Great War: Suffering and Sacrifice by Bennett Lee

Author:Bennett, Lee [Bennett, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2017-10-16T04:00:00+00:00

The Eastern Front of 1914-1918.

This place was occupied by German fortifications. As a result, on the inner, facing each other, the flanks of the First and Second Armies stood a water barrier stretching almost 80 kilometers from north to south. This led to a loss of communication between the armies and inconsistency of actions. Strategically, in the situation that has arisen, it would be easiest to regroup the positions of troops in the Anirappa area to the north and south, at least for their front reinforcement. It was such an order that was given by General Zhilinsky, commander of the North-Western Front, Rennenkampf and Samsonov.

The front commander was aware of the possibilities that the Germans had given to the division of the Russian armies and, accordingly, he was careful to provide for the protection of the flanks of the two factions of his two armies. However, the measures taken only increased the potential danger of the situation, since they strengthened the flank of Rennenkampf on the Baltic coast, which was already not exposed to any risk. Samsonov sent part of the troops to cover the left flank in the Warsaw direction, where he, too, was not threatened while the order to one of the Corps of the Second Army to stay motionless in the interval separating it from the First. As a result, both armies were too weak to fulfill their main task. With an initial deployment with the advantage of nineteen divisions against nine, Rennenkampf and Samson actually attacked only sixteen divisions.

But much worse was that both armies arrived at their starting positions with a difference of five days. The first army crossed the eastern border of Prussia on August 15 - a very commendable achievement, considering that the French and Germans have not yet completed the concentration of forces in the west. But the Second Army was able to do this only after August 20. They were divided into 80 kilometers of lands crossed by lakes, that is, three days of march, which did not allow one of the armies to quickly come to the other to help in case of difficulties-still unknown to Rennenkampf or Samsonov.

The superiority of the Germans over the Russians in gathering intelligence has decided the outcome of the matter. Although the Russians knew that they were numerically superior to the Germans, their means of detecting enemy positions were imperfect. The Russian cavalry, despite its large numbers, did not strive to penetrate deeply into enemy positions, preferring, having met resistance, dismounting and forming a line of fire. Despite the fact that Russian aviation had 244 aircraft and was the second largest in Europe, Russian aerial reconnaissance could not trace the movements of German troops. On the contrary, the 2nd Airborne Battalion of the German Army and two airships based in Pozen [10] and Koenigsberg began to report both the numbers and the movement of columns of the Russian army as early as August 9 - a week before the Russian troops crossed the German border .

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.