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Eastern Front
Masurian Lakes Campaign (Sept. 9-14, 1914)
After Tannenberg, the German Eighth Army, now augmented
by reinforcements from the western front, concentrated its efforts against
the Russian First Army. A successful German envelopment on the south
flank made the position of the Russians untenable and forced them to
withdraw. To cover the withdrawal, they launched a strong counterattack
in the center, which deceived the Germans and allowed sizable forces
to escape. Nonetheless, the Russian First Army was decisively defeated
and expelled from East Prussia with large losses.
Rennenkampf had been ordered by Zhilinsky to come to
the aid of the Second Army, but his troops did not have time to reach
the battlefront. On August 30, the First Army commander learned of the
catastrophe at Tannenberg and turned his own forces back. With his right
flank on the Baltic Sea, his left flank extending to the Masurian Lakes,
and a corps protecting the Lotzen (now Giaycko) Gap, Rennenkampf felt
secure against a German offensive.
Again the Russians miscalculated. Zhilinsky reinforced
the remnants of Samsonov's army in anticipation of a German offensive
against Warsaw. Although the Austrians, who were in difficulties in
their Galician campaign, urged the Germans to attack Warsaw, Hindenburg
and his staff considered Rennenkampf's force their first objective.
On September 9- and 10, the Germans secured the southern flank by Lyck
(now Elk) and Augustow. An attempt to break through the Lotzen Gap was
repulsed by Rennenkampf, but he had to commit all of his reserves to
do so. Then the German 1st Corps forced the Russian 2d Corps to retreat,
clearing the route toward Gumbinnen. Fearing another Tannenberg, Rennenkampf
ordered his army to withdraw. Meanwhile, to protect his retreat, he
simultaneously launched a counterattack between Nordenburg (now Krylovo)
and Angerburg (now Wegorzewo). The losses suffered by the German corps
facing this attack alarmed Ludendorff, who curtailed the advance of
his right flank. The enveloping movement was therefore not so deep as
he had planned originally, and Rennenkampf was able to save most of
his army by forced marches of as much as 55 miles in 50 hours. Nevertheless,
the Russian First Army sustained losses estimated as high as 145,000
men. German losses were in the neighborhood of 10,000 men.
Thus in three weeks, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, and Hoffmann
had cleared East Prussia of the enemy. Zhilinsky, who complained to
headquarters of Rennenkampf's deficiencies, was himself relieved of
his command on September 17 in favor of Gen. Nicholas Russki, who had
scored successes on the southern flank of the Polish salient in Galicia.
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