Tannenberg
Clash of Empires, 1914
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٣٫٧ - ٣ من التقييمات
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- 12٫99 US$
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- 12٫99 US$
وصف الناشر
The battle of Tannenberg (August 27–30, 1914) opened World War I with a decisive German victory over Russia—indeed the Kaiser’s only clear-cut victory in a non-attritional battle during four years of war. In this first paperback edition of the classic work, historian Dennis Showalter analyzes this battle’s causes, effects, and implications for subsequent German military policy. The author carefully guides the reader through what actually happened on the battlefield, from its grand strategy down to the level of improvised squad actions. Examining the battle in the context of contemporary diplomatic, political, and economic affairs, Showalter also reviews both armies’ social settings and military doctrine, and shows how the battle may be understood as a case study of problems that military organizations face in the initial stages of a major war. In addition, he demolishes many myths about the battle, such as the supposed superiority of the German military, the animosity among Russian field commanders, and the assumption that the Germans viewed their opponents as a horde of uniformed illiterates.
Tannenberg’s mystique later served the Weimar Republic and Third Reich propagandists. For years its legends helped to shape German nationalist ideology and military policy. In 1941, Hitler’s Wehrmacht grossly underestimated Soviet military capability, leading to disaster in World War II.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In August 1914, at Tannenberg in East Prussia, the German 8th Army under Hindenburg and Ludendorff won a stunning victory over two Russian armies. In this richly textured account of the greatly outnumbered German army's defeat of the Russian forces, Showalter, a history professor at Colorado College, provides a thorough historical and cultural context; examines the tactical, operational and strategic aspects of this decisive WW I battle; and clears up many of the myths associated with it. Among them: that Russian General Rennenkampf was ``unwilling'' to come to the aid of Samsonov's beleaguered 2nd Army; that the 2nd Army was ``annihilated''; that the typical Russian soldier was ``a uniformed primitive.'' Showalter judiciously analyzes Tannenberg's long-range effect on German military thinking, showing, for instance, that the victory led the Wehrmacht to underestimate Russian capabilities during the planning of Operation Barbarossa in 1941. This is a scholarly military study of the highest caliber, written in a crisp and lively style that should attract the general reader as well as the military specialist.
