Tannenberg

Can two events that took place over five hundred years apart from each other have a connection? Geoffrey Evans, a former Lieutenant General in the British Army, says that they can. In Tannenberg 1410/1914 Evans attempts to link the Tannenberg battle of 1410 between the Knights of the Teutonic Order and the combined Slavic forces of Poland and Lithuania and the Tannenberg battle of 1914 between Germany and Russia.

Though the two battles differ greatly Evans loosely links them to the ancestry of the Prussian commander of the German Eighth Army, Marshal von Hindenburg, and his suggestion of naming the 1914 battle after that of the 1410 battle. That, however, is where the similarities end. Although Evans analyzes these two connections in the opening pages of the book he does not try to give any more solid links between the battles and instead uses the rest of the book discuss in detail the actual confrontations themselves.

In the first quarter of the book Evans explicitly describes the events leading up to the battle of 1410 and the actual battle itself. In these chapters Evans smoothly integrates an amalgamation of research done by mostly Polish h

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It is in this analysis of the 1914 battle that a new theme arises. The citizens of Poland and Lithuania are portrayed as kind and peaceful people who were pushed to the brink and chose war under the leadership of King Jagiello of Poland instead of domination. He then goes into further detail to describe the morale and leadership capabilities of the two armies.

In evaluating the German military Evans is in total praise of Generals Hindenburg, Prittwitz, and Francois. Evans points out that at times during the battle Russian soldiers would shoot at Russian reconnaissance planes because the soldiers did not know how to tell friendly planes apart from enemy planes. Evans goes into great detail to describe how the crusading Teutons threats to Polish and Lithuanian sovereignty led to the battle.

Although Russia had the clear advantage in the sheer size of its army, the majority of its troops were reservists who had little to no training.

Although Evans accurately illustrated the events of the two battles his connection between the two is very weak. So weak in fact was Evans¡¦ connection between the battles that he added a new theme of personal admiration for the German leadership and absolute condemnation the Russian military to make the book more interesting. The reason for this may come either from his own personal biases or may be due to the fact that the majority of the resources that Evans uses comes mostly from the memoirs of the German leaders in the battle and less from Russian officers. In its place an immense monument, in the shape of a Teutonic castle, was erected on the site of the first battle. According to Evans the German soldiers destroyed the monument that was erected to celebrate the Slavic victory of 1410 with extreme vengeance.

As Evans rounds out his analysis of the Tannenberg battles of 1410 and 1914 he refers to how the Germans commemorated their victory to connect the two clashes. On top of the fact the average Russian soldier was poorly trained Evans routinely points out the deficiencies of the Russian leadership, most notably Generals Jilinsky and Samsonoff. istorians to creatively describe the tense situation between the Teutons and the Slavs in 1410.

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Approximate Word count = 951
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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