{"id":51204,"date":"2015-02-23T09:17:16","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T15:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=51204"},"modified":"2015-05-04T21:55:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T02:55:48","slug":"blood-on-the-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=51204","title":{"rendered":"Blood on the Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The morning was cold and grey as journalist\u00a0J.M. Beaufort, an American observer with the German army, left with a detachment of German soldiers stationed in the Polish (then Russian) town of\u00a0August\u00f3w. \u00a0Just days earlier, on February 23rd, 1915, the town had been part of the gigantic battlefield known as the Masurian Lakes, and the German troops were looking for stranglers from both the German and Russian armies.<\/p>\n

Deep within the woods, Beaufort and his German escort came across a disturbing scene. \u00a0Seated in the snow a “giant Russian” cradled the decapitated head of a dead German soldier, whose body lay covered by the Russian’s army jacket. \u00a0An empty flask sat between them, with the Russian dead-eyed and soaked in blood. \u00a0As they approached, the realized most of the blood was the Russian’s own – his left elbow was all but gone. \u00a0Momentarily brought out of his daze, the Russian looked at Beaufort and said only one word: “Nitchewo<\/em>\u201d (\u201cIt is nothing”).<\/p>\n

He had been part of the 220,000 men Russia had brought to the Masurian Lakes. \u00a0Only 20,000 walked away.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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The German line at the Masurian Lakes. Germany hoped to launch an offensive before Russia could launch her own<\/p><\/div>\n

The war between Tsarist Russia and Imperial Germany was in some ways the inverse of the conflict both nations would fight a generation later.<\/p>\n

Whereas the Eastern Front was the critical front for Nazi Germany, consuming resources on an industrial scale, Imperial Germany saw the Eastern Front as somewhat of a massive sideshow – a distraction from the West, where Germany’s fortunes would be won or lost. \u00a0After all, the Schlieffen Plan hasn’t accounted for a two-front war, and every part of the German war machine would be required to quickly defeat France. \u00a0Nevertheless, as Russian forces skirmished on the border, forcing German troops to retreat, the whole of East Prussia looked ready to be abandoned.<\/p>\n

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The Spoils of War – the German victory haul at Tannenberg. The first big battle of the Eastern Front, Tannenberg set the stage for most of early years of the front: massive Russian losses (170,000 at Tannenberg) but minimal German gains<\/p><\/div>\n

Unwilling to commit major resources to the East, but equally unwilling to risk Russian troops mobilizing and making a dash for Berlin, the German High Command called 66 year-old\u00a0Paul von Hindenburg\u00a0out of retirement and into service as the commander of the Eastern Front. \u00a0Hindenburg, coupled with his chief of staff\u00a0Erich Ludendorff, quickly reorganized the retreating German units into the Eighth Army, and routed the Russians at Tannenberg in East Prussia. \u00a0For the loss of 14,000 men, Hindenburg had crushed the Russian Second Army, killing or capturing 170,000 troops.<\/p>\n

Tannenberg made both Hindenburg and Ludendorff household names in Germany, starting what would become prominent military (and eventually political) careers. \u00a0It was a marvelous tactical victory for Germany. \u00a0And it had almost no strategic significance.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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Tsarist Propaganda – the Germans, Austrians and Turks have designs on Russian territory, but Russia would run them through. For parts of 1914-15, that would remain somewhat true<\/p><\/div>\n

For the rest of 1914, into the winter of 1915, the Eastern Front remained at best a pendulum, swinging back and forth without ever really going anywhere. \u00a0To the south, the Austrian and Russian forces were engaging the bulk of their forces, leading to the Austrian rout at Galicia as the Austro-Hungarian Empire retreated into their borders, leaving 325,000 men behind. \u00a0The Austrian army, for the foreseeable future, would be on the defensive – Galicia had cost them most of their officer corps. \u00a0Russia would be in little of a position to exploit their gain as their victory cost them 225,000 troops. \u00a0Between that and Tannenberg, the Russians were dangerously close to bleeding out their army.<\/p>\n

But Russian losses were replaceable – with time. \u00a0Over the course of the winter, three new Russian armies were mobilized with the goal of avenging Tannenberg and pressing the Germans on their own border. \u00a0As 1914 became 1915, and the Western Front looked unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, Germany faced the difficult decision: either move towards to the East or expect Russian troops in East Prussia. \u00a0Worse, the Russians might strike to the south and drive the teetering Austrians out of the fight.<\/p>\n

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Paul von Hindenburg (left) & Erich Lundendorff (right) – the masterminds of Germany’s Eastern Front, together they would eventually defeat Tsarist Russia while inflicting over 10 million casualties<\/p><\/div>\n

The newly promoted Chief of the German General Staff didn’t like the idea of moving men West to East. \u00a0Erich von Falkenhayn had only been in the post a few months, acquiring the job only after Helmuth von Moltke told Wilhelm II following the battle of the Marne,\u00a0“Your Majesty, we have lost the war<\/em>.” \u00a0To Falkenhayn, there was hope for a separate peace with Russia. \u00a0The Russian\u00a0casus belli<\/em>\u00a0– the Austrian war against Serbia – had reached a deadlock; Austrian forces had been stalled. \u00a0Russian fears that Serbia would be destroyed now looked misplaced. \u00a0If the Russians themselves were not humiliated on the battlefield, they could reach terms with Germany, or so Falkenhayn believed.<\/p>\n

But even Falkenhayn could read a map. \u00a0The Russians were on German soil and another offensive against the German line was expected. \u00a0Without reinforcements, the Russian “bulge” in the norther half of the Eastern Front would only extend. \u00a0Either Germany could wait to be attacked, or attack first.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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Russian cavalry – The Tsar’s troops would lose over 325,000 men between the two battles that took place at the Masurian Lakes<\/p><\/div>\n

February 7th, 1915 saw a massive snowstorm hit the Masurian Lake District in East Prussia. \u00a0The Russian Tenth Army, under Gen.\u00a0Thadeus von Sievers, settled in for a long blizzard. \u00a0Their front had been quiet and the Tenth was awaiting the full mobilization of the accompanying Russian Twelfth Army. \u00a0There was little to do but start a fire and huddle together for warmth. \u00a0Certainly the Germans were doing the same.<\/p>\n

Instead, Hindenburg and\u00a0Ludendorff launched their preemptive offensive. \u00a0100,000 men of the German Eighth Army threw themselves against the 220,000 men of the Russian line, catching them completely by surprise.<\/p>\n

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Hindenburg observes the battle. He’s likely looking at Tannenberg, not the Masurian Lakes, in this photo<\/p><\/div>\n

While the Eastern Front had already seen much more mobility than the trench warfare in the West, Hindenburg’s offensive didn’t merely move the boundaries of the front – it crushed the Russian lines. \u00a0German forces rushed through gaps in the Russian front, threatening to encircle most of the Tenth. \u00a0The Russian attempt to retreat and reorganize was a tactical mess, as some men dropped their rifles and fled while too many held their position until they were cut-off. \u00a0The Russian 20th Army Corps – a large share of the Russian Tenth Army – was surrounded and forced to surrender. \u00a0Within a week, the Germans had advanced 70 miles and killed, wounded or captured 200,000 Russian soldiers.<\/p>\n

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Tsar Nicholas II – Nicholas heard mostly positive news from his generals about the progress of the war; their defeats coming as a total shock given what he was being told. Frustrated with military leadership he felt he could no longer trust, Nicholas would become the commanding general for the war in the fall of 1915. It would be a major part of his undoing<\/p><\/div>\n

Germany looked to have their breakthrough in the East. \u00a0For the loss of just over 16,000 men, Hindenburg and\u00a0Ludendorff had all but annihilated one whole Russian Army (the Tenth would reform just past\u00a0August\u00f3w, where we began our story). \u00a0If not for the Russian Twelfth Army, positioned just south of the Tenth, rumbling to life and attacking the German flank, Germany might have shattered the entire northern sector of the Eastern Front. \u00a0A terrible Russian loss could have easily become a total rout.<\/p>\n

As it would happen repeatedly on the Eastern Front, German successes were tempered by Austrian failures. \u00a0South of the battle, German Gen. Alexander von Linsingen’s Austro-German army, trying to undo the losses of\u00a0Galicia that previous fall, battered themselves against fortified Russian positions. \u00a0The Austrians would lose another nearly 200,000 men over the course of the winter and spring in fruitless offensives. \u00a0The lines of the Eastern Front had moved (massively, at least by comparison to the sort of advances on the Western Front), but the Front’s pendulum-like nature had swung again.<\/p>\n

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Russian prisoners after the Masurian Lakes. These are the lucky ones – many Russian prisoners were captured due to frostbite<\/p><\/div>\n

Russia was holding her own by the winter of 1915, and with 6.5 million men, remained a force to reckon with. \u00a0But the army also only had 4.6 million rifles – nearly two million Russian soldiers essentially had no weapons. \u00a0And Russian losses were mounting, even when the army was victorious. \u00a0The Masurian Lakes would be among the first of Russia’s estimated 2 million casualties in 1915 alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The morning was cold and grey as journalist\u00a0J.M. Beaufort, an American observer with the German army, left with a detachment of German soldiers stationed in the Polish (then Russian) town of\u00a0August\u00f3w. \u00a0Just days earlier, on February 23rd, 1915, the town had been part of the gigantic battlefield known as the Masurian Lakes, and the German […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,281],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-ringer","category-ww1-fact-and-myth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51204"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53147,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51204\/revisions\/53147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}