Taxi To The Front – The First Battle of the Marne I THE GREAT WAR - Week 7

The first five weeks of the war have seen great offensives by Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary,

larger than any military operations in history. Hundred s of thousands of men have died, but

today all of those offensives come to an end.

Battle of Tannenberg

I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.

At the beginning of the week, the French and the British were re-grouping around Paris

as the Germans advanced. The Germans were also advancing in the east, hoping to push

the Russians back to Russia,while further south the it was the Russians advancing to

push the Austrians back toward their empire.

Two weeks ago, a Russian army had been absolutely destroyed at the Battle of Tannenberg, and

though the Germans had been trying to press their advantage, there hadn’t been a major

battle since then. That changed this week.

On the morning of September 9th, the German army, bolstered by troop arrivals from the

front in France, attacked the Russians and once again simply crushed them at the Masurian

Lakes, and the Russian army only escaped complete and total destruction by the remarkable speed

of its retreat from the lakes, moving 40 kilometers a day to leave the Germans far behind.

These two battles, especially Tannenberg, were truly historical victories, and they

pushed all Russian troops off of German soil. They also destroyed Russian numerical superiority

over the Germans for the time being. Russia would still have a strong presence just across

the border, but the Germans were no longer worried about being steamrolled by the endless

Russians army.

Here’s a little anecdote from the retreat- some Russian soldiers were trying to take

a statue of Bismarck from a town in East Prussia to bring home, but their commander told them

not to take it because he didn’t want there to be an international incident.

Now, the Russian people as a whole might have been totally demoralized by the catastrophic

defeats they had suffered against Germany, had they not beaten Austria-Hungary nearly

as badly in the Battle of Galicia, which also ended September 11th.

This was the group name for a series of battles over several weeks during Austria’s offensive

into Russian territory. These battles ended with Russia taking 130,000 prisoners and inflicting

324,000 Austrian casualties. Yes, you heard that right.

See, the Austrian army under Chief of Staff Conrad von Hotzendorf had attacked with a

much smaller force than the Russians had, and the failure was actually due more to Austrian

incompetence than Russian brilliance. The Austrian army was forced to retreat 160 kilometers

toward the Carpathian Mountains. Conrad’s failure and humiliation were now total, and

remember, there were perhaps only one or two people on earth who bear more responsibility

for the beginning of World War One and all the carnage that was to follow than Conrad

von Hotzendorf. Another side note here: At one point a bit down the road, Conrad confessed

to his staff that if Archduke Franz Ferdinand was still alive he would take the man responsible

for such military disaster- Conrad himself- out and have him shot.