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ALLIES – defeated
The Battle of Tannenberg saw the destruction of the Russian Second Army which ultimately ended Russia’s invasion of East Prussia before it even began!
This battle was known as one of the most spectacular German Victories in WW1. Russia wanted to push forward into German territory and there were two parts to their plan. The Second Army was going to go to the western corner of East Prussia while the First Army was going to advance into north-east Prussia. Therefore, there would be a Russian army attacking from the front and back when they came into contact with the German Eighth Army. Modifications were made to this plan after Russia’s thin escapes and victories in previous battles. During the process of preparation, the Russians intercepted some messages sent from the Germans, reading along the lines of ‘the Germans need not fear intervention from the Russian First Army during their assault’. At first, the Russians were not shaken by these messages as the Germans unsuccessfully tried to engage in combat and no Russian had any intention of attacking without artillery support to ensure the largest chance of victory. However, the Russians then began to make small mistakes, such as ignoring warnings of a German Army advancing south, etc. The Russians were slowly wearing thin on artillery supply, and along with ignoring warnings from the Axis powers, were now suddenly disadvantaged greatly. Before things got out of hand, the Russian leaders ordered a withdrawal and the Russian soldiers that were not either captured, wounded or killed scattered and fled. There were originally 150,000 Russian soldiers and only about 10,000 escaped. The Germans, however, only suffered approximately 20,000 casualties. The Russian leader for this particular battle committed suicide as he was unable to face reporting the huge scale of disaster this battle was.
The Battle of Tannenberg saw the destruction of the Russian Second Army which ultimately ended Russia’s invasion of East Prussia before it even began!
This battle was known as one of the most spectacular German Victories in WW1. Russia wanted to push forward into German territory and there were two parts to their plan. The Second Army was going to go to the western corner of East Prussia while the First Army was going to advance into north-east Prussia. Therefore, there would be a Russian army attacking from the front and back when they came into contact with the German Eighth Army. Modifications were made to this plan after Russia’s thin escapes and victories in previous battles. During the process of preparation, the Russians intercepted some messages sent from the Germans, reading along the lines of ‘the Germans need not fear intervention from the Russian First Army during their assault’. At first, the Russians were not shaken by these messages as the Germans unsuccessfully tried to engage in combat and no Russian had any intention of attacking without artillery support to ensure the largest chance of victory. However, the Russians then began to make small mistakes, such as ignoring warnings of a German Army advancing south, etc. The Russians were slowly wearing thin on artillery supply, and along with ignoring warnings from the Axis powers, were now suddenly disadvantaged greatly. Before things got out of hand, the Russian leaders ordered a withdrawal and the Russian soldiers that were not either captured, wounded or killed scattered and fled. There were originally 150,000 Russian soldiers and only about 10,000 escaped. The Germans, however, only suffered approximately 20,000 casualties. The Russian leader for this particular battle committed suicide as he was unable to face reporting the huge scale of disaster this battle was.
FOCUS QUESTION RESPONSE: The scale of defeat for the Russians shocked the Russian Allies, and people were questioning whether this defeat also meant the entire defeat of the Russian Army. Some were also questioning how much hope they had for victory, as this was only in the 1st year of what was predicted to be a lengthy war.