![]() An intercepted Russian radio message, transmitted uncoded, confirmed that Rennenkampf was not intending to resume his advance. The German plan took advantage of aerial reconnaissance, by both primitive Taube airplanes and airships. Gambling that the fighting at Gumbinnen would have temporarily halted Rennenmakpf, the Germans decided to concentrate their forces against the Russian 2nd Army, commanded by General Alexander Samsonov, which was blithely pushing forward almost unopposed through the forests to the south. Hindenburg and Ludendorff arrived in East Prussia to find a perfectly viable plan for a counteroffensive already in place, devised by Prittwitz's staff. Prittwitz was fired and replaced by veteran General Paul von Hindenburg, with General Ludendorff - the hero of the recent siege of Liege - as his Chief of Staff. When reconnaissance aircraft reported the advance of the Russian 2nd Army to the south of the Masurian Lakes, Prittwitz panicked and ordered a general withdrawal to the Vistula, angering the German high command. Commanded by General Paul von Rennenkampf, the Russians repelled German attacks at Gumbinnen. Abandoning prepared defensive positions, the German 8th Army advanced toward the Russian 1st Army. Roads were clogged with East Prussian refugees fleeing westward. The advance of Russian troops onto German soil, preceded by marauding Cossack cavalry, sent a wave of panic through Germany. Honoring their agreement with France, the Russians attacked on day 15 of the war, even though their mobilization was far from complete. The Russians, their forces divided between the German and Austro-Hungarian fronts, had two armies available for an invasion of East Prussia, giving them considerable local superiority in manpower. The German 8th Army, commanded by General Maximilian Prittwitz, was to act as a holding force until troops could be transferred from the west. Russia planned to begin its role in the war by taking the offensive against Austria-Hungary.įollowing the dictates of the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans had sent seven of their eight armies to Belgium and France. The Russians, however, had promised the French that Russian forces would launch an attack against Germany within 15 days of the outbreak of war. ![]() Germany assumed Russian mobilization would take at least 40 days to complete. In 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks (then $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion, roughly equivalent to US $442 billion or UK £284 billion in 2019).At the start of the war, Germany intended to stand on the defensive against Russia until France had been defeated in the west. ![]() The treaty required Germany to disarm, make ample territorial concessions, and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required "Germany accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage" during the war (the other members of the Central Powers signed treaties containing similar articles). ![]() It was signed exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which had directly led to World War I. On June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allied Nations (including Britain, France, Italy, the United States, and Russia) signed the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the war. Germany had formally surrendered on November 11, 1918, and all nations had agreed to stop fighting while the terms of peace were negotiated. ![]()
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