First Battle of the Masurian Lakes

First Battle of the Masurian Lakes
Part of the Eastern Front during World War I
Eastern Front to 26 September 1914.
Date 7–14 September 1914 Location East Prussia, Germany (present-day Poland) Result German victory
Belligerents
German Empire	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Paul von Hindenburg	Paul von Rennenkampf
Strength
German Eighth Army: 16 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions - 215,000 soldiers	Russian First Army: 16,5 infantry and 5 cavalry divisions; Russian Tenth Army: 6 infantry divisions - 470,000 soldiers and 20,000 sabers; total 490,000 men
Casualties and losses
10,000 killed, wounded and missing another estimate: 40,000 killed, wounded and missing another estimate: 70,000 killed, wounded and missing	100,000-125,000 killed, wounded and missing, including 30,000-45,000 prisoners

10,000 killed, wounded and missing

The First Battle of the Masurian Lakes was a German offensive in the Eastern Front during the early stages of World War I. It pushed the Russian First Army back across its entire front, eventually ejecting it from Germany. Further progress was hampered by the arrival of the Russian Tenth Army on the Germans' left flank.

The Russian offensive in East Prussia had started well enough, with General Paul von Rennenkampf's First Army (Army of the Neman) forcing the Germans westward from the border towards Königsberg. Meanwhile, the Russian Second Army invaded from the south, hoping to cut the Germans off in the area around the city. German Colonel Max Hoffmann claimed that he developed a plan to encircle the Second Army as it maneuvered north over some particularly hilly terrain. His commanders in the German Eighth Army, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, also claimed credit. Regardless of authorship, the plan was quickly implemented, culminating in the destruction of the Second Army at the Battle of Tannenberg between 26 and 30 August 1914.

Hoffmann claimed also that the German success was made possible, in part, due to the personal enmity between the Russian generals, which he had learned about as an observer in the Russo-Japanese War. The commander of the Second Army, Alexander Samsonov, had publicly criticized Rennenkampf some years earlier (about the Battle of Mukden in 1905), and it was rumored that the two had come to blows over the matter. Hoffmann claimed that, therefore, the two Russian generals would never cooperate. The official Russian inquiry about their disaster in East Prussia blamed the general commanding the two armies, Yakov Zhilinsky. In their memoirs, neither Hindenburg nor Ludendorff mention the alleged feud. When Rennenkampf was finally ordered to go to Samsonov's aid, it was too late.

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