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Explore the Eastern Front battle that resulted in one of the greatest defeats of World War I, in which an entire Russian army was annihilated by German arms.
Tannenberg is a major battle that deserves a fully illustrated treatment all of its own, and for the first time this book brings the epic Eastern Front clash to life in visual detail. No other book on this topic walks you through the action like this one, using detailed maps to provide unit locations and movements and help explain key command decisions, while period photographs and colour battlescenes put soldiering back at the core of the events by revealing the military material culture of the opposing sides.
Michael McNally guides you through the initial border engagements and the battles of Gumbinnen and Stallupönen, before moving on to explore the massive, often confused running battle of Tannenberg in easy to follow and concise detail. This work helps you understand how the Germans managed to maul Samsonov’s Second Army and all but destroyed the Russians as a fighting force. The Russian war plan of using overwhelming numbers to gain a quick victory before conducting further operations would soon lie in pieces on the ground. It also assesses the contribution modern technology – such as railways, aerial reconnaissance, radio and telegraphy – made to the emphatic German victory.
Explore the Eastern Front battle that resulted in one of the greatest defeats of World War I, in which an entire Russian army was annihilated by German arms.
Tannenberg is a major battle that deserves a fully illustrated treatment all of its own, and for the first time this book brings the epic Eastern Front clash to life in visual detail. No other book on this topic walks you through the action like this one, using detailed maps to provide unit locations and movements and help explain key command decisions, while period photographs and colour battlescenes put soldiering back at the core of the events by revealing the military material culture of the opposing sides.
Michael McNally guides you through the initial border engagements and the battles of Gumbinnen and Stallupönen, before moving on to explore the massive, often confused running battle of Tannenberg in easy to follow and concise detail. This work helps you understand how the Germans managed to maul Samsonov’s Second Army and all but destroyed the Russians as a fighting force. The Russian war plan of using overwhelming numbers to gain a quick victory before conducting further operations would soon lie in pieces on the ground. It also assesses the contribution modern technology – such as railways, aerial reconnaissance, radio and telegraphy – made to the emphatic German victory.
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
Alliance and misalliances
Girding for war
Stavka plans
CHRONOLOGY
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
Russian
German
OPPOSING FORCES
Russian
German
Orders of battle
OPPOSING PLANS
Russian
German
THE CAMPAIGN
Der Russeneinfall –the Russian invasion
Invasion
Stallupönen: 17 August
Gumbinnen: 20 August
A change of strategy
Man of the moment
Samsonov’s progress
Der Alte Hase – the old hand
Lahna and Orlau: 23–24 August
See the elephant: Usdau and Bischofsburg, 25–26 August
The sound of the guns: Usdau, 27 August
Turning the flank: 27 August
Interlude at Osterode
A day of decision: 28 August
The beginnings of collapse: 28–29 August
Days of decision: 29–30 August
AFTERMATH
GAZETTEER OF PLACE NAMES
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Explore the Eastern Front battle that resulted in one of the greatest defeats of World War I, in which an entire Russian army was annihilated by German arms.
Michael McNally was born in London in 1964. An expert on 17th- and 18th-century warfare, his previous titles for Osprey include works on the Cromwellian campaigns in Ireland 1649–52, the battles of the Boyne 1690 and Fontenoy 1745. A highly versatile author, he also has a passionate interest in more modern subjects, as demonstrated by his publications on the naval battles of Coronel and the Falklands in 1914, and a Fortress series study of Colditz. Michael is married with three children and lives in Germany, where he works for a major reinsurance company.
gives a good feel for the strategic choices and command-quality on
both sides
*Miniature Wargames*
If you have never thought about this theatre of operations in WWI,
this work will make you reconsider your opinion and wish to read
more on the subject.
*Gunmart*
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