The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-09


 About two o'clock in the afternoon of the 2Srd of August, we arrived at Marienburg, where the Army Command awaited us. The situation had changed and the decision to retire behind the Vistula had been abandoned It was intended to hold the line of the river Passarge. General Grunert. chief of staff of the Eighth Army. and Lieut. Colonel Hoffmann were responsible for i this change of plan.
 Our reception in Marienburg was anything but cheerful. It seemed like entering another world to come into | this depressing atmosphere after Liege and the rapid advance in the west. But ] things soon changed, and the general atmosphere improved
 NO LONG PREPARED PLAN Major Vsldivia, the distinguished Spanish Military Attache during the war asked me on his first visit to headquarters in Posen in October. 1914. whether the battle of Tannenberg had been. fought according to a long con ceived and prepared plan. I could only answer that it had not. He was greatly surprised, for. like most people. he had taken it for granted. (The story circulated by German propaganda. after the battle. when 1 ilindenburg was being made tho na-
 
 years spent much of his time among the East Frussian lakes. and was so 1 ooessed with his plans for campaigns then that he was forced into retire ment. Finally. as the story was told. l in the moment of desperation. he was | called back to use his knowledge and l save the country; when he brought forth one of his long made plans and won the VictoryO
 A plan of campaign can and must be made a long time ahead. Battles | in war of positions demand similar treatment, but the rapid succession of events in a war of movement bring | about equally rapid changes in a com | mander's view and impressions. He has to be guided by feeling, intuition Thus the military science becomes an art and the soldier a strategist. Gradually. during the period from August 24 to 26, the battle plan took shape in all it's details. The great question was whether it would really be possible to withdraw the First re- serve corps and the 17th army corps from their positions facing Rennen- kampf, so as to unite them with other units of the Eighth Army, for action against the Narew Army
 HOW RENNENKAMPF HELPED
 It depended solely on Rennenkampf AhhStbs TOT III ne hheW HOW 10 make the most of his success at Gumbinnen n. and advance quickly, my plan would be unfavOrable.
 Then there would be mo alternative but to withdraw the First R. C. and the 17th A. c. in more southwesterly direction towards Wormditt (S0 miles west of north of Allenstein), while the other part of the Eighth Army held up the Narew Army, in the hope, with luck, of defeating it somehow
 The idea of stiff defense of some line east of the Nistula. if necessary, also entered into onr calculations.
 We discovered by degrees that Rem nenkampf was advancing only slowly. The two army corps could therefore be gradually deflected in their retire ment through the Bartenstein-Ger- dauen line. in a sharp southerly direc- ton to Bischofsburg -Neidenburg.
 Next the 11th A. C., protected by the First Cavalry Division and the First R. C., was moved south via Schippen- bell to Bischofsstein. As soon as it had passed behind the First R. C.. and on the 26th advanced from Bischof- stein to sBischofsburg. the First Army corps itself moved, south of Schippen- bell, in the direction of Seeburg.
 (Norma1 war strength of German army corps at the beginning of the war was reckoned at 10000 men, but since the 1st E. C. and l7th A. C. had passed through severe fighting their number was doubtless much smaller. Their movement from in front of Rem nenkampf placed them on the right flank of Samsonoffs Narew army, at the nearest point about twenty miles north of east Of Allenstein)
 CPublished by special arrangement with the Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate. Copyrighter, 1919. by Harper and Brothers. Ali rights reserved Copy righted in Great Britain by Hutchinson and company and the London Times, in Spain by Messrs. Siex and Bariel, in Italy by Fratelli Treves, in Canada and Australia. All rights reserved for France, Belgium. Holland. Russia and the Scandinavian countries.)
 In the next instaIImcnt Gen. Luden- dorff tells of the plans for the battle and the first desperate days fighting, in which one of his army corps broke through the Russian line and began the advance which led to the disaster to Samsonoff.
 Rockefeller Plan
 And lis Results