The First Battle of the Masurian Lakes was a German offensive in the Eastern Front 2–16 September 1914, during the Russian invasion of East Prussia. It took place only days after the Battle of Tannenberg where the German 8th Army encircled and destroyed the Russian 2nd Army. Using the rapid movements aided by the East Prussian railway network, the 8th Army reformed in front of the spread-out Russian 1st Army and pushed it back across its entire front, eventually ejecting it from Germany. Further progress was hampered by the arrival of the Russian 10th Army on the Germans' right flank.
By the conclusion of the battle, the Imperial German Army had destroyed the 2nd Army and shattered the First in a series of actions over only a few weeks. However, Russia had the largest army in the world, so the Russian army very quickly restored its losses in manpower, and after a couple of weeks the Russians launched a new offensive in East Prussia.
Background
The Russian offensive in East Prussia had started well enough, with General Paul von Rennenkampf's 1st Army (Army of the Neman) forcing the 8th Army westward from the border towards Königsberg. Meanwhile, the Russian 2nd Army invaded from the south, hoping to cut the Germans off in the area around the city. The lack of railways and logistical problems meant they made slow progress even though they faced only a single German army corps.
During their advance Yakov Zhilinsky, Chief of Staff of the Imperial Russian Army, made a strategic mistake by separating two large Russian armies and urging them to move rapidly over a marginally trafficable terrain in response to the requests of the French for an early offensive. As a result, the armies approached in a poorly coordinated manner, being isolated from each other by terrain obstacles, and before the logistical base could be established, the troops were worn down by a rapid march and had to face fresh German troops.
The Germans developed a plan to rapidly move their forces to surround the 2nd Army as it moved northward over some particularly hilly terrain. The danger was that the 1st Army would turn to their aid, thereby flanking the German forces. However, the Russians broadcast their daily marching orders "in the clear" on the radio, and the Germans learned that the 1st Army was continuing to move away from the Second. Using railways in the area, the German forces maneuvered and eventually surrounded and destroyed the 2nd Army at the Battle of Tannenberg between 26 and 30 August 1914.
According to Prit Buttar, "as the magnitude of the disaster that had befallen Samsonov's army became clear, Rennenkampf ordered his men to pull back from their most advanced positions. 1st Army took up a line running from the Deime valley in the north, through Wehlau and Nordenberg, to the northern shore of the Mauer-See, immediately to the west of Angerburg." His reserve divisions formed the new 26th Army Corps on his northern flank. Between Wehlau and Nordenburg were his 3rd and 4th Army Corps. The 2nd Army Corps was placed opposite the German garrison in Lötzen. In addition, Rennenkampf received 5 newly formed reserve divisions (54th, 57th, 68th, 72nd, 76th). The total strength of the 1st Army was more than 300,000 men, including 50,000 in reserve (garrisons of fortresses in the rear of the 1st Army). The 10th Army filled the gap with what was left of the 2nd Army. The 10th Army was newly formed, and consisted of the 22nd Army Corps from Finland, the 3rd Siberian Army Corps, the 1st Turkestan Army Corps, and the 2nd Caucasian Army Corps, with the 22nd Army Corps opposite Lyck, and the 3rd Siberian Army Corps to their south. Two corps were kept in reserve. The total strength of the 10th Army was 250,000 men. In the reserve of the 10th Army there were garrisons of fortresses with more than 37,000 men.
On 31 August, Hindenburg received the following orders, "XI Corps, Guards Reserve Corps, and 8th Cavalry Division are placed at your disposal. Their transport has begun. The first task of 8th Army is to clear East Prussia of Rennenkampf's army. When the situation in East Prussia has been restored you are to contemplate employing 8th Army in the direction of Warsaw." Hindenburg and Ludendorff placed their Guards Reserve Corps, I Reserve Corps, XI Corps and the XX Corps on the Russian northern flank. Their XVII Corps was deployed at Lötzen, and their I Corps around Lyck. The total strength of the 8th Army was 244,391 men, including troops against the Russian 2nd Army.
Battle
During September 2–3, the Russian cavalry occupied Kelladen and Schelecken and faced the German infantry across the Deime River. The Russian 3rd Army Corps repulsed all German attacks at Levenhagen and was preparing for pursuit by the forces of the 1st Guards Cavalry Division. The Russian 4th Army Corps at Gross-Wolfsdorf repulsed the attacks of the German 1st Reserve Division and occupied Friedland with the forces of the 40th Infantry Division.
But on the left flank of the Russian 1st Army, the situation worsened. On the site of the 2nd Army Corps, the German XX Corps occupied Rastenburg and Barten; the Russian 2nd Guards Cavalry Division retreated from Drengfurth. The 1st Cavalry Division of Vasily Gurko, advancing on Allenstein, was met by fire from the German 147th Infantry Regiment and two squadrons of the 11th Dragoon Regiment. Having lost five officers and 15 soldiers, Gurko was able to knock the Germans out of position, but could not withstand the counterattack of the cavalry brigade and retreated in battle to Krolikheim.
By September 7–8, the command of the German 8th Army unhinderedly concentrated shock groups in front of the positions of the 1st Army and the intensification of operations east of Königsberg disoriented Russian intelligence. The Guards Reserve Corps (3rd Guards, 1st Guards Reserve Divisions; commander General of Artillery Max von Gallwitz) took over the site near Allenburg, and the XI Corps (22nd, 38th Infantry Divisions; commander General of infantry Otto von Plüskow) took over the site near Nordenburg.
The concentration and offensive of the Russian 22nd Army Corps—the vanguard of the Russian 10th Army—at first did not meet with Germans opposition. But on September 7, the German offensive began against the Russian 10th Army. The German 3rd Reserve Division, after a 2-hour artillery preparation, captured the city of Bialla, capturing 400 prisoners and 8 guns from the detachment of Lieutenant General Stanislav Stelnitsky (1st, 2nd, 4th and 12th Finnish Rifle Regiments). The next day, the Curt von Morgen group broke through the Russian defenses and entered the operational space. To counter the enemy offensive, the 2nd and 4th Finnish Rifle Brigades were sent to Lyck, the 10th Finnish Rifle Regiment to Arys, and the 27th Siberian Rifle Regiment to Grajewo. The 8th Siberian Rifle Division of the arriving 3rd Siberian Army Corps was supposed to go to the rear of the Germans.
The German I Corps advanced on Widminnen, where the 1st Infantry Division took up to 1,000 prisoners; another 1,000 defenders (parts of the 43rd Infantry Division and the 3rd Finnish Rifle Brigade) lost killed and wounded. On the front to the north, the Germans continued to approach the Russian positions on the Deime and Alla rivers.
The commander of the Russian 10th Army, infantry general Vasily Flug, ordered the 22nd and 3rd Siberian Army Corps (97,084 men, 192 machine guns, 240 guns) to go on the offensive on Johannisburg, but on the night of September 8, the German 3rd Reserve Division attacked the junction of the 1st and 10th Armies near the city Lyck. The 22nd Army Corps left the city by the morning of September 9, having lost 96 killed, 493 wounded and 350 missing. The 36th Reserve Division released Lötzen, capturing 1,000 prisoners and 16 guns. The 43rd Infantry Division and the Finnish 3rd Rifle Brigade retreated under the onslaught of the Germans from Aris
The commander of the Russian 22nd Army Corps, A. von Brinken, considered it necessary to withdraw troops to the defensive line. But the commander of the 10th Army forbade the retreat and ordered at all costs to strike and assist the 1st Army. Von Brinken objected: the continuation of the battle would lead to a complete loss of combat capability, and no assistance would be provided. He proposed to withdraw the vanguards of the army to Augustow, concentrate there, arrange the rear and organize supplies, and then go on the offensive with a single fist. After negotiations with the headquarters of the armies of the North-Western Front, Flug allowed to withdraw to Augustow.
On September 9, the Guards Reserve Corps of Artillery General M. von Gallwitz went on the offensive against the center of the Russian 1st Army near Allenburg. His 3rd and 1st reserve guards divisions started a battle at the crossings across the Alle River and here they encountered stubborn resistance from the Russian 3rd and 20th Army Corps, reinforced by the 54th and 72nd Infantry Divisions. With great difficulty, with the support of the Landwehr from the fortress of Posen (division of Lieutenant General Anatol Graf von Bredow), they managed to gain a foothold at Redden and Schillen. The Russian artillery inflicted especially great damage on the attackers; von Gallwitz ordered at night the artillery brigades to get as close as possible to the Russian positions in order to open fire at close range in the morning and suppress the Russian batteries. From Posen, heavy artillery arrived in the corps under the command of Lieutenant General O. Gereke.
The situation on the left flank of the 1st Army was becoming threatening. The distracting group of Morgen wedged into the location of the Russian troops and created a threat of encirclement in front of the rivers Instruch and Angerapp.
The Russians took urgent measures to strengthen the flank and to gradually withdraw troops from under the blow of the Germans—to the Angerapp River. By the evening of September 9, a grouping of troops was assembled to launch a counterattack on the flank of the corps of Hermann von François and Morgen. For this, 9 Russian divisions were concentrated in the Gołdap area (the 2nd and 20th Army Corps, the Gurko cavalry detachment and the 54th, 57th and 76th Infantry Divisions). Rennenkampf ordered to shoot anyone who left the trenches without an order. He also turned to the headquarters of the armies of the North-Western Front with a request to support his actions with the offensive of the 10th Army, but the quartermaster general of the headquarters, Major General V. Leontiev, stated that "the corps have not yet been arranged."
At the same time, during the day, the Guards Reserve Corps was able to build 5 bridges on the Alle River on both sides of Allenburg; to parry a possible Russian counterattack (and German reconnaissance established the arrival of two divisions), Bredow's landwehr division was advanced to the threatened direction, and to the south of Tapiau, a detachment of K. Wolgemut from the garrison of Koenigsberg (5 battalions and 2 squadrons with strong artillery).
Rennenkampf did not lose hope of repelling the blow of the German army. He instructs the Huseyn Khan Nakhchivanski to move to Goldap and delay the advance of the Germans. The Rauch division is directed to Benkheim and Marggrаbоwo, the detachment of Lieutenant General Anatoly Rosenshield (54th and 28th Infantry Divisions) to Trempen and Kiselen, the 29th Infantry Division to Darkehmen. The defense of the Deime River was entrusted to the newly formed 26th Army Corps of Infantry General Aleksandr Gerngross (53rd and 56th Infantry Divisions, 73rd Artillery Brigade).
Throughout the day on September 9, units of the Russian 3rd Army Corps held back the Germans at Allenburg, and the 4th Army Corps at Bavien. But in the 2nd Army Corps, the Germans occupied Widminnen, went to Lake Gablick, where they were stopped by the 1st Cavalry Division entering the battle. In the battles, the Russian 302nd Surazh Infantry Regiment was defeated, the commander of the 1st Brigade of the 26th Infantry Division, Major General K. Druzhinin, was killed. At Kutten, the Russian 72nd Infantry Division was brought into battle.
Thus, both sides were concentrating forces on the southern flank, striving to envelop the enemy's battle formation. At the same time, P. Rennenkampf also counted on a powerful blow with three corps in the direction of Melauken, Wirbeln, Norkitten, Nordenburg—in the center and northern flank of the Germans.