End of the Battle of the Masurian Lakes

On 15 September 1914 the Battle of the Masurian Lakes came to an end. The German Eighth Army of General Paul von Hindenburg ended its pursuit of the Russian 1st Army of General Paul von Rennenkampf, which had withdrawn beyond the border of East Prussia. After less than a month of Russian invasion the province was again in German hands.

Rennenkampf’s escape

The German attack, which began at the start of September, was meant to trap Rennenkampf’s army in a pocket, just as Samsonov’s army had been trapped at Tannenberg a few weeks earlier. The German corps passed through the isthmuses between the lakes near Lötzen and Arys and began to outflank the Russian left wing. Rennenkampf, however, saw the danger in time. On 9 September, or according to some sources a day later, he ordered a retreat.

The Russian corps of the centre and the right wing put up a stubborn defence on the Angerapp, and a counter-attack at Goldap briefly halted the Germans. Thanks to this the main forces of the 1st Army managed to slip away. The Russians fell back in haste, often by night, abandoning their trains and guns. The German cavalry and infantry stayed on their heels for several days but were unable to cut off their retreat. By 14 September the remnants of Rennenkampf’s army had crossed the border and withdrawn towards the Niemen, and on 15 September the Germans ended the pursuit.

Losses

Figures for losses are uncertain and vary from source to source. The staff of the Russian North-Western Front estimated the losses of the 1st Army at about 100,000 killed, wounded, missing and prisoners. The Germans announced the capture of more than 30,000 prisoners and many guns. Their own losses were many times smaller.

The lands of today’s Poland

The fighting took place mostly in areas that today lie within Poland’s borders: around Giżycko, Orzysz, Biała Piska, Kruklanki and Gołdap. For the Masurian villages and small towns the Russian occupation meant requisitions, burnings and the flight of thousands of inhabitants into the interior of Germany. After the battle the Germans crossed the Russian border and occupied, among other places, Suwałki and Augustów. They did not hold them for long, however. At the end of September the Russians went over to a counter-attack on the Niemen and in the Augustów Forest, and then re-entered the eastern edges of East Prussia, occupying, among other places, Lyck. The Germans drove them out of there only in February 1915, in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

Significance

The two Russian armies that had entered East Prussia in August were defeated within a few weeks. The commander of the North-Western Front, General Yakov Zhilinsky, lost his post. Rennenkampf still commanded the 1st Army, but after the Battle of Łódź in November 1914, when he failed to close the ring around the encircled German corps, he was removed from command. In 1918 he was shot by the Bolsheviks.

The Germans had not, however, managed to destroy Rennenkampf’s army. The Russians quickly made good their losses. Hindenburg and Ludendorff soon had to move part of their forces south to support the Austro-Hungarians, who had been beaten in Galicia.