a corps level command of the German Army before and during World War I.
The 66th Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of the Territorial Force, which saw service in the trenches of the Western Front, during the later years of the Great War and was disbanded after the war.
The 1st General Field Marshal Count Lacy's, His Majesty King of the Hellenes' Neva Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the Russian Imperial Army. It was known by different names for much of its existence but most of its designations included "Neva Infantry Regiment." It served in several conflicts, including the Great Northern War, Seven Years' War, the Russo-Swedish War of 1808–1809, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, and the Russo–Japanese War. By 1914, the 1st Neva Infantry Regiment was part of the 1st Infantry Division, and it fought in World War I before being dissolved in 1918, after the events of Russian Revolution.
