ADVANCE OF RUSSIANS AGAINST THE GERMANS

On August 16, 1914, within seventeen days after the official beginning of the Russian mobilization, everything was in readiness for the general advance. The next day immediately developed the first strong German resistance. At Stallupoehnen the German First Corps from KÖnigsberg, under General von FranÇois, supported by two reserve corps, attempted to stem the Russian flood. Though they succeeded in taking 3,000 prisoners and some machine guns, they had to fall back upon Gumbinnen. The pressure of the superior Russian numbers—four active and two reserve corps—proved too strong. The battle front now was about thirty-five miles long, extending from Pillkallen on the north to Goldap on the south, with Gumbinnen in the center.

On August 20, 1914, the first real battle on the eastern front was fought before this pretty country town, which was founded in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and had gradually acquired about 15,000 people. General Rennenkampf used his numerical superiority for a powerful onslaught against the enemy's center. Fourteen hours of the most stubborn fighting—beginning at dawn and ending only with the coming of night—resulted in the final withdrawal of the German center. Though artillery did some preparatory work, it was the slashing thrust of glittering bayonets in massed formations and the tearing devastation of hand grenades that carried the day. The German wings kept up their resistance for the next day, but finally joined the main army which had withdrawn through Gumbinnen to Insterburg. The losses on both sides probably were about even, amounting to at least 5,000.

The certainty of the Russian numerical superiority undoubtedly was responsible for Von FranÇois's continuation of his retreat to his main base, KÖnigsberg. The Russians lost no time in following and reached Insterburg on August 23, 1914. Practically without further opposition all of northern East Prussia as far as the river Memel was in General Rennenkampf's hands, Tilsit, Labiau, Tapiau, Gerdauen, Korschen, Rastenburg, Angerburg, and Goldap indicate the limits of his conquest. With it went four of the six railroads centering in KÖnigsberg, leaving open only the two lines running to Allenstein and Danzig, which, of course, meant serious danger to this important German fortress.

The Russian Army of the Narew had, in the meantime, pushed its advance with equal rapidity and success from the south. Its commander, General Samsonoff, had won laurels in Manchuria, and had acquired considerable military reputation as a commander in Turkestan and as a member of the general staff. He had approximately as many men at his disposal as his colleague—about 250,000. His task, however, was more difficult. For his entire front would face, almost immediately after crossing the border, the treacherous lake district in the south of East Prussia. For his advance he used the two railroads from Warsaw into East Prussia, on the west through Mlawa and Soldau, and on the east through Osowiec and Lyck. From the latter town he pushed his right wing forward in a northwesterly direction, and sent his center toward the southwest to Johannisburg.

On August 23 and 24, 1914, to meet this advance, the Germans had available only one active army corps, centered in Allenstein, the Twentieth. Local Landwehr formations found the task of delaying the Russians far beyond their power. In quick succession Samsonoff took Soldau, Neidenburg, Ortelsburg, and finally Allenstein. At Frankenau, just west of the Mazurian Lakes, his right wing connected with the Twentieth German Corps, which, supported by strongly prepared intrenchments, managed to hold up the Russian advance, but finally had to give way and fall back on Allenstein and Osterode. This gave to the Russians command of one more railroad to KÖnigsberg, that from Allenstein. Though the two Russian armies had not yet formed a solid connection, they were in touch with each other through their cavalry, and the Russian front was in the form of a doubly broken line running from Friedland through Gerdauen to Angerburg (Niemen Army) and from there through Frankenau and Allenstein to Soldau (Narew Army). The former, facing southwest, in connection with the latter, now threatened not only KÖnigsberg, but the defensive line of the Vistula from Thorn to Danzig. The greater part of East Prussia seemed securely in the possession of more than 500,000 Russian soldiers, chiefly of the first line, and under apparently very able leadership.

The occupied territory suffered severely. Bombardment and fire had laid waste, at least partially, some of the towns and a great many of the villages. Requisitions for the support of the invading army necessarily brought great hardships and losses to the unfortunate inhabitants. The avalanche-like success of the Russian arms, the clearly displayed weakness of German numbers and the rapid retreat of their forces naturally added to the terror of the peasants who make up the largest part of East Prussia's population. By thousands they fled from their villages and hamlets, carrying on their slow oxcarts or on their shoulders whatever they had gathered as their most precious possessions in their first hours of fear and terror. To them the word "Cossack" still called up pictures of the wild hordes that had overrun their country during the Seven Years' War, and later again in the Napoleonic wars. The large, strongly fortified cities of KÖnigsberg and Danzig seemed to hold out the only hope for life and security, and toward these they flocked in ever-increasing masses. Even Berlin itself had brought home to it some of the more refined cruelties of war by the arrival of East Prussian refugees.

We have already seen that at the outbreak of the war only five active German corps were left on the eastern front. Two, the First and the Twentieth, had, so far, had to bear the brunt of the Russian advance; one other, the Sixth, had been sent from Breslau to detract, as much as possible, the Russian onslaught against the Austrian forces in Galicia; and the other two, the Fifth and Seventeenth, stationed in Danzig and Posen, were too far back to be immediately available.[Back to Contents]