Recaps

Oscar’s forces destroyed the Russian 2nd Army Corps at Tannenberg and forced the 1st Army Corps to surrender at the Masurian Lakes. As Wilhelm II celebrated the victories, Moltke the Younger pushed for a decisive offensive on the Western Front.

• General Samsonov ordered repeated assaults on the German defenses, but German artillery and machine guns inflicted devastating losses on the Russian 2nd Army Corps.
• Colonel Guderian and Lieutenant Colonel Rommel led the 8th Armored Division’s tanks through the Russian lines, while German forces moved behind the Russian army and blocked its retreat.
• General Samsonov’s breakout attempts failed, and German forces captured more than 100,000 Russian soldiers as the 2nd Army Corps was nearly destroyed.
• Oscar ordered aid for German casualties and sent reinforcements and replacement tanks to help the 17th Corps confront the Russian 1st Army Corps at the Masurian Lakes.
• German forces encircled the retreating Russian 1st Army Corps, then repelled its desperate infantry and cavalry attacks with artillery, machine guns, and tanks.
• General Leiningen-Kempf secretly offered to surrender, and François accepted as more than 200,000 Russian troops laid down their arms on August 27.
• Wilhelm II celebrated Oscar’s victories, while Moltke the Younger secured approval for an offensive against the Anglo-French forces south of the Marne River and near Verdun.

After Russia reeled from a major surrender and Britain sought ways to recover its position, the Royal Navy tried to lure German commerce raiders into an ambush. The plan became a catastrophic fleet battle that ended with a German victory and the capture of Rear Admiral Robertson.

• Nicholas II blamed Leiningen-Kempf for the 1st Army Corps' surrender, approved plans to reinforce Poland, and gave General Gylinski one last chance to defend it.
• Asquith ordered more British troops to France and asked Churchill to secure sea routes, prompting Beatty to propose using a Canadian convoy as bait for German raiders.
• Oscar persuaded Tirpitz to send the secret Derfflinger-class battlecruisers against the British ambush fleet, and Scheer led them out to join the attack.
• Spee's fleet attacked Carroll's convoy escort, sinking Audacious, Centurion, and Ajax before Beatty's reinforcements arrived and drove the Germans toward Scheer's force.
• Beatty pursued the Germans, while Scheer and Robertson's fleets engaged, and German guns and armor destroyed British ships including Indefatigable and Emperor of India.
• As the battle worsened, Beatty ordered his battlecruisers to withdraw while Robertson's remaining Iron Duke-class battleships fought on against Scheer's fleet.
• Scheer's force sank Benbow, Marlborough, and Iron Duke and captured Robertson, ending the battle with seven British battleships and three battlecruisers sunk.

After a crushing naval defeat, Britain moved to rebuild its fleet and seek American support while Germany continued its blockade. Oscar led a German trap against Russian forces near Warsaw, where tanks broke through the Guard 2nd Army Corps’ defenses and left its defeat looming.

• Dönitz’s U-039 joined other German submarines in ambushing a British convoy, and they sank multiple merchant ships before withdrawing.
• Beatty’s defeat left Britain with seven battleships and three battlecruisers lost, while Churchill and Jellicoe warned the Cabinet that German ships had exposed the Royal Navy’s weak armor.
• Asquith backed an emergency construction program, King George V offered funding, and Britain requisitioned three export battleships as Churchill sought American ships, loans, and support.
• Wilhelm II and his admirals celebrated their naval victory, then agreed with Oscar to continue commerce warfare and expand submarine development rather than force a decisive fleet battle.
• Wilson approved leasing merchant ships, selling weapons, and offering loans to Britain while avoiding a formal commitment to the war.
• Oscar joined Hindenburg and Ludendorff in a plan to use Warsaw as bait, and the Germans maneuvered to surround the Russian Guard 2nd Army Corps near Ostrov.
• Krapovitch’s Guard 2nd Army Corps dug in as German heavy artillery devastated its positions, and Letsky sent the 9th Army Corps north to help.
• Guderian’s tanks and German infantry broke through the Russian forward defenses, and Krapovitch recognized that his corps was suffering a catastrophic defeat.

Oscar’s German forces annihilated the Russian Guard 2nd Army Corps and 9th Army Corps, then took Warsaw and prepared to join Austria-Hungary against Russia’s Southwestern Front. Back in Berlin, Oscar secured Wilhelm II’s support for the eastern campaign and Falkenhayn’s appointment in place of Moltke the Younger.

• General Letsky’s Russian 9th Army Corps attacked the German 20th Corps at Siedlce, but German firepower shattered repeated assaults while the Guard 2nd Army Corps was encircled and destroyed.
• Oscar ordered German forces and the 8th Air Corps to pursue the retreating 9th Army Corps, whose soldiers suffered heavy losses from air attacks and were blocked at Puławy.
• General Letsky’s troops failed to break through the German defenses at Puławy, and the German 8th Army Corps encircled the remaining Russians as Letsky and other generals escaped across the Vistula.
• General Ivan Gylinski killed himself after the German victories left Warsaw encircled, and General Samsonov surrendered the city’s remaining Russian forces to Major General Bessen and Colonel Guderian.
• Nicholas II approved preparations for a second mobilization, while Oscar returned to Berlin and gained Wilhelm II’s approval for joint operations with Austria-Hungary against Russia’s Southwestern Front.
• Oscar revealed his support for the Russian Bolshevik Party and urged Wilhelm II to remove Moltke the Younger, who failed to change the Kaiser’s decision despite requesting reconciliation with Oscar.
• Wilhelm II removed Moltke the Younger as Chief of the General Staff and appointed Falkenhayn to that post and as Minister of War.