10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Outstanding History, June 23, 2008
This review is from: Tannenberg: Clash of Empires 1914 (Cornerstones of Military History) (Paperback)
For those wishing to read about this forgotten battle of the Great War, or who wishes to read something with a more interesting perspective on Tannenberg, this is the book.
Dennis Showalter not only has put together an orginal history using first sources, but his lively prose make this a very enjoyable book. Dennis Showalter attempts to put to rest many misconceptions that still surround the Battle of Tannenburg to this day. Here are a few:
1)The Russians armies were poorly led and poorly armed.
2)The Germans won primairily because of deep anomositiy between Rennemkampf and Suramenov, and poor signal intelligence on the Russian part.
3)Hidenburg and Ludendorf saved the day for the Germans
Dennis Showalter also points out that there were so many tactical errors committed on both sides for various reasons that it is a wonder that any side won.
The book is outlined chronologically. However, the author also gives plenty of social, political, and anthropological information that presents the reader with a very intimate and clear view of how the battle unfolded. This is not just a recitiation of map movements. Dennis Showalter obviously has much empathy with the common foot solider on both sides, and presents how difficult it was to fight this battle of movement under the hot August sun.
The Battle of Tannenberg was the first modern battle of movement where the field commanders had no view of the battle as it unfolded (Sedan was the probably the last large scale battle where a general sitting a top a hill could control events as they unfolded). Denns Showalter gives the reader a front and center seat of the battle from the gunner's and high commander's perspective. He showed how difficult it was for the high commanders to gather intelligence, issue battle orders and direct strategy using horse calvary, bicycle troops, Zeppelins, and wireless and telephones. The battle was actually a series of battles fought over 180 miles of a very fluid battle field. In a world where we are use to GPS navigation, network centric information centers, and satellite communications, it is easy to forget how difficult it was for a field commander responsible for over a 100,000 soldiers to get good intelligence and issue timely orders over a battle field that was almost 200 miles in length. Dennis Showalter does not let the reader forget.
I also admire that the author didn't show any bias even though the book was written mainly from a German perspective. He clearly presents the facts that the Russians in many ways were superior soldiers during the opening months of the war. The Germans clearly had the Russians beat in the field of administration and logistics, but the Russians were superior in the art of concealment, artillery fire control, and at times daring.
The only problem I had with the book with a lack of maps. There are maps, but they are so few and far between that I constantly had to refer back a hundred pages or so to find the lake, village, or forest where a action took place.
This is the first book I read by by Dennis Showalter, and I place it up there with Alistair Horne's Price of Glory: Verdun.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Knows his stuff, but not exactly a story teller, November 2, 2005
This review is from: Tannenberg: Clash of Empires 1914 (Cornerstones of Military History) (Paperback)
In terms of pure information, this book is a must have for any student of WWI who isn't reading from primary sources. The level of detail shows a command of the subject matter that is really amazing.
That said, maybe a few of the details could be tossed to the side, or added in the back as appendixes, and we could get a bit more flow to the story. While I enjoyed the information, reading the book was such a slog that I sometimes forgot information that was back 20-30 pages and I had to re-read several sections. It's not something that normally happens to me, but I got lost in the details here.
I recommend the read, just don't plan on ripping through it in a weekend.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tannenberg a new look, May 13, 2007
This review is from: Tannenberg: Clash of Empires 1914 (Cornerstones of Military History) (Paperback)
The relationship of Germany to Eastern European powers in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th Centuries is often overlooked. Anyone interested in the First World War is obliged to review both threats and aspirations of the greatest power in Western Europe. This book gives insights into those threats, perceived or otherwise, which consumed Germany at a time when the nation had ambitions but anxieties about fighting on two fronts. It is easy, when reading the first part of this book, to come to the conclusion that war between Germany and Russia was almost inevitable and that the Western front was a sideshow. That it did not quite turn out like this resulted from miscalculations and a failure to update military thinking. This is well brought out in the first part of the book. Whether one agrees with the author's interpretation of events and of German-Russian politics is not necessarily the point, since what the book does do (for me at any rate) is to provide another perspective for the tensions that led up to the Great War. The second part of the book relates more to a description of the war on the ground in the East. It is still well written, but for this reader the most valuable part of the book was the part as described above.
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