Monday, August 31
The End
General Francois (right) in Neidenburg
Despite the setbacks on 30 August, the Germans launched their counterattack at first light, with I Corps units ordered to retake Neidenburg at 0513. Despite this, by the time the men receive these orders the town had already been reoccupied by men of the 41st Division, as the Russian Guards had pulled back over the border in the night.
The situation was surreal: roads were littered with abandoned Russian vehicles and equipment, as the Cossacks’ horses wandered about aimlessly, in search of grazing land. Stragglers continued to be found and mopped up, and near Willenburg a force of several thousand Russian troops from VI Corps surrendered to the Germans after a short negotiation by one of their chaplains. In another area, at 1100 General Kluyev, the commander of the Russian XIII Corps, was captured along with over a thousand of his men.
General Kluyev of the Russian XIII Corps surrenders to General Francois
The end had come for the Battle of Tannenberg. The final totals were 92,000 Russians captured by the Germans, and a further 50,000 killed. Only about 5,000 men from the 2nd Army were able to straggle back to friendly territory, with only a single 200 man cavalry brigade managing to escape intact and organized.
Ludendorff called OHL in the afternoon to report the victory, but his task was not yet complete. Despite the annihilation of the 2nd Army, the 1st remained a threat in the Konigsberg area, and it would be difficult for the German 8th Army to redeploy against them quickly. Its men were exhausted, and faced with a long march over roads jammed with abandoned equipment. In addition, its forces were scattered an in need of regrouping. Regardless, the first great victory of the Great War had occurred, and moreover, it had been taken by the Germans in what they had anticpated to be a quiet backwater.
East Prussia: 31 August, 1914
Fortress City of Konigsberg
Neidenburg - Reoccupied by Germans today
Willenburg - Remnants of Russian VI Corps surrender to the Germans
Russian 2nd Army has ceased to exist
Russian counterattack forces retreat back into Poland
Russian 1st Army remains near Konigsberg