The battle of Tannenberg (August 27-30, 1914) opened World War I with a decisive German victory over Russia-indeed the Kaiser's only clear-cut victory in a non-attritional battle during four years of war. In this first paperback edition of the classic work, historian Dennis Showalter analyzes this battle's causes, effects, and implications for subsequent German military policy. The author carefully guides the reader through what actually happened on the battlefield, from its grand strategy down to the level of improvised squad actions. Examining the battle in the context of contemporary diplom.

In 1914 Russia¿s doomed Tsar, Nicholas II, ordered his armies to invade German territory as soon as they had mobilized. They moved faster than the Germans gave them credit for and panic stories of Cossacks running amok in East Prussia led the German High Command to call back two army corps from the invasion of France. The two Russian armies involved in the attack were led by generals that hated each other more than the Germans; their lack of cooperation and signal staff¿s tendency to transmit radio messages without bothering to encode them helped the Germans plan and execute a massive ambush. The Russian 2nd Army was annihilated and the Tsarist forces never recovered the initiative until their defeat in 1917.

By 1400 the long running conflict between the Order of Teutonic Knights and Poland and Lithuania was coming to a head, partly as a result of the Order's meddling in the internal politics of its neighbours. In June 1410 King Wladislaw Jagiello of Poland invaded the Order's territory with a powerful allied army including all the enemies of the Teutonic Knights – Poles, Lithuanians, Russians, Bohemians, Hungarians, Tartars and Cossacks. This book recounts how, when the armies clashed on the wooded, rolling hills near the small village of Tannenberg, the Teutonic Knights suffered a disastrous defeat from which their Order never recovered.

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.

General Max Hofmann was well known as a consummate planner, even by the high standards of the German Army of the First World War. Working as the operation hub on the Eastern Front he and his superiors, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, used superior strategy to offset the huge advantage of number that the enemy Russian army possessed. The greatest victory that they achieved was the dramatic battle of Tannenberg, still studied today as a masterpiece. In this memoir translated from the German, Hoffmann analyses from a leadership point of view of the battle and results of the military decisions and actions of the leaders. “Tannenberg is not the work of a single person. It is the result of the excellent schooling and development of our leaders and the incomparable performance of the German soldier “ states the author. Includes 7 maps.