TANNENBERG CAMPAIGN - PART 3

The 128.Grenadiers are marching west near the Forest of Johannisberg, under watchful eyes ...

This posting will feature mostly map moves, with the Germans, as per their historic planning (they wargamed it out ahead of time), shifting their corps to face the Russian 2nd Army, which is moving north from their positions in the Polish salient.

In may seem like a lot of what's happening here is contrived, but in fact I swear that I rolled for everything!

Before moving on with the campaign, however, perhaps it's best to begin with a final summing up of the Battle of Lotzen.

So, I'm using yet another spreadsheet that I've had for some time. This one is based on a chapter in a wargames classic by Bruce Quarrie called Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature. The chapter is about casualties and medical services, and includes losses by artillery, musketry, etc., etc., transport from the battlefield to field hospitals, recovery rates, losses of horses, and so forth. 

OK, it's 1914 not 1814, but I figure the Russians at least aren't that much better off, so I rated their medical services as Napoleonic standard, with Germans higher than that.

I fed the numbers from the tabletop fight into the sheet and came up with the following:

German Moves -- August 21-22

This map shows the Germans (blue arrows) shifting their corps to the west following battles at Gumbinnen and Lotzen. I Corps is using rail movement to move some 250 km completely to the western flank of 8th Army.

A note about some strategic features: the German cities of Konigsberg and Thorn are defended by forts (black diamond shapes) which can only be reduced by the Russian 150mm artillery brigades (red counters) before the those places can be taken. Likewise the brown German counters, which are field works. It takes a 150mm gun to blow them apart.

Also: the deeper the Russians move into East Prussia, the greater their supply and communication problems become.

The German XVII Corps marches some 60 km eastwards, back through Lotzen.
The 128th Grenadiers march with it.

Russian Moves -- August 22-23

The Russians (light brown arrows) launch their grand invasion. 1st Army is headed towards Konigsberg, 2nd Army towards Elbing and the Vistula River, thus cutting off the German path of escape. They also need to take the city of Thorn. 

Russian cavalry cross the Nieman River in force, clashing with German cavalry conducting a rearguard action at Tilset.

German Moves -- August 22-23

The bulk of the German 8th Army continues it's march west -- the footsore 128th Grenadiers now finding themselves near Allenstein. The I Reserve Corps moves by rail.

Meanwhile, the German I Corps (von Francois) and 3rd Reserve Division hit the Russian I Corps (Artamanov) in line of march east of Graudenz, throwing them back. The Russians suffer some 8,000 loses in the fight; the Germans 3,000.

The 1st German cavalry division breaks off from the Russian cavalry and falls back on Friedland.

Russian Moves - August 24th

The Russian 1st Army has outrun it's supply trains. That, and communications problems with Army Group Zhilinsky HQ has ground it's advance to a halt (I rolled 1D6 for that!).

Further south, Samsonov's 2nd Army launches attacks on both flanks of the Germans.

Russian 2nd Army attacks.

To the west: the Russian XV Corps (Martos) XXIII Corps (Kondratovich) hurl themselves at the German I Reserve Corps (von Below), throwing it back by shear weight of numbers.  But the Germans trade space for men, only losing some 1,000 in the fight. The Russians lose 4,000.

In the east: the Russian VI Corps (Blagovenchensky) and XIII Corps (Klyuev) attack the lone German Landwehr Division von der Glotz defending in the Forest of Johannisberg. Von der Glotz wisely pulls out, losing about 3,000 in the process, and causing the Russians about 6,000 men.

Same map as above, zooming in on the Russian attacks.

So, here's the situation from the German point of view on the evening of August 24th. They have the intitiative (it's their turn) on the morning of the 25th. Do they concentrate on just one flank of Samsonov's army, or do the try to turn back both and hope that the Russian 1st Army remains 'stuck'?

Either way, it appears that the German XVII Corps -- and the 128th Grenadiers along with -- are about to be thrown into the meat grinder ...