Now let's see how Hindenburg and Ludendorff won by playing more with less. On March 15, the main forces of the Russian army appeared in the area of Lake Masuri, Samsonov's Second Army marched from the south, and the First Army of Successive Kampf marched from the north, and the departure time of the two armies was two days apart, and Successive Kampf set off first.

Hindenburg ordered General Mackensen's Seventeenth Reserve Army to attack Nian Kempf's Second Army from the flank, pinning down and delaying its advance. On March 20, fighting began near Gusev. Mackensen, who has only one reserve army, did not fight hard with the Russian army, but arranged a multi-layered defense line and used a flexible defense strategy to wear down the fighting spirit of the Russian army.

Next, the attention of the German army was on the Russian Second Army, Samsonov's troops arrived in the border area and were already exhausted, and Samsonov, who was eager to win the battle victory, ignored the reality and repeatedly issued orders to speed up the march. This order led to two consequences, one was that the soldiers were so exhausted that they could not be put into battle for a short time; Second, the logistical transportation lines have been lengthened, supplies are insufficient, and a large number of horse-drawn wagons and animals are scattered in the rear moving slowly, and the logistical material situation of the troops is rather dangerous. But none of these unfavorable factors aroused Samsonov's concern, and he only knew about entering East Prussia and cutting and encircling the German northeastern salient.

However, the situation of the Russian army Samsonov Group was clearly known to the Germans, and by means of radio interception, cavalry reconnaissance, aerial reconnaissance, etc., Ludendorff gathered a lot of information in his hands. Based on the battle plan proposed by Colonel Hoffmann, he suggested to General Hindenburg that General François's First Army retreat from the southern line of defense, lure Samsonov into pursuit, and ordered General Scholz's Twentieth Army and General Bello's First Reserve Army to move to the left and right flanks, eventually forming an encirclement.

Samsonov was really fooled, and an infantry division of the German First Army retreated shortly after the Russian attack, and Samsonov interpreted it as the German Eighth Army retreating on all fronts in front of the mighty Russian army, so he ordered the whole army to speed up the pursuit. The disadvantage of the telegraph protection kept all the movements of the Russian army in the hands of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, and the work of the German signal corps was very simple and onerous, and they even hoped that the Russians would set a code for the telegraph in order to free themselves from this repetitive work.

The only thing to worry about was whether General Mackensen's 17th Reserve Army on the north side could hold back the attack of Nian Nian Kampf, the disparity between the two sides' strength was huge, and the 17th Reserve Army was also mostly composed of reserves, rather than the real elite of the army. The course of the battle was a big surprise, as the 1st Army, the main force of the Russian army, broke through three German lines of defense in three days, losing more than 50,000 of its own, while the 17th Reserve Army lost no more than 10,000.

In the collision between the German reserve army and the Russian conventional army, the German reserve army won the victory, and the perfect reserve training mechanism and the long tradition of the Prussian army made the German reserve army also have excellent quality. On the other hand, in the Russian army, even if it is a standing army and the most elite First Army, the soldiers do not receive much training, and the training time and shooting training amount are not satisfactory.

In actual combat, the arrogant and arrogant Kampf sent more than 150 tanks to join the infantry offensive sequence, knowing that the number of Russian tanks was not inferior to that of Germany, although there were qualitative problems, these tanks still posed a threat to Mackensen's 11th reserve. Of the 150 Russian tanks that set out, only 84 were successfully put into battle, and nearly half of them broke down on the road due to various problems, and the lack of a complete tank repair mechanism made it difficult for the Russians to repair these faulty tanks in a short time.

The problem was that there were no tanks in the 17th Reserve Army, they were a complete infantry corps, not only did they have no tanks, but they were also incomplete. Most of the German tanks were equipped in two armies and were now crossing the Ardennes with General Moltke Jr., but Mackensen had more than 70 anti-tank guns, which had been specially designed to fight Russian tanks before the war. In addition, the 17th Reserve Army also has some anti-tank mines in its hands, which can also cause damage to Russian tanks.

The appearance of Russian tanks in front of the 17th Reserve Army line caused great panic among the German soldiers, but fortunately, the quality of the Prussian soldiers allowed them to hold their posts in panic - even after the advent of tanks, most German soldiers had never seen such a war machine.

The German lines were not strong, the barbed wire was not wide, the trenches were not deep, and Mackensen did not want to hold on to the previous lines. However, the soldiers on the front line still gave him a lot of surprises, the 45mm anti-tank gun from China has been imitated and modified by Krupp to exert great power, and the Russian tank, whether it is the top armor or the side armor, can not withstand the penetration of 45mm anti-tank gun shells. After discovering that their artillery could easily destroy the Russian tanks, the morale of the German soldiers soared, and the Russian troops in the first wave of attack left the wreckage of more than 30 tanks and the corpses of thousands of soldiers and retreated to the starting point.

Soon, the Russian army expressed its anger through heavy artillery fire, the number of artillery at the army group level was not comparable to the 17th Reserve Army, and the German soldiers on the first line of defense suffered heavy losses and had to retreat to the second line of defense, but their defense also bought time for the construction of fortifications on the subsequent lines. The German fortifications were getting stronger and stronger, the defense was getting stronger, and the losses of the Russian offensive were getting bigger and bigger, and the pace of progress was unbearable. From marching 20 kilometers in one day at the beginning, to advancing less than 3 kilometers in one day, Mackensen completed the task of containing and delaying the Russian First Army with a very small number of troops.

However, the losses of the 17th Reserve Army and the fatigue caused by continuous fighting were obvious, and if this continued, sooner or later Kampf would break through the defense. Ludendorff once again saw the problem of weak forces on the northern front and sent a telegram to the General Staff asking for reinforcement. The smooth progress of the Western Front made Schlieffen's forces less strained, so nine divisions of troops were quickly transferred to the Eastern Front through the efficient German railway, and it took only two days to appear on the Eastern Front, five of which went to the Northern Front to support the defense of the 17th Reserve Army, and four divisions were transferred to the Southern Front to encircle and annihilate Samsonov's Second Army.

Samsonov's troops were already very tired, and the soldiers reacted to the officers that they could not continue the pursuit, otherwise they would lose their ankles. According to radio interceptions by the German signal corps, one corps had trekked more than 150 kilometers over 12 days through ankle-deep dirt "roads."

Hindenburg and Ludendorff realized that this was a decisive blow, and a large number of German soldiers gathered towards this encirclement, including units of the eleven infantry divisions to arrive at the designated positions. Samsonov, on the other hand, marched towards the deliberately weakened center and continued to pursue the enemy forces in the "retreat". By the time Samsonov marched into the weak, retreating center, the German flanks had strengthened and were about to strike a consternation at his two flanks.

Samsonov, who had finally found some wisdom, sensed that something was wrong, and his own cavalry reconnaissance reported that German units of varying sizes had appeared on both flanks of the center, and that they were likely to make a flank attack, which made Samsonov slow down the pursuit. He sent a telegram to Gilinsky, suggesting a pause in the advance. The more stupid Gilinsky, convinced that the Germans were retreating according to Hindenburg's plan, dismissed Samsonov's warnings as cowardice. He sat peacefully in Volk Vorsik's headquarters, nearly two hundred miles from the front line, and ordered Samsonov to stop "playing the role of a coward and go on the offensive." The stupidity of the first-class generals cannot be avoided at any time, this is the result of the concentration of power, and perhaps the shameless people in high positions were also humble and courteous cute lads before.

Samsonov's right flank, which had advanced towards the German center on the night of 25-26 March, left the rest of his forces about thirty kilometers away and made contact with two German divisions from Gusev. The spirited and well-fed German army, facing a tired and half-starved Russian army, although numerically inferior, the initial contact battles allowed the Germans to see the true face of the Russians. The scale of the battle grew larger and larger, and after a short and chaotic battle, the Russian army staggered back, and the Germans pursued frantically, many Russian soldiers did not have the strength to kneel on the ground and raise their rifles, waiting for the German soldiers to receive them. The accumulation of wagons, supplies, and prisoners on the roads became the main obstacle to the German pursuit.

Several companies of a Russian division, with their backs to Lake Bershaw, dizzily walked into the water, and some drowned, which shows the level of exhaustion of the Russian soldiers. The fact that the old Maozi soldiers, who are known for their hardships and hard work, have been played by stupid generals to such an extent shows the importance of an excellent general to the troops.

The dawn of March 27 was the end of the world for the Russian army, when the First Army of General Erman von François shelled Samsonov's left flank in the Ustau defensive area. The German signalmen intercepted Samsonov's telegram for help, but Gilinsky and Liannian Kampf ignored his pleas. The hungry and demoralized Russian troops, inevitably broke up and fled in panic. Despite the danger to his troops, Samsonov ordered his central forces to attack, causing a brief period of unrest for the Germans. But the hungry and confused Russian army made them hunt like a flock of sheep. The Germans, who stretched for forty miles, had only to point the circle of prisoners to these brave men, who had fought to the point beyond their endurance. The total loss of the Russian Second Army; Of the commanders of the five corps, two were captured, and three were summarily removed from their posts for incompetence. Samsonov did not suffer the same fate as theirs. On the evening of 28 March, he went into the forest alone, raised his pistol to his temple, and pulled the trigger. His body, which had been buried by the Germans, was handed over to his wife through the Red Cross in 1912 for burial in his homeland - not a respectable general, but more of a negative textbook. (To be continued.) )