Tag: WWI

The Second / Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes 7-22 Feb 1915

WWI started in the east with the German declaration of war on the Russian Empire in 1914. However, the heaviest fighting soon shifted to the western front in France, but it became static very quickly. Paul von Hindenburg, Commander-in-Chief of the German armies in the East, and his Chief of Staff, Erich Ludendorff, came up with a plan. The idea was to decisively defeat the Russians in East Prussia, so that overwhelming power could then be transferred to the Western Front.

Second / Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

On 7 February 1915

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, Hindenburg attacked in the south lakes in a blizzard. He quickly pushed the Russians back by 70 miles and out of most of east Prussia. Two days later he attacked in the north lakes and had the Russians on the run. However, one corps of the Russians fell back into the primeval forests around Augustow (present day Poland) and held on for another 10 days before surrendering. This delay allowed three other corps to escape the German encirclement. Shortly thereafter, the Russians counter-attacked and ended the German initiative. The Russians took horrendous numbers of casualties and captured, but their willingness to take great pain had stopped a total rout.

Hindenburg was a viewed as the saviour of East Prussia to a weary German nation, but his grand plan of delivering a crushing blow that would remove the need for heavy forces in the east had not been completed. In the south, near the Carpathian mountains, the offensive had stalled early. The Germans had to continue on two fronts for most of the remainder of the war. Hindenburg’s great rival, Falkenhayn, the German Chief of Staff, was against the plan, but had to concede under a withering attack on his reputation by Hindenburg himself. Eventually, Hindenburg would ascend to take Falkenhayn’s place, with Ludendorff becoming the Quartermaster General.

Battle of the Masurian Lakes Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

I have had a great ride in this area, but I was lost worse than Cooter Brown somehwere west-northwest of Suwalki, near the Russian border, in the area that Hindenburg’s northern prong would have attacked through on 9 February 1915. A buddy and I spent 3 hours riding through some beautiful country, but I can’t tell you where exactly. However when we did find ourselves again, we travelled through the Augustow area, then west through the middle of the lakes and on to Germany and can highly recommend it as well.

Battle of Neuve Chapelle 10-13 March 1915

By early 1915, the lines in northern France had become static and the trench warfare that WWI is known for had commenced. Many soldiers and officers found themselves not only green, but found their senior leadership green in the tactics of the trench as well. New ideas had to be considered and new tactics developed to break the enemy lines for any offensive to succeed. The British First Army, under the command of the often maligned General Douglas Haig, was given the task of taking the immediate German positions, Neuve Chapelle and finally Aubers ridge. The First Army was made up of British, Canadian, and Indian troops.

Although the battle is not often associated with the major battles of the First World War, it is highly significant in the analysis of the planning, technology, and tactical advances of the time. The battle exhibited major breakthroughs in four key areas.

  • The German lines were mapped extensively by aerial reconnaissance by a British air arm that was in its infancy. This allowed;
  • Detailed maps to be distributed to the ground forces which contained phase lines and timed intervals for movements which were co-ordinated with;
  • Air support in the attack and;
  • Heavy artillery preparation of targets in advance with the lifting and shifting of fires in time with infantry movements. More rounds were sent skyward in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle than in all of the Boer War.
Battle of Neuve Chapelle

These innovations paid off at first with Haig taking the immediate objective of the German line salient and then the village of Neuve Chapelle. However, the attack bogged down soon thereafter, well before reaching the final objective of the Aubers ridge. A competent German counter-attack was partly the cause, but unforced errors also came into play. There were several tactical explanations for the halt that are common to many battlefields;

  • Poor weather on the second day limited aerial observation and support which contributed to;
  • Poor communications that kept the leadership from knowing where things were progressing properly and where they weren’t which led to;
  • Bad tactical intelligence that led some areas to be allotted more troops than needed and others less than needed which led to;
  • The fog of war where things tend to freeze on the senior decision level, but local fighting goes on, but is uncoordinated with the larger picture.

The battle was a limited tactical win for the British, but at a heavy cost of approximately 12,000 casualties. In the longer term Neuve Chapelle became the professional template for a new set of tactics that would become prevalent for the rest of the war.

Map credit – New York Times “Current History”. The European War, Vol. 2 No. 2, May 1915.
Downloaded from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15479

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

This is a great ride when you are going somewhere else in France. It is only 60 miles from Calais and can be seen on the way to the south of France, Paris or Belgium with only a minor detour. From Calais, head to Neuve Chapelle, then take the following circular ride of the area. This is not a spectacularly scenic ride, but you get to ride along the British front line from Neuve Chapelle to Fleurbaix (with a British Cemetary in Fauquissart), then see the Aubers ridge objective, then down to the pivot point in the line at La Bassee.

1 August 1914 – The German Empire Declares War on the Russian Empire Setting Off WWI

On 1 August 1914 for reasons still debated today, the German Empire declared war on the Russian Empire to set off World War I. I’ve written about some of the battles between the Germans and Russians early in WWI here.

Map credit above: By historicair (French original)Fluteflute & User:Bibi Saint-Pol (English translation) [CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Second / Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes 7-22 February 1915

With the war on the Western Front stalemating, Paul von Hindenburg, Commander-in-Chief of the German armies in the East, and his Chief of Staff, Erich Ludendorff, came up with a plan. The idea was to decisively defeat the Russians in East Prussia, so that overwhelming power could then be transferred to the Western Front. The battle that ensued was called the Second / Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

On 7 February 1915, Hindenburg attacked attacked in the south lakes in a blizzard. He quickly pushed the Russians back by 70 miles and out of most of east Prussia. Two days later he attacked in the north lakes and had the Russians on the run. However, one corps of the Russians fell back into the primeval forests around Augustow (present day Poland) and held on for another 10 days before surrendering. This delay allowed three other corps to escape the German encirclement. Shortly thereafter, the Russians counter-attacked and ended the German initiative. The Russians took a horrendous number of casualties and captured, but their willingness to take great pain had stopped a total rout.

Hindenburg was a viewed as the savior of East Prussia to a weary German nation, but his grand plan of delivering a crushing blow that would remove the need for heavy forces in the east had not been completed. In the south, near the Carpathian mountains, the offensive had stalled early. The Germans had to continue on two fronts for most of the remainder of the war. Hindenburg’s great rival, Falkenhayn, the German Chief of Staff, was against the plan, but had to concede under a withering attack on his reputation by Hindenburg himself. Eventually, Hindenburg would ascend to take Falkenhayn’s place, with Ludendorff becoming the Quartermaster General.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

I have had a great ride in this area, but I was loster than Cooter Brown somewhere west-northwest of Suwalki, near the Russian border, in the area that Hindenburg’s northern prong would have attacked through on 9 February 1915. A buddy and I spent 3 hours riding through some beautiful country on a Sunday morning, but I can’t tell you where exactly. However, when we did find ourselves again, we travelled through the Augustow area, then west through the middle of the Masurian Lakes on the way to Olsztyn and can highly recommend it as well. Here’s a map of where I think we traveled. As they say, that was when the road-trip ended and the adventure began.

Map credit above: By historicair (French original)Fluteflute & User:Bibi Saint-Pol (English translation) [CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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