Not only were they much less experienced but each despised the other, so much that they refused to meet or even speak (a fact that was known to the Germans). The two Russian armies were led by generals Alexander Samsonov and Paul von Rennenkampf. Hindenburg was a career soldier, highly trained and experienced at forming strategy. The struggle for East Prussia now hinged on talent, tactics and leadership. Disaster at Tannenberg Alexander Samsonov, the Russian general who took his own life after the disaster at Tannenburg Within days, the numerically superior Russian force was moving into East Prussian territory, prompting von Prittwitz to order a mass retreat to the coast.Ĭaught by surprise, Berlin rushed reinforcements into East Prussia and replaced von Prittwitz with a more talented commander, Paul von Hindenburg. The Russians launched their first offensive at Stalluponen on August 17th, three weeks after the declaration of war. Berlin left the initial defence of East Prussia to an ageing general, Maximilian von Prittwitz, and an army of 170,000 men, mostly fresh recruits from East Prussia itself. The Germans had anticipated this Russian offensive but not the speed at which it was organised.

The objective was to overrun East Prussia, capture its capital Konigsberg and draw German reinforcements away from Belgium and France. Two Russian armies, each comprised of more than 200,000 men, would be hurled against Prussia salient from the east and south-east. The first assault was launched against East Prussia, a German salient largely surrounded by Russian territory. Just a fortnight after the war, the Russian Tsar and his generals were planning a double-pronged offensive against the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. Even so, at the outbreak of war, Russia had a standing army of around 1.3 million soldiers. Germany’s Schlieffen Plan was predicated on the assumption that Russia, a gigantic country with insufficient railways and industries, would take weeks or even months to mobilise its forces. The Eastern Front began to take shape in the first weeks of the war – in particular, following a Russian offensive against eastern Germany in August 1914.

Battle of tannenberg map